Reactions to the Rosedale announcement

By Eric Reuters

SECOND LIFE, March 14 (Reuters) — Linden Lab Chief Executive Philip Rosedale announced on Friday that the company he founded has begun a search for his replacement as chief executive.

Here is reaction to the announcement from the Second Life community and others in the technology sector. If you have your own comments, email them to adamreuters@gmail.com or ericreuters@gmail.com

Taran Rampersad, blogger, your2ndplace.com:
“Philip Rosedale is doing the responsible thing. As a visionary, he has taken this as far as he can and he will continue to guide it - but switching to an operations based CEO is necessary for Second Life to continue to mature.”

Benjamin Duranske, co-chair American Bar Association virtual law committee, virtuallyblind.com:

“It is standard procedure when a company is eyeing public funding to move from “visionary” management to someone with a strong day-to-day background. I would not be surprised to see an IPO in a few months.”

Jeff Strohman (Stetson Rail), Second Life land baron:

“A more business minded CEO can only increase the monetary value of second life. In the past I feel sometimes the company was run by its heart not its head.”

Nick Wilson (57 Miles), developer and blogger, metaversed.com:

“What Second Life really needs is some ‘grown up’ management. It looks like they’re headed that way. I think Philip’s done the best thing for his company, and for residents alike.”

Tateru Nino, blogger, Massively.com:

“In my experience, CEO’s have very little actual control in a company. In a privately held company like this one, the board and the VPs are where the decisionmaking gets done.”

Catherine Fitzpatrick (Prokofy Neva), blogger, secondthoughts.typepad.com:

“I can’t say anything very pithy, I feel very sad. [Rosedale] is very charismatic and associated with precisely that notion that making new revolutionary products like Second Life is achieved by having new revolutionary management techniques like ‘love machine,’ and ‘distributed decision making’ and the ‘Tao of Linden.’ And it turns out, well, no, they don’t work any better than they worked in Haight-Ashbury back in the day.”

Mark Wallace, CEO, Wello Horld, Inc.
“Philip created a world that was an important inspiration for us in starting our company. For many people, Second Life will always be the moment they discovered the Internet could be more than just text and pictures.”

Rowan Barnett, Editor in Chief, The AvaStar
“All credit to Philip, it was a hard decision that he had to make sooner rather than later. It was his vision, his baby. He has achieved an incredible amount with Second Life and set the standard for the future of the Metaverse. But Linden Lab now desperately needs a far more experienced manager to help them overcome their numerous operational and structural problems, and drive future growth.”

Robert Bloomfield (Beyers Sellers), Cornell University, host, metanomics.net
“Linden Lab’s unique business vision allows them to break plenty of rules, but they can’t ignore the basic economic forces governing corporate growth and ultimately access to capital markets.  The search for a successor is going to lead to some real soul-searching about two key trade-offs in Linden Lab’s strategy.  First is the tradeoff between stability of the software platform and feature-heavy construction that allows creators with tremendous freedom.  Second is the tradeoff between catering to individual residents who want a new world full of fantastic possibilities for their personal lives, and enterprises who see virtual worlds (but perhaps not Second Life) as the future of electronic commerce and the virtual office.  Without a tremendous influx of capital that would allow them to become all things to all people, Linden Lab’s new management will need to make some big decisions on which way to turn.”