Wagner James Au / New World Notes
Author, strategist, virtual world reporter
recent posts
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Category: Linden Lab News & Analysis
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Above: The default viewer's log-in announcement message… if you can click it in time While last Tuesday's main post was mostly about Linden Lab's upcoming features to the SL mobile app, it also noted why Linden Lab is now making such announcements through group video calls: I was on the Zoom call with dozens (hundreds?)…
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Originally published on my Patreon “Second Life’s reach was [once] like the Beatles,” Philip Rosedale mentioned last week during a media/influencer call, referring to their comparative rankings on Google Trends. That seemed like an exaggeration when he said it, but if you look this up, you'll see that it’s quite the case — see above.…
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At right: A bestselling SL security system (on the Marketplace here) Last week's media event with Linden Lab was mainly about the Second Life mobile app officially launching, and the company's strategy to bring back lapsed SLers with it, and grow the overall user base. But before those details were announced, another challenge to growing…
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Originally published on my Patreon At long last, Second Life’s mobile app is now free for everyone to download here, and boasts new/improved features including direct and group messaging. (Watch the new trailer above.) "Almost 2 years of work and millions of dollars of support just became available to everyone in Second Life,” as Linden…
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Originally published on my Patreon Since last week's interviews with Linden Lab head Bradford Oberwager and newly-appointed CTO Philip Rosedale were so voluminous — between them both, the raw chat transcript was easily over 10,000 words! — here's the core revelations boiled down to ten key takeaways: Philip is not aiming to create a Second Life…
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Along with announcing his return to Linden Lab leadership on Wednesday, Philip Rosedale and I also had a wide-ranging conversation on multiple topics around the future of Second Life, AI, and beyond. The company is hosting an Ask Me Anything appearance with him in the virtual world tomorrow morning (details here), but I got a…
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Update, October 31: Read part 2 of this interview here. “I'm back,” Philip Rosedale tells me, swiveling his Zoom camera around to reveal Linden Lab’s San Francisco HQ office looming in the background. “And I'm here every day; I'm in the office right now. Brad’s upstairs in the corner.” He nods at the open office’s…
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In case you missed my extended interview with Linden Lab head Bradford Oberwager on my Patreon — read Part 1 here, Part 2 here — I've included key excerpts below. My top takeaways are these: An updated version of the Second Life mobile app will be free to download for everyone in "weeks". Second Life's monthly…
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Since 2021, the Second Life community has known Brad Oberwager as the Executive Chair of Linden Lab, a role he took on with the acquisition of Second Life by an investment group co-led by Oberwager. Or perhaps they better know him by his occasional in-world appearance as his avatar, Oberwolf Linden. But Oberwager (pronounced "oh-ber-wah-ger") tells me…
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After writing about reports that Linden Lab has recently made staff cuts in Engineering & Governance/Customer Support, company head Brad Oberwager reached out to me. A long, heartfelt Zoom call ensued. I'm still spelunking through our chat transcript, but I can say that we discussed those Linden job changes, rumors around them, along with updates…
Wagner James Au / New World Notes 