Ebbe Altberg - Opening Up Second Life?

[LaskyaClaren]

This just in from Ebbe Altberg on Twitter:

Ebbe Altberg ‏@ebbealtberg - "@marimccann Thanks! I'm opening as fast as I can. Jira is coming. Lindens in SL will come too. Transparency and empowerment are core to me." 

https://twitter.com/ebbealtberg/status/438473990412058624

Open Jira? Lindens in SL again?

No, it's not an instant fix for all the problems. But it's putting into place some of the mechanisms we need to address such issues, including maybe the ToS.

Pretty hopeful stuff. :-)

[Chronometria]

This makes me quietly hopeful that second names will be put back on the table.

None of us bought the explanation that it couldn't be done, especially as some sites were still granting them at the time that was said. If Ebbe manages to get them back I think it would be an enormous source of positive feeling towards his new status.

As to Jira, they were a valued way of residents expressing issues that were important to them as well as being used for their actual purpose of recognising and fixing first life bugs and issues. If they returned, that would be a good thing all round.

[Pamela Galli]

Is he saying these are core issues, or that these qualities are core to the way he exerts leadership?

Because if the latter, this could be a whole new ball game. And boy am I ready for that.

[LaskyaClaren]

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Pamela Galli wrote:

Is he saying these are core issues, or that these qualities are core to the way he exerts leadership?

Because if the latter, this could be a whole new ball game. And boy am I ready for that.

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Pamela, my reading is that he's saying that "empowerment" and "transparency" are central to the way he leads.

 

That's what I meant by putting mechanisms in place for change. :-)

[Perrie Juran]

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Pamela Galli wrote:

Is he saying these are core issues, or that these qualities are core to the way he exerts leadership?

Because if the latter, this could be a whole new ball game. And boy am I ready for that.

---

Empowering.....

What I'm thinking is how difficult it is to do your job, to be responsible for something but have no Authority to do anything.  I remember clearly one of the few times Dakota answered questions in the Merchants Forum, she opened up by saying she'd been given permission to discuss the topic with the Merchants. 

Certainly employees need guidelines and parameters in which they are allowed to function and act or they can cause you a sh*tload of trouble.  But they still need the ability to act, especially when it comes to Customer Service.  They  do need some level of authority.

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out what the primary Resident complaints are.  And it is obvious that with the Code of Omerta that has shrouded SL, growth has not happened.  So it makes sense to get rid of it.

 

 

eta:spelling

[Whimsycallie Pegler]

Having the Jira back is certainly a step in the right way.

[KarenMichelle Lane]

 

Wow...... Empowering the [Active] Residents is certainly a step in the right direction. This sounds very promising.

[LaskyaClaren]

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Perrie Juran wrote:

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Pamela Galli wrote:

Is he saying these are core issues, or that these qualities are core to the way he exerts leadership?

Because if the latter, this could be a whole new ball game. And boy am I ready for that.

---

Empowering.....

What I'm thinking is how difficult it is to do your job, to be responsible for something but have no Authority to do anything.  I remember clearly one of the few times Dakota answered questions in the Merchants Forum, she opened up by saying she'd been given permission to discuss the topic with the Merchants. 

Certainly employees need guidelines and parameters in which they are allowed to function and act or they can cause you a sh*tload of trouble.  But they still need the ability to act, especially when it comes to Customer Service.  They  do need some level of authority.

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out what the primary Resident complaints are.  And it is obvious that with the Code of Omerta that has shrouded SL, growth has not happened.  So it makes sense to get rid of it.

 

 

eta:spelling

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This is a mix, I think, of feel-good window-dressing, and a new (or perhaps old-new) form of communication with residents.

I don't dismiss the "window-dressing" part, because SL residents need some positive reinforcement. It's been a long few years, I think, of poor relations between residents and LL, with confidence and communication plummeting under Kingdon, and contining a slow downward slide as Humble gradually closed off channels of communication. It is important, and not just for morale, that residents feel that they are being heard, and that they have input.

It also, of course, represents not merely a "feel good" thing, but at least potentially a real substantive re-opening of communication. Having Lindens in-world again will mean that they are experiencing what we experience, first hand. This is more generally true, too, of an overall willingness to listen -- on the forums, through the Jira, and even on Twitter, because the residents of SL know this platform better than anyone else, including its designers. There is much that they can learn from the expertise of people here.

This is all so important because, I think, SL is a platform unlike most others. SL is, to use the most modern parlance, "crowdsourced": it has been built, is being built, by both the technicians at LL and residents. It is a really kind of partnership: without LL, residents have nowhere to express their creativity, entrepreneurial spirit, social organization, etc., and without residents, SL becomes a giant empty wasteland. In other words, residents are the ones who add value to this platform.

So other models of corporate-consumer relations are not entirely applicable here. And what we may now be seeing is a recognition, or a re-awakening, to that fact.

[Wooja]

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LaskyaClaren wrote:

This just in from Ebbe Altberg on Twitter:

Ebbe Altberg ‏@ebbealtberg - "@marimccann Thanks! I'm opening as fast as I can. Jira is coming. Lindens in SL will come too. Transparency and empowerment are core to me." 

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Isn't Twitter wonderful!

Well, it is for those who can blame a degree of inaccuracy or incoherence on the need to fit a complex thought or six into 140 characters.

Especially when you can express deep and meaningful concepts vaguely, and leave it to enthusiastically optimistic readers to interpret the words in ways that will satisfy themselves until the reality surfaces - and you don't have to apologise for broken promises because you never actually committed to anything specific.

I am surprised that ESLers don't use it more, as it covers a multitude of sins. Or perhaps they do.

Wooja...agreethatthedevilisinthedetails

[Phil Deakins]

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LaskyaClaren wrote:

This just in from Ebbe Altberg on Twitter:

Ebbe Altberg ‏@ebbealtberg - "@marimccann Thanks! I'm opening as fast as I can. Jira is coming. Lindens in SL will come too.

Transparency and empowerment are core to me

." 

https://twitter.com/ebbealtberg/status/438473990412058624

Open Jira? Lindens in SL again?

No, it's not an instant fix for all the problems. But it's putting into place some of the mechanisms we need to address such issues, including maybe the ToS.

Pretty hopeful stuff. :-)

---

They all have a pet thing, don't they. This one's pet thing is "transparency and empowerment". I'll believe in any improvements between LL and their paying customers when I see them, and not a second before. And I don't think that I will see anything of any value.

Talk is very cheap. All the CEOs have used cheap talk. I'm not holding my breath for any improvements in the relationship between paying customers and Linden Lab.

I'm cynical, but I've grown cynical through the years entirely because of the actions of Linden Lab.

[Coby Foden]

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Phil Deakins wrote:

 

I'm cynical, but I've grown cynical through the years entirely because of the actions of Linden Lab.

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Here you go Phil... :matte-motes-big-grin: :smileywink:

 

[Qie Niangao]

Oh, I expect something of value: I think we'll get some useful version of the jira back. Probably not wide-open comments, status quo ante, but something not so completely crippled as it is today.

(On the other hand, I think last names are gone forever. Not that any of the BS quasi-technical excuses for not re-implementing them ever made any sense at all, but they always were a confusing part of new user signup. I know, I know, but that's why I think they're gone forever. Anyway, I'll be very surprised if Ebbe says anything about last names, and certainly that issue is distinct from "transparency" and the kind of "empowerment" I think he's championing here.)

[Pamela Galli]

If he is in fact stating that transparency and empowerment are core to his leadership style, that is a pretty bold statement. Empowering people is indeed one of the most rewarding actions anyone in leadership can take.

However, it is one thing to be transparent and empowering with LL employees, and quite another to extend that to customers (us) as well. Except that we are not just customers, but the people who also  fill the world with content and experiences. Whoever effectively harnesses that power will exponentially increase the functionality and profitability of SL beyond anything a few hundred employees alone can.

 

 

[Phil Deakins]

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Coby Foden wrote:

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Phil Deakins wrote:

 

I'm cynical, but I've grown cynical through the years entirely because of the actions of Linden Lab.

---

Here you go Phil... :matte-motes-big-grin: :smileywink:

 

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Did you get those from Ebbe? If you did, I'm not touching them with a bargepole. Not everything is what it say on the box.

Thank you for the thought, anyway

[Wooja]

"transparency and empowerment are core to me"

Ebbe must have had a miserable time at Microsoft and Yahoo!

All my experience of those two brainwashing organisations is of fud and impotence.

Wooja...ratherthinkhesbeenreadinghiswifescosmopolitanmagazines

[Wooja]

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Phil Deakins wrote:

---

Coby Foden wrote:

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Phil Deakins wrote:

 

I'm cynical, but I've grown cynical through the years entirely because of the actions of Linden Lab.

---

Here you go Phil... :matte-motes-big-grin: :smileywink:

 

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Did you get those from Ebbe? If you did, I'm not touching them with a bargepole. Not everything is what it say on the box.

Thank you for the thought, anyway

---

They are suppositories, Phil.

Wooja...wannaguesswhatitwasthatwasbeingsuggestedyoushoulddo

[irihapeti]

if LL do want to get into customer empowerment and transparency in a practical way then make a voting board and put on this forums. No comments allowed. Place your votes and thats it. If people do want to chat about whats on the board then they can just make a thread of their own and say whatever

The way I see it working is that LL (after their research person gone thru all the chat about new things and their dev team worked out costs and that) put on the board. Each month is 20 items or about. And a indication for how long it might/will take to implement

Get 3 votes each. Can change your votes anytime to another item as you like. When LL say ok, we gunna do this item then move off the board and replace with another item. Is another board also. On it is items that LL are not going to do and a short explanation of why not. Can be: never ever going to do. Or maybe one day just not right now. bc we since discover other things we didnt know about before

+

LL not bound to do everything we might vote for, but they at least know what we would most like at any given time. And we can know how much empowerment we actual getting by how many items on the voting board are implemented

 +

ETA: about how do I get my thing I want on the board?

You dont get any direct way to do this. LL decide what goes on the voting board. What you do is that you start a post chat about what you want. What ends up on the board is the indicator of are LL actually listening

 

[Kayle Matzerath]

Well voting on things is ok, but then they should like add a little vote as part of the viewer loading screen,so that its not just us 10 people deciding Second Lifes fate

[Leia36]

Altberg? hmm a rose by any other name? Somehow his name strikes me as being entirely appropriate to LL, SL and this very forum :smileywink:

[Wooja]

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Leia36 wrote:

Alt

berg? hmm a rose by any other name? Somehow his name strikes me as being entirely appropriate to LL, SL and this very forum :smileywink:

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Better never than late, Leia.

Wooja...reallythinknobodyhascommentedonthatinthelastmonth

[irihapeti]

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Kayle Matzerath wrote:

Well voting on things is ok, but then they should like add a little vote as part of the viewer loading screen,so that its not just us 10 people deciding Second Lifes fate

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i can be happy with that. Is a good idea

+

eta: deleted stuff to not be cheeky. ( must not be cheeky !!! must not be cheeky !!! ) (:

[Wooja]

Democracy is a pointless exercise in countries where identity fraud is rife.

And SL, where it isn't even fraud.

Wooja...campaignagainstsuffrageforalts

[Vryl Valkyrie]

Thanks Laskya for your post but personally I see giving Lindens an inworld presence again is a step backwards.  I don't see anything empowering with that other than for the people who will become their fans and worshippers by joining their groups, etc or striving to have their store in their picks.  There will be too much room for abuse of power and all about who you know as in the good ole boy network is alive and well.  Personally I feel that the SL experience is more immersive without inworld Linden presence or at least with limited presence except for special occasions like SL birthday or other major events.

[LaskyaClaren]

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Vryl Valkyrie wrote:

Thanks Laskya for your post but personally I see giving Lindens an inworld presence again is a step backwards.  I don't see anything empowering with that other than for the people who will become their fans and worshippers by joining their groups, etc or striving to have their store in their picks.  There will be too much room for abuse of power and all about who you know as in the good ole boy network is alive and well.  Personally I feel that the SL experience is more immersive without inworld Linden presence or at least with limited presence except for special occasions like SL birthday or other major events.

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I take your point, Vryl: that is indeed a danger, and I know that this has been a complaint in the past.

To be honest, though, while I do think that there is probably some benefit to "seeing" Lindens in-world, the main point of the exercise, as I see it, is to ensure that they (the Lindens) are experiencing the platform as we do -- being sometimes tripped up by glitches and problems, and alternately wowed by the amazing creativity of some of what our residents have built.

I think it is good, not so much for us, as for them, to be "on the ground" sometimes.

[Vryl Valkyrie]

To be honest I do miss having Lindens inworld but it's the other possibility of corruption that I hate... and I'm not accusing Lindens of being corrupt but I feel that if we are not careful going back to the old ways can lead to corruption, intentional or not.  If they can have an inworld presence without joining resident groups or vise versa, fan groups, etc adding favs to their picks, then possibly it can be a positive.  I still think it should be limited on a control basis, not random "wow there is a linden" where they become this kind of iconic subculture popstar, if that makes sense.