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Social Networking - Monday, May 14, 2007

Second Life's Philip Rosedale: Q&A With The a:c Readers

Ages ago, maybe 1994, we were making a living at the Red Herring while getting a startup going at the same time in a dingy SOMA, SF tech ghetto. One of our neighbors there was Philip Rosedale whom we recall when we first met him was out of place writing software for used car shops while playing early networked video games much of the time. One day Rosedale excitedly showed us a video on the Internet program that he had written together with a Stanford buddy.

This being pre-Adsense days, Rosedale didn't know how to make a living off his program so he pioneered the first Net video business model by hiring a couple of exotic dancers to sit in our office basement and he charged lurkers to watch live video and chat with them. The rabble in our complex of ISP nerds, Swedish death metal goths and even a female private eye who went by the name of Rat Dog Dick PI knew we had a pioneer in our midst with Rosedale and his big idea, which he called FreeVue.

At the time, there was almost no video on the Internet so we wrote a story on Rosedale's innovative, bootstrapped startup. Within a week or two of publication Real Networks' Rob Glasser showed up at our office wooing Rosedale with an offer to have Real Networks buy-out FreeVue for something like 1% of the Real Networks' stock. Rosedale wasn't too thrilled about having to move to Seattle but he did the right thing and sold FreeVue in 1996

For over 3 years, Rosedale was RealNetworks' VP and CTO where he brought video to what was Real Audio. In 1999, Rosedale returned to San Francisco, joined Accel Partners as an Entrepreneur-in-Residence, and began Linden Lab and Second Life. The rest is history. Second Life is a global sensation that is larger than many countries. We thank Phil for taking the time to respond to questions from our readers.

Q: SL offers a lot of freedom to its users but little responsibility/accountability, are there any moves towards bringing those elements in it?

Rosedale: Linden Lab’s goal in Second Life is neither to be a ‘government’ nor to foist one upon the Residents. We believe that each individual within Second Life should have as much personal control over their experience as possible. If a Second Life Resident or group of Residents wishes to govern Second Life directly, they’ll have to earn their mandate from the Residents themselves, not Linden Lab. It should be noted that the sheer volume of in-world activity prevents Linden Lab from being able to police all in-world activities, nor was it ever our intention to do so. Rather, we are actively working with the community to foster a self-governing community, where residents are empowered to act on things they feel strongly about, and adjudicate such disputes.

Q: What are some other startups/tech projects that you think are cool or good ideas?

Rosedale: I think there are some phenomenally interesting projects out there at this time — one area in particular that jumps to mind is what’s going with alternative alternative fuels and energy sources. I recently had the chance to visit the Tesla Motors headquarters and was given a ride in their all-electric Roadster...it’s a very exciting concept to say the least.

Q: Second Life struggled for years. When did you feel you were on solid ground? What had changed?

Rosedale: By far the single biggest problem we’ve had to date was almost running out of money in 2003. That was a very unnerving time, though something we were able to overcome due to incredibly supportive investors and a fantastic staff. From our formal launch in 2003, our tiny village grew into a town; and then a city; finally, we feel like our own country. At every stage this growth has helped reaffirm our commitment to the overall project.

Q: 2 years go Friendster was hot. Then Facebook had problems and it was MySpace's turn. Now its seems that Facebook is over-taking MySpace. How does SecondLife protect itself from this cycle of what seems like fickle consumers?

Rosedale: I think if you look at our strategic moves within the industry — open-sourcing various aspects of the application, moving towards greater accessibility for the widest range of individuals and groups — it’ll become apparent just how firmly we’re establishing ourselves. At this point in the development of virtual worlds, competition amongst different companies with different strategies is healthy. The big question, I think, is not whether one company will emerge as the industry leader as much as, will one platform or protocol emerge as the defining tool for virtual development? Second Life need not be the official destination of all virtual travelers, though it’d be nice if we were primary drivers towards the adoption of official virtual standards. Ultimately, Second Life is a tool of empowerment, and what better way to stick true to those ideals than to empower Residents to take control of their own virtual destiny?

Q: Would you consider creating a Another virtual world that is separate from Second Life?

Rosedale: As in a third life!? I think two are enough for me...

Q: How many hours per day do you spend in Second Life?

Rosedale: Less than I wish I could, though I am very hands on and do spend a fair bit of time within Second Life. As a company we’ve in fact begun holding entire staff meetings at our virtual offices on Linden Island.

Q: What Hollywood plans does Second Life have if any?

Rosedale: I think that’s yet to be seen, though the potential that mediums like machinima hold for the movie industry are significant.

Q: Should you do an IPO or be bought, are you revenues predictable at this point? Are you profitable. Can you say what are your revenues?

Rosedale: Ultimately, we’ll do what’s best for our investors and the Second Life community. And yes, we became fully profitable in the last quarter of 2006.