Year-end Updates, and thanks for the Emmy!
Wednesday, January 9th, 2008 at 7:32 AM by: Philip LindenYesterday I had the pleasure of collecting a Technology Emmy Award for Second Life, in the field of user-created-content. How cool! In accepting that award onstage, I said that I was doing it for two special groups of people. The first is all the Lindens: the more than 250 people who have chosen to join together in our now 8 year long mission to build and tirelessly support Second Life. The second group is the residents: the first hundreds and now millions of people who had the courage and passion to bring the virtual world to life by creating it and then believing that is was real. As I’ve said before, you are the engines of creation, and there will be many more awards yet to come. I can imagine a future where the most beautiful of such awards are pure digital. I’d love to see Starax’s version of an Emmy. For now, we’ll try and take good care of the good old fashioned gold one.
Anyway… onto some thoughts and updates. Overall usage as measured by hours spent in Second Life, the land mass of Second Life, and and currency exchange transactions has continued to grow in the fourth quarter of 2007. As promised, we’ve been making steady progress on uptime and crash rates. Though any Linden can tell you that I’ll be the first to say that I wish we were moving faster, we’re getting there. System uptime improved from 98% in Q3 to about 99% in Q4. Our crash rate has also dropped about 3% in Q4. Additionally, we’ve gotten infrastructure work done making it very likely that we will be able to more aggressively reduce viewer and simulator crashes, as well as eliminate many more sources of content loss in Q1 of this year.
It is pretty impressive to compare 2007 to 2006 now that the year is done. In 2007, our usage hours grew 383%! The land mass of Second Life grew 230% to 880 square kilometers, which translates to us having to install and bring online over 9,000 server CPUs. This was a tremendous amount of service growth to handle as a company, and made harder to do while simultanously growing our headcount by about 150%. Our strong culture of transparency, self-direction, and accountability made this possible without coming apart as an organization. Not a year without troubles both internal and external, but a remarkable achievement.
There has been lots of speculation and skepticism in the media regarding the success that businesses are having in-world. I’d like to point out that most of the most visible media coverage has focused narrowly on attempts to use SL for brand marketing. In reality, the majority of the business use we are seeing now in SL is focused on meetings and collaboration, and is rapidly increasing as more companies discover the efficiencies and unique capabilities that working together in a virtual world can offer. As I’ve said in the past, I think Second Life is going through a natural evolution which mirrors other new communications mediums, as individual early adopter usage shifts to include education and work collaboration. As far as we can tell, education and work use is now growing at a larger relative rate than the overall growth of SL, so we can expect to see lots more of it in-world.
Looking ahead, I don’t have much to add beyond repeating my recent messages, which I think is a good thing. We will focus intensely in 2008 on continuing to make SL more stable. We will keep opening the SL platform up to residents, developers, entrepreneurs, and partners. We will shift from our historical focus on relentless feature innovation to put making and keeping happy customers first on our list of priorities.
January 9th, 2008 at 7:35 AM
Why isn”t work
January 9th, 2008 at 7:35 AM
Happy customers is a good thing! With all the issues of the last couple weeks, I bet it’ll keep ya’ll VERY busy
January 9th, 2008 at 7:37 AM
@1 - offline for Wednesday maintenance. See the blog post *below* this one.
January 9th, 2008 at 7:38 AM
“We will shift from our historical focus on relentless feature innovation to put making and keeping happy customers first on our list of priorities.”
You mean someone at LL is actually listening to us LOL.
Congratulations on the award - well deserved
January 9th, 2008 at 7:41 AM
Congratulations Phil! and thanks for bringing good attention to SL! I see nothing but great things for SL now and in the future. Good for you.
January 9th, 2008 at 7:41 AM
Congratulations on the award.
January 9th, 2008 at 7:43 AM
great to see SL is doing so well, also its fantastic to see real people trying to fix known problems, i hope that you guys dont forget the little people, that make this happen. as so many companies grow why big and forget who made this happen.
besides all that WELL DONE
Keep up the good work
January 9th, 2008 at 7:47 AM
Congrats on that emmy. I am glad that I was one of the many of millions that help make that possible, even though I got upset at the program alot, I just have to remember when I make my video games, that I run into problems myself. I can’t begin to imagine what you guys have to go through on a day by day basis.
January 9th, 2008 at 7:47 AM
Congrats on the award! It was well deserved. You guys are doing a fantastic job!
January 9th, 2008 at 7:47 AM
Yes the residents create the content but YOU give us the platform. Yes we moan when things go wrong (and during downtime too) - but an additional 9000 CPUs? I guess now and again there will be a glitch and frustrating though it maybe SL has come a long way in the past 18 months - I am sure it will travel further - with more awards - and yes more frustrations - but better the occasional frustration - than no game.
January 9th, 2008 at 7:48 AM
good job on the Emmy! …. “We will keep opening the SL platform up to residents, developers, entrepreneurs, and partners.” Does this mean open sourcing the server code ?
January 9th, 2008 at 7:49 AM
Congratulations on this great award Phil.
Keep up the good work and make 2008 a TOP year for Secondlife.
January 9th, 2008 at 7:49 AM
Can i get a bus to this world called less feature innovation more stablity…
January 9th, 2008 at 7:49 AM
I’m very prone to write a lot of negative criticism here right now, but I’ve decided no to do so. In fact, I’m even going to congratulate all the Lindens for working hard on improving the service and listening to the SL residents every now and then. I think one of the main issues at hand remains communication, but a lot of effort has been put into it and I do see it changing for the better. I’m both scared as well as excited about what 2008 may bring for SL and LL - surprise me in a good way
January 9th, 2008 at 7:49 AM
Thank You for posting your thoughts Philip; and grats for the award. It’s always nice to know that your accomplishments are appreciated.
Happy New Year!
January 9th, 2008 at 7:49 AM
Thanks for to have created SecondLife
January 9th, 2008 at 7:51 AM
So as we are all responsible for the emmy - when do we each get 5 minutes with it sitting in our own trophy cases?
Nice to hear you are paying lip-serive to less “innovation” and more stability….
….I trust we’ll see the practical outworking of this sooner rather than later, particularly after the nightmare “winterfest” experience we’ve had with the constant borkings, shutdowns, etc.
January 9th, 2008 at 7:52 AM
Congrats on the award.
And a suggestion on “happy customers”: Instate a two-way communication between LL and the Residents (no the blog is only one way). I would be so bold as to suggest a return of a discussion forum on the official forums, for such.
Also, is their any chance of upgrading the avatars? Better meshed hands and feet, along with more attachment options have been topics of past discussions, though I know there are more.
Most importantly, become more involved with in-world governance. The hands-off policy is a great concept, but one that can’t work when no one else has the authority to get their hands dirty. Either empower Residents to be able to take care of Mainland Sims, or LL needs to do so.
btw, I’m not using this as a slam. I think the award earned was very well deserved. Note: I said “earned” not “given”. SL is truly an innovation, and a unique idea. It’s nice to see that recognized.
~Jessy
January 9th, 2008 at 7:52 AM
Happy customers would be a very nice thing! Stability in SL is something I’m looking forward to.
Congratulations on the award
January 9th, 2008 at 7:53 AM
my secondlife sjut down wath i most do
January 9th, 2008 at 7:53 AM
I continue to see LL make strides to make things work better, to give better service and to deal with issues in a transparent and forthright manner. You aren’t perfect, the platform isn’t perfect - but then anything of this size is going to have eccentricities.
I say keep striving for what you have outlined above.
January 9th, 2008 at 7:54 AM
Being the Police Chief of the largest police force(Police-PD) group located in Enoki. I have seen SL grow. Particularly this last year. I have seen the Lindens step up and help us with the greifing problems caused by those wanting SL to become not such a great place to have fun. I have seen hundreds of people volunteer to make SL a better place. In the past few months I have also noticed that SL rarely causes me to relog due to slowness. It is definitely becoming a better place. I would like to thank Govenor Linden, Enis Linden, and Professor Linden as well for making our department what it is today and their help in that success. Thanks for all you do.
January 9th, 2008 at 7:56 AM
Wow, a post from Philip!
Sounds good.
Thanks.
January 9th, 2008 at 7:57 AM
Great Job Philip!! Your innovation has had a huge positive and life changing impact on myself and hundreds of thousands of others. You deserve as many awards and praises as one man can handle.
January 9th, 2008 at 7:59 AM
Congratulations on the award.
January 9th, 2008 at 7:59 AM
Very good speech and smart to put it online now during outage so ppl read…
Go on SL - we love you.
January 9th, 2008 at 7:59 AM
I notice I don’t crash or lag as much as many friends. We need help differentianting our personal computer limits or problems with those caused by Linden.
January 9th, 2008 at 7:59 AM
so many that do complain of things in SL do forget how wonderfull it all is that we can be together from different RL places and langues and culture and find friends and ideas and even love in SL.
You and all Lindens deserve awards and awards for all you do!
love
guli
xxxxx
January 9th, 2008 at 8:00 AM
You guys are amazing, when it comes to receive a prize you’re so happy and glad but when it comes to giving a quality service to people that makes that award possible YOU SUCK!
January 9th, 2008 at 8:00 AM
The only thing i seen in 2007 Is linden labs Destory Sl i Cant What Till Goggle Stats There own sl
January 9th, 2008 at 8:01 AM
Congrats on the Emmy - and on the decision to focus on happy users and stability. Especially regarding the last point you sadly had a very poor start into the new year, but well, lots of the year left to improve
January 9th, 2008 at 8:03 AM
Congrats Phil on your Emmy. Also Big congrats ESC on their’s for the L Word tie in. Cory you deserve one for IAL, You will get yours next year
Good Luck with the updates today LL. I have my fingers crossed, and toes…
Alisha
January 9th, 2008 at 8:03 AM
Congrats!
Hey, what about sharing the trophy with the content creators of SL? A little sculptie copy provided by LL pheraps?
January 9th, 2008 at 8:04 AM
Yay!! Its great to see LL and SL getting awards and being recognised as technolical and creative pioneers (ofc LL come into both categories
I would *love* to have some more uptodate Grid stats… how many servers are there now… what is internal and external bandwith… and so on, pleasy pleasy? I take enormous pride and pleasure in telling ppl how big the hardware grid is to support the virtual universe we live in (apart from bednign their ears with tales of all that we get up to) and would greatly like to know more uptodate figures, another 9k processors, so another 4.5k servers…? gimme some more figures pleeeeease and well done everyone!
January 9th, 2008 at 8:04 AM
//Code By RumbleR Boa
default
{
state_entry()
{
llSay( 0, “Second Life RuleZ!!!”);
}
touch_start(integer total_number)
{
llSay( 0, “Yeeee! SL Grid is online again!!! :)”);
}
}
January 9th, 2008 at 8:05 AM
Congrats and yes Phil most of us believe it is real and have lived in virtual communities with great social structures right from our comfy armchairs, and held virtual jobs, businesses, banking, homes, sports activities, got married, had babies, had tragedies, language & tech education, visited foreign countries, and done many things not possible in RL to us especially flying and teleporting! I also have learned that what most consider just a website or video game could earn an Emmy!!
January 9th, 2008 at 8:05 AM
Congrats on the Award! I think everyone here is more than a little proud to be a part of this amazing world.
Hey, how about a sculpted Emmy for all our Library Inventory Folder? ;D
WTG LL!!!
January 9th, 2008 at 8:06 AM
WOOOOHOOOOO AN EMMY!! Thats great new Lindens, do we get to see a digital image of it anywhere in SL so we can all go ooooooooooo and ahhhhhhhhhhhhh at it LOL.
Seriously though great work, ive only been on SL a short time but I love it. Congratulations, I hope this doesnt mean your all going to take a vacation at the same time to celebrate :s
January 9th, 2008 at 8:06 AM
Keep up the good job LL! Congratulation for the Emmy Phillip and all Lindens! More things to do but I guess you guys are more than ready to do the best :). Thank you for creating Second Life which means so much for me (and other)!
January 9th, 2008 at 8:07 AM
Ok… you are happy. I’m happy. We all are happies, but now… may residents should be guarantee about stability?
I’m a content creatos as a lot of other residents.
I have a business here (more than one business…), but every time i start SL, i start to think “oh… today is stable or not?”
I have an Optical Fiber Connection, a last generation Pc with four CPUs, 16 Gb ram, two video card with 2 Gb each card… and SL seem a “slow-walking tortuga”.
If you are happy for the award, make we happy too.
Without content creators SL would be nothing, never forget that.
Content creators, club owners, event managers… make the SL that you want; make SL that We want.
Regards.
January 9th, 2008 at 8:07 AM
stop repeating the word “RESIDENTS”, we are customers!!
Philips names us too as this.
hope phil will not be banned for it… wonder when they will change the words…… lmao
January 9th, 2008 at 8:08 AM
Congratulations On the Emmy!!!
What I don’t understand is why have a shutdown during the week for maintenance, when it is during the week when most members use SL? Wouldn’t it be better to either do maintenance shutdowns during the weekends, when members are their busiest in RL? It would make more sense to me, but this is just my opinion.
I happen to love SL, but hate it when it’s down during the week all the time, when I have the time to log in.
Also, I really wish Linden Labs would forget all about this Age Verification program, which seems to be making SL worse and worse, instead of better and running smoothly. Age Verification will never work, as a child can still figure out ways around it, and the job of age verification should rest on Parent’s Shoulders and not on the shoulders of Linden Labs.
Please for the Love of God, kill the Age Verification Program, before its too late. It will never work properly, and will bog down SL even more so than ever!
January 9th, 2008 at 8:08 AM
@22 - Ummm Police? Supported by LL, Can I burst out laughing now?
You have no authority except where Land Owners have given it to you, your aren’t police, your private security.
There is a huge difference.
Oh, and congratulations to all the Lindens and especially us for winning the award!
January 9th, 2008 at 8:09 AM
Great job!
So, will LL go public???? If so, do we residents get to buy stock before the rest of the market???? Congrats again!
January 9th, 2008 at 8:09 AM
..good job!
January 9th, 2008 at 8:09 AM
Well done all of us. Thanks for getting it going and keeping it going Phillip and the other Lindens , and even more thanks to all the content creators and entrepreneurs of SL without who this world would be no better than some of the other bland too controlled places out there.
One thing I hope is that we do not see any more of a rise in these self appointed, unsanctioned so called police forces. Too many of them have come swaggering onto my sims trying to pretend to my residents they have authority and then threatening me with closing my account when i have laughed at them and ejected them.
January 9th, 2008 at 8:11 AM
Congratulations on the well deserved award! I love SL despite its many many many many many… bugs. XD I have more fun than problems.
<3
January 9th, 2008 at 8:11 AM
Congratulations to you and the other Linden on a well deserved award and thanks for this beautiful second world you’ve created.
If we get hysterical about downtimes and maintenance it’s just cause we like it so much and can’t stand to be shut out even for a few hours. Take it as a compliment to your creation, and keep working on it.
January 9th, 2008 at 8:11 AM
In 2058, history books will recount the early pioneering years of SL. They will obviously relate the constant criticism of so many residents behaving like spoiled children blind to the wonder of what they were part of. Yet what history will mostly retain is the immense creativity, generosity, trust and energy of innumerable wonderful people who have made Second Life the rich and precious holosphere of human interactions we enjoy today…
I am grateful to be here in these early buggy laggy days. Thanks to all.
January 9th, 2008 at 8:12 AM
meu SL esta em temporary manutenção hj, que merda
ñ da pra jg
ñ podia sair do ar para manutenção esse jg.
ate +
January 9th, 2008 at 8:13 AM
First off congrats on the award. And second off because we all kinda helped to get it so to speak what’s the chance of a little reward to each of us? <..> Mmmm….like L$50,000 each?*guickly ducks behind the desk and waits on the first round of morter fire. then prepairs to rase the white flag*
January 9th, 2008 at 8:13 AM
“We will shift from our historical focus on relentless feature innovation to put making and keeping happy customers first on our list of priorities.” Why did it take you guys near 8 years to finally realize this?
aside from that. Wtg on the award!
January 9th, 2008 at 8:13 AM
Hi im a girl from sweden so sorry for my bad eng …
i had one wich for 2008 it is ..
could use moore layer of clothes its so boring many times to hawe
so few options to use clothes ..it so fun to wear and see how good look its go to make an awa ….
wich u al Linden a good happy and god acts sl …
and ty for a good work…
January 9th, 2008 at 8:14 AM
Very cool!
Will “opening the SL platform” soon include the server code?
January 9th, 2008 at 8:15 AM
Congratulations on the award. We anticipate 2008 to bring even greater accolades and broader appeal to Second Life, and we at Simuality will be right there to embrace it.
January 9th, 2008 at 8:15 AM
Good stuff and congratulations
January 9th, 2008 at 8:15 AM
Is there any possibility that you would do these maintainance work some other time, like evening or night shifts?? Its really frustrating for ppl living on the old continent to come home from work and every time SL is closed for maintainance (well, its morning for you but….)……. if you could close it later, it would be night here, and wouldnt have to pull all hair out because cant log in for like 10 hours, the whole evening…. (LB always says its only few hours, never i have been able to log in after the promised time is over). So useless waiting….
January 9th, 2008 at 8:16 AM
Grats! Its realy a big honor for SL this award.
January 9th, 2008 at 8:16 AM
some times i am happy - some times no - Second Life is (maybe) a drug
January 9th, 2008 at 8:16 AM
congrats Lindens and Residents! well deserved for such a visionary piece of creativity and way of living since SL’s inception
January 9th, 2008 at 8:16 AM
As upset as I can be sometimes against SL, congratulations anyway for this award and many thanks for making that dream possible.
We really got a lot of good time and wonderful memories !
January 9th, 2008 at 8:17 AM
Please become SL more light-weight software!
Please more stability!
SL is more than 5 ages since born, but it not works at their aged machines.
January 9th, 2008 at 8:17 AM
Congratulations on your Emmy. Let’s go for a nobel prize by turning SL into a democratic world that is ran by it’s residents instead of the US government.
January 9th, 2008 at 8:17 AM
Ich kom nicht mehr rein
January 9th, 2008 at 8:19 AM
Well done and truly deserved Philip - congratulations to you and all the Lindens and residents who made it happen!
January 9th, 2008 at 8:19 AM
Congrats as it is an emmy well deserved! Second Life has revolutionized the way we do things in a virtual world & deserved some positive recognition.
#44 good point!
January 9th, 2008 at 8:20 AM
Congrats on the Emmy to the content providers nice work!
SL is a great platform to realize projects that cannot be fully realized in 2d mediums. Thanks to LL for providing a product that allows us to; receive instant feedback; and the ability to collaborate with other artists in a 3d simulation.
Thanks
and Congrats to other Content Providers.
Mar/Cat
January 9th, 2008 at 8:20 AM
Wow, congratulation! There might be problems from time to time, but most time I’m very happy in SL. Keep on the good work!
January 9th, 2008 at 8:21 AM
*head desk* They didn’t explore all of secondlife then i guess. Or only read about it. I stopped having fun with secondlife because of all the problems i’ve been having.
January 9th, 2008 at 8:21 AM
I wish I could get an award for some extremely buggy software I pioneered.
January 9th, 2008 at 8:22 AM
Congratulation to Cory Linden.
and to Philip, close the open doors soon, before more open source takes our data like in the first viewer and the windlight viewer.
no open source for critical inputs!! as long as no one check the code!
January 9th, 2008 at 8:22 AM
You guys are amazing! WTG
January 9th, 2008 at 8:24 AM
Well, congratulations, to not only you, but to *all* behind the second life world.
This world is huge, and yes it will have its complications, but i do belive you guys(and ladys) work really hard at what you do, and trust me, sometimes I think I would like to work for linden labs, but theres those times, I’m really glad I don’t.
I have been in world for over a year now, and i have seen many changes here, and i applaud “all of you” !
This is a very very amazing world, and you’ve created something really good for people to express their talents.
Thank you all : )))
January 9th, 2008 at 8:24 AM
i just want to thank second life for all the hard work they do,they work day and night to keep my sex pose balls working and my sex bed works all the time so i can have sex in second like life,not once has my penis failed,and for that, i thank second life, keep up the good work.
January 9th, 2008 at 8:25 AM
The Emmy should displayed on the Sign-on page and perhaps on the home page of the web site. Congratulations on the Emmy and extreme thanks for bringing us Second Life.
January 9th, 2008 at 8:25 AM
Congratulations to all on the Emmy. It is true that SL is a unique experience.
I too have had the opportunity to watch SL grow through 2007. And while I may not see this last year quite same as Philip, it is true that even through this unbelievable amount of growth, LL has managed to keep the platform up and running.
While there definately have been some improvements, some of the problems that existed back in 2006 are still here, and still cause grief. Last night I lost an item I worked several hours on when I could not take it back into inventory and then crashed, it was in limbo someplace, but gone now.
So while I do truly offer congratulations to Linden and Residents alike on this award, I would also like to add one thing…
– @Philip Lindens and Lindens all - PL said: “We will shift from our historical focus on relentless feature innovation to put making and keeping happy customers first on our list of priorities. ” –
GOD - I SURE HOPE SO…
DRD
January 9th, 2008 at 8:26 AM
Readthe carefully……….”Looking ahead, I don’t have much to add beyond repeating my recent messages, which I think is a good thing. We will focus intensely in 2008 on continuing to make SL more stable. We will keep opening the SL platform up to residents, developers, entrepreneurs, and partners. We will shift from our historical focus on relentless feature innovation to put making and keeping happy customers first on our list of priorities.”
See the phase “We will keep opening the SL platform up to residents,”
this really means there is not change to limit free accounts……….”
Next.
“We will shift from our historical focus on relentless feature innovation to put making and keeping happy customers first on our list of priorities”
Well you said that last year and the year before. But waht you don`t See Philip is many are NOT happy and are eitehr leaving the game of going basic because Your Ui is a laughable and your grid monkeys well……………….Never mind………. If you have any repect for the users on sl you would stop this madness of free accounts and bring back paying alts and trails once again.You want to make us happy start repecting the users in a real time sence then just saying it.
January 9th, 2008 at 8:28 AM
Hey Philip .. Congrats with acknowledgement from ‘da industry’..
Does that mean you had a chance to talk to companies like Apple to find a solution for the Quicktime-hack ? Or the questionable upheld incompatibility of watching in-world movies for linux client users ?
Gee.. no ? .. great .. big award.. very useful.. =/
January 9th, 2008 at 8:29 AM
Grats on the Emmy. Totally cool. I agree about having the outage on a weekday. It should have been on a sunday or something. Anyway I love Second Life, I am totally addicted. I know that it will only get better in 2008. Lindens rock.
January 9th, 2008 at 8:29 AM
I hope that when you go to pull that emmy out to show your friends it has dissapeared from your inventory, cant rez object, and only 1 shoe has rezzed on your arse instead of your foot.
Peace
January 9th, 2008 at 8:30 AM
First want to say congrats on award
I work for the Media (BBC) and a non profit organisation Developing Artists. As well as being a Pro singer myself.
I joind SL so that I could collaborate and work much easier with the industry I am in - I have to say guys I love what you have developed and what the residents have created here and am really greatful that finaly I can let my creative imagination run wild without limitations - do you know how good that feels lol
Be because of this program I have been able to communicate and bring people together in a positive way foward thingking kinda way - I am excited at the future posibillites - so to let you know I am supporting you in RL and will spead the word - loving the tecnology also - soo cool - and so are the people I have met - oh how dreams can come true in this world of dreams
The award you hve just been given - is just the first of many - and I am happy to be associated to a foward thinking tecnology busting company.
Hail to the Lindens
January 9th, 2008 at 8:30 AM
CONGRATULATIONS!!! Hope the improvements continue
which I know they will. It’s all good!!
January 9th, 2008 at 8:31 AM
Congratulations on the Emmy! With such a wonderful platform to work with, it can only be uphill from here.
As for bugs, that’s why there have been so many updates. It shows you guys do care about your user database. Keep up the fantastic work, and thank you for giving all of us such a wonderful experience.
January 9th, 2008 at 8:31 AM
Congratulations on the award. I have seen sl changing over the years, in both positive and negative directions, but retain a love of the world that I will never lose. Certainly, you have come a long way with down time - I remember when non-maintenance downtime was far too frequent for comfort, but now is a pleasantly rare occurrence. All in all, things are improving.
I think it is in the area of corporate customer responsibility that most changes need to be made. Too many bad decisions are still being made, the most egregious of which has been the age verification, and the choice of a company to implement it which I wouldn’t trust with my hair clippings.
Anyway, congratulations, and thank you for this world, which has always been far, far above anything that other companies have attempted. Second Life is a unique phenomenon, and long may it continue.
January 9th, 2008 at 8:32 AM
Philip said: “There has been lots of speculation and skepticism in the media regarding the success that businesses are having in-world. I’d like to point out that most of the most visible media coverage has focused narrowly on attempts to use SL for brand marketing. In reality, the majority of the business use we are seeing now in SL is focused on meetings and collaboration, and is rapidly increasing as more companies discover the efficiencies and unique capabilities that working together in a virtual world can offer.”
I find this heartening. While the rest of the Net seems to be shifting towards what is merely a digital version of ordinary commerce, SL would appear to be going quite the other direction. Yes, in-world commerce is a big deal, but the implication is that it’s almost entirely between residents, like an arts-and-crafts community, rather than the top-down corporate ocean we’re drowning in, in our ‘first lives.’ It’s embellishment to our ’second lives,’ not the purpose of them: the purpose is instead to meet, to work together, to create rather than consume.
Now, if only Real Life could be made to work that way, eh?
(I know, I know, but I’m an ol’ one-time hippie, and some attitudes stick with you…
January 9th, 2008 at 8:33 AM
Well done on getting the Emmy. Thanks for giving us such an amazing experience. Please can we have a picture of this award for those of us who don’t know what an Emmy looks like…UK person here.
Please realise that the majority of active residents are European…I read that in a book on social networking sites! Linden Labs do really deserve the award but resting on your laurels is never a good idea. Making SL more accessible to non US residents would be great…providing a free gizmo for residents to speak normally to those who don’t use the European alphabet for example.
Thanks for doing what you do….please keep it up!!!
January 9th, 2008 at 8:33 AM
Congratulations on the Emmy, it’s well deserved.
January 9th, 2008 at 8:34 AM
It’s great to see an award given to SL rather than heavy criticism from nanny states who want it banned. I doubt if any have even set up an avi to visit our world to see it first hand. I for one just wish I was there from the start. All I can say is congratulations, not only for the award, but fot the decision to focus on making residents happier in a more stable environment. The first step to improve asset management is a godsend, as I for one have lost countless items in world.
I will raise a glass of virtual champagne for you when the grid is back up.
January 9th, 2008 at 8:35 AM
I second U M. Please, create a mechanism to stop the growing of free accounts, or we will need very soon CLASS 10 machines to have everything running.
Congrats, and hope we have a better SL in 2008.
January 9th, 2008 at 8:35 AM
Parabéns à equipe Linden Labs e ao criador deste simulador virtual Philip Linden. Este texto acima repercutiu sobre minha pessoa, e do que eu esperava, o Second Life, mas estável, com mas empresas, chegando ao ponto de ser o futuro da WEB. Não tenho dúvidas que o SL será uma revolução na internet, que irá tomar conta da web, igual hoje em dia temos o MSN, e na época era ICQ, MIrc…
Estou aqui para parabeniza-los pelo trabalho exemplar de uma equipe que todos vocês realizam.
Por isso comprei uma ilha, nomiei de RJ CITY, e lá eu mesmo como design, construi a ilha, retratando a Cidade Maravilhosa do Rio de Janeiro no Brasil, por mim. Com isso, desejo levar empresas e ainda ganhei o patrocínio da Secretaria de Turismo do Rio de Janeiro.
Fico grato à todos.
January 9th, 2008 at 8:35 AM
Un message en français ici ! Surprise. Eh oui….
Bravo à Phil… Bravo à l’équipe…
Ils font tous du bon boulot…. Merci et courage pour la suite….
January 9th, 2008 at 8:35 AM
Philip Rosedale speaks on 2007 and happy customers
Philip Rosedale has taken this lull in Second Life grid operations to post an update - partly as thanks for the award. It’s nice to hear from The Old Man, of course, but there’s nothing much new from previous messages. …
January 9th, 2008 at 8:35 AM
Congratulations to you Philip for your innovative idea and continued vision, to all the Lindens for your hard work and commitment, and to all SL creators and participants. I have ‘lived’ here a year now and my amazement, fascination, and sense of human spirit at such at creative level grows every day - I love it!
January 9th, 2008 at 8:36 AM
Prone to begin with a lot of less happy remarks …
But first thing first … Healthy 2008 …. and congrats to LL and all the Residents of Secod Life for the award
Keeping Customer Happy ??????? OK Philip take the following with a smile …
To keep us SL Residents from all over the world (not only US) happy
1. Before adding NEVER wanted gimmicks (voice, windlight) try first to fix the 4thousand and some known buggs definitively …
2. Don t make from SL a Mickey Mouse land like you are starting to do … (with a lot of doubtfull excuses about misty laws etc )
3. Try to communicate (2 ways ) with the residents … I think they will appriciate that … Why don t you organise a monthly “Question hour where the top of Linden Labs wouldbe present to hear and see and feel what the problems are )
But falling in reitterantion … Congrats with the award ….
January 9th, 2008 at 8:38 AM
/me sees everyone lining up to piss on Philip’s parade…
Can’t you all just give it a rest for once? You would think Second Life was a prison sentence the way some of you act, rather than the most vital place of virtual creativity ever experienced.
Congratulations on the Emmy, Philip.
January 9th, 2008 at 8:38 AM
Congrats on a well deserved award
January 9th, 2008 at 8:38 AM
Congratulations to the team Linden Labs and to the creator of this virtual simulator Philip Linden. This text above rebounded about my person, and than I waited, Second Life, but stable, with but companies, arriving to the point of being the WEB future. I do not have doubts that SL will be a revolution in the internet, that is going to take care of the web, equal nowadays have MSN, and at that time it was ICQ, MIRC…
I am here to congratulates them by work copy of a team that all of you accomplish.
Because of this I bought an island, gave the name of RJ CITY, and there I myself as design, it builds the island, portraying the Wonderful City of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil, for me. With that, I wish to carry companies and still won the Tourism Secretariat sponsorship of Rio de Janeiro.
I am thankful to all.
January 9th, 2008 at 8:39 AM
One point I missed. I went to orientation island one day to look around, cuz when I came on I never really looked around and some guy was hitting me with a torch. I think the island needs to be monitored bye the sl pd dept, if isnt already. I also think that our avi’s need better feet. Ugh. Thanks again for all that you do behind the scenes.
x0×0x
Grable
January 9th, 2008 at 8:39 AM
wtg on the emmy!! SL is a perfect communication all around the world than using those lame butt instant messagengers or even using a regular phone
Without SL… I do not see how much better the world’s communication would have been and it is a wonderful system to learn about one another and their countries. Per my hearing lost.. this is like the best than anything and sure hope one day to have a handheld capable to run SL on 
Keep up the great work!! (I will buy pixel pizzas for everyone) Hoooo!! Better yet come to She Devils Club in Main St SIM or look me up and we can have a blast and show off the great award
January 9th, 2008 at 8:39 AM
Michael Jackson has like 50 emmy :).
/me thinking about all Simpsons’ jokes about emmy awards
January 9th, 2008 at 8:40 AM
W00T! Congrats Lindens.
Sometimes it’s buggy, sometimes it’s laggy but mostly SL is a giant sandbox of fun and friendships. We’re out on the new frontier folks so sometimes the ride gets bumpy. It must be damn disheartening to hear criticisms all the time, so chill and take a well-deserved pat on the back, instead of a kick in the …..
January 9th, 2008 at 8:40 AM
Congratulations with your award.
But,….what is the value of that award? What is the achievement ?
I know,… the achievement is…that SL is even more instable then Microsoft Windows. You have to be really good on the sub-zero side to come that far!
In time I have lost thousends of L$ and pieces of inventory worth thousends of Euro’s. One crash after another; hours of building gone; for nothing!
Downtime for maintenance, must always be when America is asleep.
Really guys,….probably you do your best, but its far not good enough.
When a program like WoW can be stable, why cant you?
JJ.
January 9th, 2008 at 8:40 AM
Wonderful. Not only on stability, but I also am hopeful the Jira bug and broken list will get whittled down more quickly, too.
January 9th, 2008 at 8:41 AM
Congrats!!!
January 9th, 2008 at 8:41 AM
Fun fact: The lindens rarely read any of this.
January 9th, 2008 at 8:42 AM
In Philip we trust!
January 9th, 2008 at 8:42 AM
Awesome work and Congratulations!!!! I know that 2008 holds some fabulous things for all of us here in SL. I love love love SL and thank you for providing the platform for me and all residents to connect with each other world wide in real time. Much continued success and expansion the possibilities are endless.
January 9th, 2008 at 8:42 AM
To the freebie account bashers, hey this is about the Emmy we all had a part in making possible for sl, including the free accounts. They are here to stay and your constant bitching about them will not change that.
I also suggest you look at how much land is owned and how many businesses are run by freeby account holders now on SL, since SL was wise enough to change the rules on Private estates to let them own land.
Come into 2008 look forward and stop looking backward and give praise to all who made this award possible.
January 9th, 2008 at 8:43 AM
Many people here are complaining. But they are addicted to SL. They are so addicted that they waste their time to come here and write comments.hehe.
congrats all the team, and i hope SL keeps growing everyday (forever)
January 9th, 2008 at 8:45 AM
Congratulations on the Emmy Award.
Yes your vision of businesses using SL is the right one to my opinion.
SL could be an interesting place for internatiol business networking.
I do hope that more business peolpe will enter SL.
Good Job Philip!
January 9th, 2008 at 8:46 AM
Congrats on the Emmy, Philip.
Fellatione, you are stupid.
Bring the Beta grid back up.
January 9th, 2008 at 8:46 AM
ya…while on one hand it is surely deserved, in the other hand, i ask, why so many probs in the last weeks since xmas have occurred?
the reduce of ui crashes hasnt approached me yet. lol
hi @maryann…nice to see u here!
another problem is, why cant i login to the beta grid, or aint it there anymore?
January 9th, 2008 at 8:47 AM
WoW!!! an Emmy!!!!
January 9th, 2008 at 8:47 AM
Congratulations on the first of many Emmys to come.
Looking forward to another year in SL with all its ups and downs and my its-never-boring virtual life.
January 9th, 2008 at 8:48 AM
Thank you Mister Philippe for this nice tecnology Reward… Actually SL deserve it for all its possibilitys… Congratulations and thank you to share it with us through this forum.
It be great if you can show us a picture of this reward with you at my opinion. Up to you now Mister President
I send you a wave from Switzerland.
Kristaki Hudson
Switzerland SL addicted
January 9th, 2008 at 8:49 AM
Nop, no complains by me…
January 9th, 2008 at 8:50 AM
nice speech. well done. you do realize secondlife has major problems on a daily basis now right? and that it is becoming pointless to bother with making new content since its going to vanish? you know all this right? outages on a daily basis now. wasn’t this bad in 2007 so if this is your idea of improvements i shudder to think of the alternative. but keep up the good work. eventually you will pay for the right expertise and will also listen and comply.
January 9th, 2008 at 8:50 AM
Congratulations on the award. Use of the platform by business is interesting. Branding should be done via existing residents, that’s a much better way of doing it than having your own island.
Education and collaboration most certainly needs stability. People need to be able to plan, a means of documenting downtime more clearly would be very helpful in this area and this means more than posting information on the blog.
Emergency downtime of course is unavoidable, but planned downtime, maybe if you set out a calendar where planned downtime may happen people wouldn’t plan meetings and events during those times and would avoid disappointment. Maybe even to the extent that if someone was trying to post an event that was planned during downtime, the system wouldn’t allow them to do it.
January 9th, 2008 at 8:50 AM
Thank you for making me discover a New World
January 9th, 2008 at 8:51 AM
The biggest factor in the increase of uptime is the elimination of downtime for viewer upgrades. The decoupling of server and viewer versions was a major technical step forward; well done.
Right now, the asset database is the big technical problem in SL. I know there is ongoing work to improve it, including today’s hardware upgrade (and downtime, sadly); I hope to see improvements there as well.
January 9th, 2008 at 8:51 AM
An idea I’ve just had. Don’t know if it’s been said before. What about a downloadable program that people can use to build items in? When they’re done then they can link everything up and then upload it onto SL for $L10 ? Think about it… think of the relief on the server as users no longer spend hours building, creating, saving, deleting direct onto the mainframe. That’d be gone. Users not on SL specifically for building means less residents inworld - less laggy system with less overload issues. Think about the 10L upload cost - money in Lindens pockets. People can spend ages building without the necessity of having both SL and a decent ‘net connection. Just a thought…
January 9th, 2008 at 8:52 AM
@105…not for this entry, tho…they want to see all the kudos from the residents!
January 9th, 2008 at 8:52 AM
Congrats to LL for providing the place and to my fellow residents for creating the experiences that collectively make up the world of Second Life! well deserved Emmy! (and i agree.. it would be nice to see it displayed somewhere!)
and Philip.. not only would it be nice to see a Starax version of an award, but just to see Starax period!
Keep up the awesome work.. i know it can’t be easy to try to keep all the facets of SL running smoothly, but in the past 4 years i’ve seen so much flourish and grow, despite any set-backs and cries of DOOM, that i can’t wait to see what the next year brings.. much less the next 4!!
January 9th, 2008 at 8:54 AM
Congrats to Rosedale and All for the award.
Now….to all those whining about US related things (time, etc.)…hello? This is a US based company. The creators of Linden Labs are Americans….enuf said.
January 9th, 2008 at 8:55 AM
Congrats on the award!
Things have been getting better
Yes FFP (far from perfect) but NSB (not so bad).
Tally
January 9th, 2008 at 8:56 AM
I was part of that 383% growth in 2007, and I have noticed a substantial imporvement in that time period. When I first started playing, I didn’t think that I was going to be able to play because lag was so bad. But now, I hardly ever have to deal with lag, and the crashes have also gone down. Thank you so much, and congrats on the emmy!
January 9th, 2008 at 8:56 AM
(Milli Vanilli joke)Finds out that it was really Trinity Linden who did all the work and LL reclaims the award. JK, congrats and hooray to the future!!
January 9th, 2008 at 8:56 AM
congrats but seriously whats with the constand mantinence recently but more CPUs
January 9th, 2008 at 8:57 AM
First off, congrats to LL on earning the Technological Emmy. Being relatively new to SL (5 weeks) I must say that my SL experience as been very positive for the most part. Technical glitches are to be expected and while I do occasionally find myself sitting at my desk cussing the system when it’s not performing to my expectations, I calm down when I remember the magnitude of what is involved in bringing SL to life.
A vast majority of my problems on SL are due to griefers and those individuals who seem to take a perverse joy in causing a sim to crash. Such individuals are a part of any social entity and SL does have a redress system in place.
To the author of Post #29:
If Linden Labs, and therefore SecondLife, sucks so bad why don’t you just pack up your marbles and go home. Here, let me hold the door for you.
January 9th, 2008 at 8:57 AM
121 Mykell,……..
Now THAT is one hell of a good idea!!! I hope (but doubt it) that the Lindens read your suggestion.
JJ.
January 9th, 2008 at 8:58 AM
A big Golden Congrats, and could we please all get a prim copy to put on our virtual mantels?, since of course we all participated!! Or at least a texture photo?
January 9th, 2008 at 8:58 AM
Second life ..the most exciting thing since First Life..gee I wish I was a Linden you guys must be having the time of your lives….
Me I just love to ‘be’ in a the living artwork that SL is. Congratulations on the Emmy and thats not virtual congratulations either.
January 9th, 2008 at 8:59 AM
Great Job Guys and Gals! Keep up the good work!
January 9th, 2008 at 8:59 AM
Congrats on the Emmy,
i hope you are REALLY proud,
keep up the good work on SL,
we all love it dont we : ),
congrats again
-jazz
p.s. a picture or a little scupty of the Emmy in-world will be great to see and a great attraction that marks this wonderfull day to us (residents) and you lot (lindens)
…. i am proud and im sure others are too 
January 9th, 2008 at 8:59 AM
@17 Inara Pey: So as we are all responsible for the emmy - when do we each get 5 minutes with it sitting in our own trophy cases?
YES! I demand a sculpty-based award for every avatar!
January 9th, 2008 at 8:59 AM
We are unique aren’t we? *3 cheers*
January 9th, 2008 at 8:59 AM
Well done, congratulation!
January 9th, 2008 at 9:00 AM
Well done second life for you hard work and creation making sl an better world and nation.Its so big now and its getting better i thought i send you this congratulating letter. An Emmy “OMG” its a reward well earned,by hard work and perserverance,dedication full permed. Bless all staff and members for this pixel fantasy land, created by the Lindens ,members and joint hands….
January 9th, 2008 at 9:01 AM
124 QN,
I pay with hard euro’s; enough said?
JJ.
January 9th, 2008 at 9:01 AM
congratulations, hopefully next year will bring a drastic increase in quality instead of quantity