Rodvik speaks!

Well, for all those impatient to hear from him, Rod Humble, Linden Research’s new CEO, aka Rodvik Humble, aka … an Alt With No Name (wisely!), has blogged.

It’s not an earth-shattering blog with promises, visions or anything else – not that I was expecting such. And nor should it be, again for the reasons stated not just by me, but by the likes of wiser heads such as Tateru Nino.

However, what Mr. Humble’s first blog is, is this: it’s refreshing. Here is someone actually taking the time to paddle around in SL, and who is having fun doing so while learning more than just the basics of walking and teleporting. He has been building and scripting and discovering for himself just what can – and for many does – make Second Life so engaging. One might get a little nit-picky and say that it would have been nice to see him interacting with other residents while in his Alt guise – but just because there are no pictures to show him doing so within the blog, doesn’t mean he didn’t.

All I can say is, kudos, Mr. Humble for making the time available to do so and putting the effort in – and long may it continue as time and tide (so to speak) allow. Spending time in-world, exploring, meeting and chatting with residents of all flavours is really the only way of getting to define the complex strengths and weaknesses of Second Life that are otherwise tenuous and hard to define.

I certainly hope that now, as Rodvik, we’ll be seeing a lot of Mr. Humble in-world – attending events, making himself visible, gosh – perhaps even hosting regular meetings of the kind Mark Kingdon tried to instigate – or even bringing back regular Town Hall style meetings (yes, number means that the latter won’t have the direct reach they once had, but heck, the technology exists to make them available to potentially a wider audience than could be reached in the past as well). Certainly, with things like Office Hours looking like they are about to die a death, we need something to replace them beyond a corporate one-way feed. I also hope Mr. Humble will continue his incognito travels around SL as well.

I like Mr. Humble’s first post. It seems to bode well – and kudos to him for not leaping in with pronouncements on this, that or the other. That he is in the process of getting up to speed and working with the team to finalize our plans for 2011 – and thus taking the time to understand what is in the pipeline (and hopefully provide his own insight into such plans) – cannot be anything other than positive. Most refreshing of all is his closing comment: I look forward to serving you–our customers–in the times ahead. Without wishing to sound sour, it has been a long time since that sentiment has been openly expressed by someone at Linden Lab…

So welcome, Rodvik!  Congrats on an uplifting first post – long may they continue!