My (in-depth) thoughts on Brad Oberwager's talk on the SL18B Lab Gab Special

[Mona Eberhardt]

So yes, I headed over to the SL18B Auditorium on Monday to attend the airing of the first of the SL18B Lab Gab Specials with Strawberry Linden (née Singh). This one had two parts: the first was a talk with LL Board member Brad Oberwager, and the second was a talk with the Leadership Team. For this post, I focused on Mr. Oberwager's talk, the things he said, and my take on them. I hope you find it useful.
WARNING: It's a LONG read.

An In-Depth Look on Brad Oberwager’s Talk on SL18B Lab Gab Special (June 21st)

 

[Sid]

Mr Oberwager talked as a professional leader most of the time. Say a lot, but in reality nothing. Typical bosses blah blah blah to outsiders.
But the minutes he talked about his personal experience in SL, there was some real enthusiasm in his voice IMHO.
And the fact that he seems to have alts to go inworld unrecognized is positive too in my book. He tries to get a look and feel about SL apart from what other Lindens try to showcase him.
I'm way more possitive about the (near) future of SL after watching this on YouTube. We should be good for at least a few more years.

The second part I haven't watched yet. Maybe never will.
The camera setting of LabGab is really boring for a prerecorded presentation.

 

[Mona Eberhardt]

The camera setting of LabGab is really boring for a prerecorded presentation.

Yeah, that wasn't my favourite part. I'd have narrowed the view angle a bit by pressing Ctrl+0 twice, and then, with a SpaceNav, I'd focus on either Berry or Mr. Oberwager, and sometimes I'd move the camera out so that I'd capture them both, along with the scenery. That way, it'd look more like a talk show.

 

[Sid]

That Strawberry is almost constantly looking away when Oberwolf talks, is something that gives a wrong signal as well.
Most likely unintended, but still.

 

[Mona Eberhardt]

Personally, I'd have rescripted each chair with different sit animations. In fact, I'm about to do so with some of my chairs, armchairs, and sofas.

 

[Erich Templar]

Thanks for the write-up, Mona -- that was very interesting.

I'll take issue with just one thing that you said, about SL's move to AWS and the fact that it has increased their running costs.

]What’s so wrong with enhancing performance and reliability and saving money?

I suspect what's wrong is that it can be very hard to do both. Enhancing performance and reliability is frequently costly. Personally I'd rather that they opted for performance and reliability over cost. Though I would hope (others may mock me for this!) that LL calculated that the extra cost was sustainable.

 

[Mona Eberhardt]

I suspect what's wrong is that it can be very hard to do both. Enhancing performance and reliability is frequently costly. Personally I'd rather that they opted for performance and reliability over cost. Though I would hope (others may mock me for this!) that LL calculated that the extra cost was sustainable.

I was there in the Server / Scripting User Group meetings when Simon and Rider were explaining the plans for the move to AWS, and when the move was gradually being implemented. I clearly remember them saying that, besides enhancing performance and reliability (especially w.r.t. region crossings), they hoped to reduce operating costs as well, since they'd no longer need to operate their own data centres. When Mr. Oberwager said that they didn't do it to cut costs, it struck me as odd. Not only because cost was cited as one of the incentives, but also - in fact, mainly - because I was led to infer that there's been some ruckus started by certain bloggers and SLF members, with the Lab being accused of "corner-cutting". That's why I wrote the "what's so wrong with enhancing performance and reliability and saving money?" bit. I was addressing the user base, as in "get real - if they manage to save money here, they'll have more money to hire experienced developers to improve other things."

 

[Sid]

They recently upped the fees for the Lindex quite heavily.
Than it is better not to talk about making even more money by using AWS.
We don't want to look like we are in for the money, do we?

To me, like with every company, it's logical that that's where they're aiming at, making a decent profit.

 

[Mona Eberhardt]

One thing that really struck me as odd at first: when they announced Linden Lab was going to be acquired, they said it'd be an "investment group." The acquisition has now been completed, yet there's no name for the company that owns LL. Mr. Oberwager simply said "it's an LLC," and Berry stopped there. No name, no nothing. It's obviously not Jyve, it's not the Waterfield Group... Which company is it? Why this lack of transparency? And why aren't the "influential" and "award-winning" bloggers NOT asking this question? Are they bound by some sort of gag order or something?

 

[Clara D.]

One thing that really struck me as odd at first: when they announced Linden Lab was going to be acquired, they said it'd be an "investment group." The acquisition has now been completed, yet there's no name for the company that owns LL. Mr. Oberwager simply said "it's an LLC," and Berry stopped there. No name, no nothing. It's obviously not Jyve, it's not the Waterfield Group... Which company is it? Why this lack of transparency? And why aren't the "influential" and "award-winning" bloggers NOT asking this question? Are they bound by some sort of gag order or something?

Randy Waterfield and Brad Oberwager "head the investment group" that bought it. And are now on the BoD.

I can't find any information on the specific investment group "Wookey." All search results are just about them buying LL/Tila.

Evidence points to the "investment group" being . . . three people that hastily formed a LLC.

Mr. Oberwager has spent his entire career in technology and consumer-focused companies. Mr. Oberwager is the founder and Chief Executive Officer of Jyve, a Silicon Valley based technology company. Prior to Jyve, Mr. Oberwager owned Bare Snacks, acquired by PepsiCo. Mr. Oberwager is an advisor to several technology start-ups and sits on the boards of several technology and CPG companies.

Mr. Waterfield is the Chairman and CEO of the Waterfield Group. The Waterfield Group has invested in over 100 technology, financial, insurance, bank and other companies.

Linden Research, Inc. to Be Acquired

Linden Research, Inc announced today it signed an agreement to be acquired by an investment group led by Randy Waterfield and Brad Oberwager. Apparently Mr. Waterfield and Mr. Oberwager will join t…

danielvoyager.wordpress.com

 

[Sid]

Maybe it's their goal to invest as private as possible.
And as long as it is with private money only, there is no need to publish anything. Information to the tax man will do then.

I don't publish where I invest my 20 US$ either.

 

[Free]

I don't publish where I invest my 20 US$ either.

Dike repair?

 

[Sid]

Dike repair?

We only need one brave boys finger for that stuff.

 

[sldenizen]

I was pleased to learn that Mr. Oberwager does go in-world, and that he does so relatively often. He has at least two accounts; one is Oberwolf Linden, which is his professional account that he uses for his work duties. He also has several alts, which he uses when he wants to take in the virtual world as a regular user – these are his incognito accounts; when using them, he’s always “in character” and he stated he won’t “break character” while using them. He made a point of going through the entire new user sign-up / avatar creation process all by himself, to identify its problem areas and find out what needs to be addressed to help new users stick around. I’m actually pleased that Mr. Oberwager chose to take on SL’s learning curve alone. It shows willingness to understand a new user’s experience first-hand, without being guided through the first steps by a seasoned developer or support assistant. Perhaps it also gave him the opportunity to experience what the various “welcome” areas are like – it wasn’t mentioned.

This paragraph resulted in cautious optimism.

 

[sldenizen]

Thanks for the long article. I learned a lot and appreciate your insights.