Finding a Linden When You Really Need One

This year's Second Life Community Conference (SLCC) recently took place in San Francisco, and Linden Labs unveiled a new set of staff members who are assigned oversight of various interest communities within SL.  And guess what?  After at least six months of wandering alone in the wilderness, we've got a new guy on the block who's in charge of education.  That would be Geo Linden (geo at lindenlab dot com).

Geo's got a tough row to hoe.  I won't even mention the loss of credibility and trust among the educational community that Linden Lab suffered as a result of its decision to change is educational pricing policy last year.  Nor will I mention the unspeakable firings of both Pathfinder and Claudia Linden, Geo's immediate predecessors (a large hiatus intervening).  The educational community in SL is likely to be skeptical at best and downright mean and surly at worst.  I hope that he not only establishes some credibility within our community but that he also is an effective advocate for us within Linden Labs.

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P.S.

Hamlet Au (New World Notes - August 15, 2011), a former Linden himself, suggests that if you have to contact Geo (or any of the other Linden area honchos) you do so by email rather than inworld communications, and that you follow a few basic commonsense principles for effective and efficient communication:

• Clearly convey your point in the subject and the very first sentence of the e-mail: Failure to do so increases the chances they'll miss the reason you're writing.
• Keep your first e-mail under 250 words: Anything longer is a strong incentive to reply at a later date (or not at all.) If they want more details, they'll ask.
• Include your SL name and real life name in the e-mail: I'm amazed at how many people fail to include their SL name. I also recommend including your real name to establish your credibility and seriousness. Generally speaking, professional content creators should not tether their brand to a single platform. Address Lindens as peers, not fans, and they'll treat you as such.

Come to think of it, the first two bullet points are good rules for communicating with anyone who gets too much email and doesn't have enough time in her or his day to respond to everything -- like the dean or president of your university.