A Second Shot at Life: Talking shop with Rob Lanphier

Joe “Zonker” Brockmeier talks about Second Life with Linden Lab’s Rob Lanphier. Find out all about Linden Lab’s use of open source, how much time users spend in Second Life, and much more.

Thursday, May 1st, 2008

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Combining escapism with the ability to interact with people from all over the world, Second Life has gathered a community of users from around the world. However, Linux users have been at a slight disadvantage compared to their Windows and Mac-using friends, because the viewer for Linux wasn’t quite as full-featured and usable as the Windows and Mac OS X viewers.

With the release of the Second Life Viewer beta for Linux, we thought it might be time to turn our attention to the Linden Lab folks and see what the company’s open source strategy is. Rob Lanphier, director of open source development at Linden Lab

Linux Magazine: First off, what’s the” elevator pitch” for Second Life these days? how would you sum it up for our readers who haven’t had any experience with it?

Rob Lanphier: Second Life is an immersive virtual 2D world created and inhabited by its users, whom we call Residents. In Second Life, Residents can interact with one another and make almost anything, from clothes to motor scooters to castles, and sell their creations for Linden Dollars, Second Life’s virtual currency. Linden Dollars are exchangeable for U.S. dollars, so Residents can make real money from their virtual-world businesses. Companies hold meetings and trainings in Second Life, and educators train students in everything from nursing to architecture. Second Life is also a meeting place for artists, musicians and other imaginative types. In a single day you can attend a concert, visit an art gallery, brush…

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