If you missed the news last week, Second Life-maker Linden Lab named Organic CEO Mark Kingdon as their new CEO (replacing founding CEO Philip Rosedale who stepped down, assuming the Chairman role, last month.)
It's not unusual for a founder to flounder, leading to the appointment of new corporate leadership, but it seems that this particular move has marketing folk speculating as to whether Linden is attempting to revitalize Second Life as a platform for marketers. And whether that's a good thing or a bad thing.
As a recent Clickz article demonstrates, the jury is still out. I chatted with Clickz about Kingdon's appointment, and pointed out that Linden needs to address more fundamental issues before it looks to better monetize its community. Here's what I had to say:
"Linden needs to focus on pressing issues like platform stability and scalability... and faltering interest and usage by even many of the Second Life loyalists, before they can even think about reviving marketer interest in the virtual world."
So what do you think? Can the addition of an agency chief restore Second Life's marketing credibility -- or might it do more harm than good? Or maybe the ship has sailed, and it doesn't really matter at all? Chime in.
In the meantime, I'd give a few Linden Dollars to get a peek at Mr. Kingdon's SL avatar. Maybe he can join me at coffee With crayon this Thursday at 9am EST/6am SLT. ;-)
