Philip Rosedale, the visionary who founded Second Life in 1999, is returning to Linden Lab in a full-time role as Chief Technology Officer. Philip will guide technology and product strategy daily alongside Executive Chairman Brad Oberwager and the executive team, and is also joining Linden Lab’s Board of Directors.
Brad Oberwager, who has led Linden Lab’s evolution over the last four years, notes this exciting transition with enthusiasm:
“Over the last four years since the acquisition, Linden Lab has re-focused itself on improving and serving Second Life. We’ve divested ourselves of unnecessary projects, streamlined our operations, increased the quality of customer support, and grown our overall revenues and profitability. We’re now in a unique position to define the future of virtual worlds, and Philip is returning to help myself and the exec team achieve that goal.”
Philip’s return comes at a time when advancements in AI and mobile technology are rapidly making virtual worlds more accessible and mainstream than ever before. A pioneer in virtual world development, Philip is uniquely able to drive Second Life forward in new, transformative directions. Reflecting on his journey, Philip shares:
“I started Second Life in 1999 – a decade before cloud computing and two decades before AI. We were early, but the success of Second Life to this day shows that we were not wrong. Virtual worlds will play an increasingly important role in the future of human culture, and I’m coming back to help make that happen in a way that has the most positive impact for the largest number of people.”
Community Roundtable with Philip – This Friday!
As part of his return to Second Life, Philip will be actively engaged inworld with our communities and creators to listen, learn, and collaborate on ways to improve our shared virtual world. He will be taking your questions and sharing more of his vision for Second Life this Friday at 10 am SLT as part of our next Community Roundtable series (location to be announced later this week). Here’s your chance to interact directly with Philip inworld to learn more about the past, present and future of our shared virtual world. Questions can be submitted in advance for consideration at this link.
Meet Philip Rosedale: A Legacy in Virtual Innovation
For those who may not know Philip’s background, his journey to Second Life was fueled by a lifelong fascination with using computers to simulate the beauty and complexity of the real world. Born in San Diego and the son of a Navy carrier pilot, Philip grew up moving across the United States before returning to San Diego for high school and college, earning a B.S. in Physics from UC San Diego in 1992.
Philip’s career began with a software startup he founded in high school, funding his college education. Moving to San Francisco in 1994, he discovered the Internet and developed FreeVue, a groundbreaking video conferencing app that was acquired by RealNetworks in 1995. There, he led the development of RealVideo and ascended to the role of CTO.
In 1999, Philip left RealNetworks to found Linden Lab, pursuing his vision of creating an open virtual world. After leading Second Life as CEO for a decade, Philip went on to co-found experimental projects like LoveMachine, Worklist.net, and Coffee & Power, before founding High Fidelity in 2013, an open-source virtual world platform initially focused on VR. More recently, High Fidelity has innovated in spatial audio, an area critical to the immersive experience of virtual environments.
Beyond these achievements, Philip has been actively involved in new projects at his IRL415 lab in San Francisco, including FairShare, an initiative aimed at addressing wealth inequality through group-based digital currency.
As we enter this new chapter with Philip’s expertise and visionary leadership at the helm, Linden Lab is more committed than ever to enhancing and expanding Second Life in ways that impact our community positively and prepare us all for a future where virtual worlds play a central role. Join us in welcoming Philip back and stay tuned for exciting updates as we move forward together!