March 9, 2010 by Ciaran Laval
Posted in
A message to the SLED mailing list from Pathfinder confirms that he will be leaving the lab at the end of the week:
"Due to recent reorganizations at Linden Lab, my current position
(Evangelist, Market Development) has ceased to exist. There are no
alternative positions available to me, so as of March 12th I will be leaving
the company.
I am not sure what the future holds for me, but it will probably involve
something at the intersection of online communities, virtual worlds and
neuroscience. I will be remaining open to new opportunities.
I'll continue to follow this mailing list, since innovation in education and
healthcare remains near and dear to my heart.
You all are doing amazing work, and I'll be sticking around to see what you
come up with next!
Take care,
-John (formerly Pathfinder Linden)"
Pathfinder worked pretty tirelessly with the education sector and defended SL from those saying education wasn't using Second Life, his departure is both sudden and surprising. Pathfinder is of course one of the older Lindens and hasn't been a stranger to controversy in the past but in my three years here I haven't seen anything particularly controversial about him. One particular controversy was pretty unforgiveable in my view, it was before my time but it was a huge step out of line, but my own experience with Pathfinder has been pretty reasonable and I have admired his efforts.
I also read a blog comment that I can't find right now, suggesting Glenn was leaving. This will have to remain in the unfounded rumours file until I see confirmation but the old guard really are getting thin on the ground right now.
Just who is left now? Catherine is there still, I think she's been shipped off to Amsterdam but she's still there. Jack, Cyn, Joe, Jeska? They are certainly getting thin on the ground and you have to wonder is this because Second Life is taking a very different direction.
Whatever the reasons for his departure, I do wish Pathfinder all the best and hope he does find a suitable position in the near future.
- Ciaran Laval's blog
- Add new comment
- 941 reads
Pingback
[...] Pathfinder Linden takes the exit path – 9th [...]
Re: Pathfinder takes the exit path
who is the education Linden now?
Educators need that friendly face to talk to, I could *ALWAYS* forward new educators on the grid to Pathfinder and *KNOW* they'd get a response and get the response they needed to help them find their path into SL.
Sad to see him go
Re: Pathfinder takes the exit path
I got an invitation to Glenn's farewell party (which I could not attend due to timezones), and that invitation came from a Linden. So consider this rumor confirmed.
Re: Pathfinder takes the exit path
There was a twitter about Glen leaving the day before the SL Pro event. Glen was a speaker at the event and nothing was said at the event. Haven't seen or heard anything since then.
Re: Pathfinder takes the exit path
It's a shame about Pathfinder - but not a surprise. The rumour mill has been rolling for a while on the subject of a growing divide between LL and the education sector....and it's interesting recent quotes from some of TPTB mention businesses, non-profits and the like...but seem to have dropped "and education".
As to who is next? I'm tempted to say Cyn - but for the life of me, I have no idea why. Subconscious wishful thinking? But...the fact is she and Jack have proven themselves dab hands at walking and talking the new corporate line at LL.
Catherine is an interesting conjecture. Some were predicting her desk would be in the Battery Street parking lot not long after the last round of departures / disappearances....and shipping her off anywhere seems to be a gentle suggestion that TPTB are happy to have Amanda van Nuys/Linden effectively running PR.
The one I'd *like* to see go is Melinda "Pink Linden" Byerley. Sadly, that really would appear to be wishful thinking.
IP
Re: Pathfinder takes the exit path
Love her or loathe her, the performance improvements on XStreet speak for themselves, 100% increase in merchants and a 200% increase in customers and whereas I feel some of these figures should mean the forthcoming changes should be changed somewhat, if they're not, the figures will again point to whether the right path was chosen.
I've made it plain to Pink that I disagree with the changes but she really isn't the great Satan, honestly, she's a very reasonable person to talk to but strong willed and maybe a tad stubborn, but they aren't always bad traits.
Re: Pathfinder takes the exit path
Ciaran,
Can I ask where you got the figures from? I've honestly all but given up on XSL (most of my items are delisted and elsewhere), so I'm out of contact. Last time I did look, and leaving aside the dip caused after the freebie / listing commission announcement, I'd only seen things dropping.
As to Pink; my reaction has more to do with an exchange held a while back, which was less than stellar on her part. Subjective, true, but I admit to being mothing less than fallible in some of my reactions to people :-).
IP
Re: Pathfinder takes the exit path
Hello?!? Would you restrain naming people next in the line of being laid off? I find it in very bad taste. Were I one of the persons named I'd be pretty upset... if not furious.
Re: Pathfinder takes the exit path
"Would you restrain naming people next in the line of being laid off" [my emphasis]
So far as I'm aware, I was engaging in speculation, names and all. Your comment comes across as an assertion. You know something we don't?
I.P.
Re: Pathfinder takes the exit path
I agree with you that it's not a nice thing for said person to read and maybe we forget at times that Linden's are real people with real feelings. However we do have to balance this out with allowing people freedom of expression.
Re: Pathfinder takes the exit path
Well boo hoo. It's a free blogosphere, harden up.
Re: Pathfinder takes the exit path
Yeah, that's really brave coming from "Anonymous." Ha!