United We Stand, Divided They Fall

I was pointed in the direction of an excellent recent blogpost by Emilly Orr which poses some interesting concepts about “they” and “we” companies. These terms are brought into the conversation from other sources, but basically a “we company” is all about customer service, focused on driving results for the consumer only and a “they company” has one focus, money.

Microsoft is the most regular example of a “they company” one which drives forward to make revenue, with less compulsion to satisfy its customers or produce a quality product. It’s said that Apple are a “we company” one which strives to keep the customer happy, bring the customer new products and innovations.

The blogpost is excellent and I do encourage you to go and read it if you have not already. Having said this however, while it is a thought provoking piece, it’s not one I entirely agree with. I don’t personally think Linden Lab is a “they company” I think it’s very much a “we company”.

“We companies” are innovative and ever-evolving.; driven by its customers with a need for customer service at the fore. While I will accept that more often that not, Linden Lab seem so disjointed from the residents of Second Life. They appear to not understand the product, they appear to not answer our tickets or look into JIRA bugs. This happens on the surface, and while I agree that the surface is a very important place, it’s not the ‘nuts and bolts’ of our user experience.

I’m sure at one point or another, each and every one of us has been left in awe at how annoying Second Life can be, how woefully stupid Linden Lab seem to be. Don’t get me wrong, The Lab do many things which make it hard for even the most ardent resident to defend, but what company doesn’t? I am a strong Apple supporter, it doesn’t mean everything they do is right – no company is infallible. These apparent cock-ups don’t change the fact that these companies are making innovations and innovations are regularly a hit or a miss opportunity to connect to your supporters. Sometimes they get it right, and sometimes they don’t it’s the simple fact of any company. It shouldn’t however mean that it’s ok for us to say they don’t care about us, that they only care about our money. If that was the case wouldn’t we all have left already?

I have had my ups and downs with Second Life, I have had days/ weeks/ months of wonderful excitement at the developments and the experience and I’ve also had the same periods of time where I wondered why I was still here. This is the point though; I am still here, so are you.

I do not like Viewer 2.0. Simple. I’m not going to harp on about why I don’t; far more intelligent concise people than I have covered the reasons. However, I will agree that Viewer 2.0 is a development. Is it innovative? I would say it’s not, however it has taken a massive leap from 1.24 towards innovation of the future and for that I take my hat off to the people behind it.

We must never forget that the world is a fast paced changing place. Any technology company in the midst of that would feel the tidal waves more than others. Virtual Worlds, I would argue are in the eye of the storm and feel the winds of change with a particular force.

Innovation is the difference; innovation makes a company about its customers. Without innovation people would not return. ALL companies have a bottom line which is money, they wouldn’t be companies without it. Money rules everything and without money you cannot have innovation.