I’ve just finished watching Rod Humble’s speech and Q&A session at SLCC 2011 (if you missed it, you can catch the recorded ustream of it here).

It was great to see that Second Life is in the hands of a man who cares about creativity, about usability, and about getting in there himself to experience the issues that residents have complained about for years (cf. group chat issues that he swiftly saw the problems with after joining a group on an alt account). Also great to see him recognising that many residents (myself included) were trying to tell Linden Lab that Basic Mode was confusing many people, and that the new user experience is changing and adapting to accommodate residents’ concerns.

He acknowledged that V2 was difficult to use (also that the sidebar was a pain to work with), spoke about the potential for new methods to deal with griefers, and about bringing in new benefits for premium members (at no extra cost).

All in all a great speech and an interesting Q&A. Try to catch up with it if at all possible. It may allay some of your worries about where Second Life is headed :)