SLOz had the opportunity in the past few days to have a chat via Skype with Logan Linden aka Chris Collins, expatriate Aussie and Analyst for Linden Lab. Logan was very forthcoming on a range of topics so we’ll publish the interview in three parts in the coming week.
- Part 1
Lowell: Can you tell me a little about yourself Chris?
Chris: I was born in Sydney, had ten years there then moved to Perth – I call Perth home. I went to the University of Western Australia, started working in Perth then worked in Sydney for awhile. I worked there consulting for an accounting firm. I then moved to London for three and a half years, did the Australian thing.
I ran a CRM software consulting company then I started a job search engine in the UK. I launched that over in San Francisco. We got to a point where we weren’t progressing as quickly as we wanted to, so we decided to pull the pin on that. I then briefly set up operations for another technology company and started to look around for other work. I wanted to work at a company that had a really exciting product, that had smart people, had a smart management team and came across Linden Lab.
Lowell: When did you first start with Linden?
Chris: I started beginning of June 2006. It was just before everything got really crazy.
Lowell: What’s your role there?
Chris: I’m the analyst here, so with all the charts that I look at – in June / July when everything really started to pick up, it was obvious 2006 was a really big year for us. When we went to free basic accounts, the growth really started to happen. Being the analyst is a really exciting position. I don’t think I could be an analyst in any other company or industry compared to what we’re doing here – the data we analyse is very exciting and there’s so many different ways you can look at it. We’re in an interesting position in that everything the company does is in Second Life and for us to get any exposure to that we need to be able to look at the data, to be able to analyse and break it down into hundreds of different reports depending on the individual who’s looking at it. They need to be able to work out what needs to be done to enhance areas, from an economic standpoint through to a simulator standpoint. I’m the one they all come to to be able to get all that.
Lowell: And are you it as far as resources go?
Chris: I’m in the Data Warehouse team, there’s two of us. The other guy I work with does a lot of the Warehouse engineering. We’re expanding our team, another two analysts are joining in March. At Linden Lab we’re going through a phase where we need to find staff. We need to find a lot of senior staff in all areas. That should be of interest to any of your readers – we’re looking for people in all areas. It’s easy to be able to come and work in the US.
Lowell: So it’s sounds like you’re going to have a real Decision Support setup there in the near future?
Chris: Yeah, which’ll be great. A couple of weeks ago we released a whole lot more information out to the community. We’re going through a phase this year where we hope to put more and more data out for the community to look at and analyse for themselves. For business owners in Second Life to get more access to information. We’re going through a big phase with that and we need more people to help speed that process up.
- Part 2 in the coming week – Australian specific data, building a community and working at Linden Lab.
[…] Logan Linden Interview – Part 1 […]