Hola Amigos,

So we come to the end of the Q2 of 2010. June was an interesting month, not only did Second Life® celebrate the 7th anniversary but Linden Lab® also announced it was cutting its staff by 30%, the CEO was removed, and the company founder returned to hopefully put things back in order. Talk about a great way to celebrate! Just like every other month, it is time to recap everything that went around our beautiful estate during the month of June.

Notable news from Linden Lab®

Second Life® Creator Linden Lab® Cuts Staff By 30%

On June 9, 2010, Linden Lab® announced a 30% staff reduction in order to restructure and strengthen the company. The Lab said this change will enable them to move faster and have more focus on the things that matters the most. If they were not able to move faster and focus with more people on board, I wonder how are they going to do it with now. To me, cutting 30% of your staff when you are reporting record revenues quarter after quarter does not make any sense. I honestly believe that the Lab's profits were not as big as suggested and that perhaps many of the not so huge profits were invested in creating the much anticipated 2.0 viewer, lowering even more the not so realistic revenues. We all know 2.0 has been far from a success story, not only has it made current residents unhappy, but most important it failed to bring the much needed new residents to Second Life® that the Lab was hoping for in order to keep the SL™ economy growing. It is no secret to anybody that the number of in-world residents has not been the same in the past months. In the past, we were reaching an average of 80,000 in-world residents a day, when nowadays the numbers barely reach 65,000 residents.

Second Life® CEO is replaced on interim basis by company founder

On June 24, 2010, it was announced the current CEO of Linden Lab®, Mark Kingdon, who has been known as M Linden in-world for the past 2 years, stepped down from his position. The interim CEO will be Philip Rosedale, who is the company's founder. Additionally, CFO Bob Komin will now assume the role of COO. The Lab attributed these changes to improving their core product offerings and increasing the ease of use for residents.

Linden Lab® promotes Second Life® as virtual world imagined and created by its Residents…”

A couple of months ago, I was having a conversation with one of the top Lindens, expressing how I was worried about the way the SL™ economy was going, the numbers of daily logins were declining, not many new residents were signing up, the ones that did sign up were not coming back, and how I truly believed the people at the top of this company were losing touch with the residents of Second Life®.

I expressed my belief that the higher level executives at Linden Lab® should be people who not only are well qualified for their jobs, but most importantly they should love and understand Second Life® for what it is. They should spend time in-world, traveling around and and getting to know the regular residents, and hearing their opinions on what Second Life® means to them and what matters the most. You cannot run a company and hope it will be successful if you don’t understand the product you are selling and the costumers that buy your product. If you don’t listen to their needs and respond quickly, it is most likely your customers will stop buying your product.

The most beautiful things created in Second Life® were created by its residents and not by Linden Lab®, and the firm should focus in providing us with a more stable platform where regular residents can enjoy a better overall performance. This also means providing easier building tools and more security for all content creators. It also means promoting Second Life® beyond the current channels to attract more new residents. Even today, 3 years after I first rezzed my avatar, I am still dealing with the same problems: major lag, objects getting lost from my inventory, objects not rezzing, and problems with sim crossings, just to name a few.

I am really sad to see a lot of the Lindens that I use to have on my friends list gone from the company. Many of them truly loved Second Life® and they were part of the in-world community. A lot of them were huge supporters of the Costa Rica Sims since its early days and even some were residents of the estate using their alts. I want to wish them well and thank them for all the support and friendship.

I hope now that the founder of Linden Lab® is back at the helm we will see a change in direction with regards to how management runs this virtual environment we all love so much. Additionally, I implore them to start listening more closely to us, after all we are the people spending our time and money here in order to keep Second Life® alive. They say they are doing so and from now on are going to be more transparent on how things are run at the top, which I have faith will start to happen. Many friends have asked me if I think Second Life® will disappear soon and I do not believe it will. However, I do think the company can make improvements in how it interacts with its customers, listens more closely to their needs, and uses that information to guide the investments it makes in its future, specifically in terms of new product offerings for this virtual community.

Land Sales

As in previous years when we enter the summer months, we always see a decrease in land sales. This seasonality, along with the recent announcement by Linden Lab®, created uncertainty around the grid. Even so we close June with the estate at 97.5% occupancy. Again, this is a major accomplishment when so many other estates are disappearing from the grid.

Events

The Costa Rica Ladies’ Society Friendship Ball

Our beautiful Music Temple, located within the Costa Rica Ladies’ Botanical gardens, saw the air around fill up with romance as couples danced to the beautiful voice of Miss Ceci Dover.

Many SLebs, including the stunning and current Miss Virtual World, Miss Miaa Rebane, were in attendance. Don’t forget that this event happens every 1st Saturday of the month at 2:00 PM SLT. Click here for an inside look of this fabulous party.

The WK Ganesvoort Community Ball

The 2nd edition of this monthly event saw Costa Rica Sims residents and friends dressed to the nines. As you may know, this event is hosted by one of our long time residents, Mr. WG Ganesvoort, who owns the largest private.

Our devilishly handsome Mr. Costa Rica Sims 2010 was caught off guard with a strange expression on his face, perhaps he was wondering where in the world was his adoring partner?

Costa Rica Bunny Festival

Recently, Z Couture Bunnehs moved their farm to our estate. The first bunny festival was a total success. Our partners at Z Couture asked to host future festivals at their sim rather than in front of our Opera House. This will give residents and friends of the estate the opportunity to wander around their beautiful sim and discover the huge selection of bunnies they have for sale.

For more information about Z Couture and the bunny business, including the over 900 variety of bunnies you can find at their farm, please visit www.zcouturebunnehs.com or contact Miss Zya Savira in-world for more information. You can also read the review of the first Bunny Fest by clicking here.

Costa Rica Designers Showcase June

Summer brought us the hottest men of the Costa Rica Sims, sporting the sexiest summer clothes by AlphaMale, B-side, & Connors. It was also the first production for our new Director, Miss Tempest Hennesy who, along with all members of the Costa Rica Sims Productions, put together a magnificent show. Many thanks to all of them and looking forward to July’s Show.

For a sizzling review of the fashion show, posted by Takeshi, please click here.

Building Classes 2010

Our Prim professor Clay Ellison had a full class for the first of many to come. Residents of the estate starting learning the art of building in Second Life®. It wouldn’t surprise me that after the classes are over we will see some new famous builders emerging from Professor Ellison’s graduates.

Costa Rica Natural Wonders Ball

For the 2nd month in a row Miss Dahlia Jayaram won the L$5,000 cash prize. Her photo ¨Diving With a Clown¨ was taken at Manuel Antonio National Park Scuba Area. We encourage residents and friends of the estate to join our Moolto group for a chance to place their photos and compete for the L$5,000 cash prize. If you haven’t joined our Moolto group, please join it so you can enter your photos and have a chance to win the cash prize.

Rezz Days Party

Jungle wear was the theme for the rezz days party in honor of our May babies. Hosted at our beautiful rainforest, DJ Syriana Paine provided the wild tunes that held the crowd in excitement, including our rezz days boys and girls, dancing all afternoon long.

Many more happy rezz days to our June babies: Cindi, Dirran, Gabbriel, Giancarlo, Idelle, Jimbo, Lorelei, Mathiew, Muzicole, Rafe, Rocio, Smirky, Solen, Tekillya & WaMark.

The Influentials

The beautiful and talented Miss Mina Pelazzi was the honoree at the 2nd edition of The Influentials Fashion Fueled Party. Many of you know her as the face of Moolto and co-owner of the Queens Brand. Fashionistas from all over the grid and her friends stopped by to pay tribute to this wonderful woman.

If you want to read an interview posted by Liane Martens and learn more about Mina, please click here.

Updates

Leatherback Turtle Trust

In May, we raised L$3.780. I would like to thank all residents and friends of the estate who kindly donated to this worthy cause: Sunshine Zhangsun, Mojo Manamiko, Dro Millar, Kutjara Ashbourne, RomanceWriter Nitely, Iolanda Weidman, Cayden Devin, Busty December, LexiDare Claven, Fyn Landar, Carmichael Caudron, Bebe Nowles, Melody Sharpshire, Phaze Monday & Freya Cloudring.

As always, here is a photo of the transaction made via Paypal for last month’s donation.

The Geko Stoop butterflies sales

In May, we raised L$1,350 from all proceeds from the sales of Geko’s butterflies. Thank you to the people who donated: Gizmo Latte, LexiDare Claven & Miakoda Foxclaw

Also many thanks to all of you who also donated to the Relay For Life kiosk, bringing the total amount raised so far to L$23,300. Below there is a photo for the transaction made via the Relay For Life kiosk.

And finally, I would like to welcome all the new residents that moved to the estate in the past month and are now part of our growing family: Alexandr, Amy, Anita, Camila, Cindi, Cloud, Corinne, Danica, Djembe, Floor, Ginosko, Glitter, Gort, Grayce, GreenEyes, Idelle, Iolanda, Kaithly, Konrad, LesPaul, Marina, Melody, Miakoda, Moondoggy, Neffatiti, Phantom, Prisse, Quetzal, Reicka, Roberto, Ruby, Sal, Sandyl, Serena, Shania, Sherlock, SirJames, Shock,Tawa, Thelema, Tiana, TortugaTom & Van. Welcome home!

So there you have it my dear friends, quite an interesting month, as we enter the second half of 2010. Let us all look forward to the changes at Linden Lab® as positive steps towards helping those at the higher levels in the organization to understand in greater detail how to love Second Life® as much as we do! Until next time...

Love & Light

Gian