Cory Ondrejka was the Chief Technology Officer of

Linden Lab Linden Research, Inc., doing business as Linden Lab, is an American technology company that is best known as the creator of ''Second Life''. The company's head office is in San Francisco, with additional offices in Boston, Seattle, Virginia an ...

, makers of

Second Life ''Second Life'' is an online multimedia platform that allows people to create an avatar for themselves and then interact with other users and user created content within a multi player online virtual world. Developed and owned by the San Fra ...

. With

Philip Rosedale Philip Rosedale (born September 29, 1968) is an American entrepreneur who founded Linden Lab, which develops and hosts the virtual world ''Second Life''. Biography Early life Rosedale was born in San Diego, California, in 1968. He took an inter ...

, Ondrejka co-founded Second Life and played a significant role in the architecture of the product. After leaving Linden Lab, Ondrejka became Senior

Vice President A vice president, also director in British English, is an officer in government or business who is below the president (chief executive officer) in rank. It can also refer to executive vice presidents, signifying that the vice president is on t ...

of Digital Strategy for the

EMI EMI Group Limited (originally an initialism for Electric and Musical Industries, also referred to as EMI Records Ltd. or simply EMI) was a British Transnational corporation, transnational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate founded in March 1 ...

Group until he left EMI in September 2009. He also was vice president of engineering at

Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin M ...

Education

Ondrejka is a former

US Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage of ...

officer and 1992 graduate of the US

Naval Academy A naval academy provides education for prospective naval officers. See also * Military academy A military academy or service academy is an educational institution which prepares candidates for service in the officer corps. It normally pro ...

. He earned a joint undergraduate degree in

Computer Science Computer science is the study of computation, automation, and information. Computer science spans theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, information theory, and automation) to Applied science, practical discipli ...

and Weapons and Systems Engineering, and has the distinction of being the first Annapolis graduate to do so. In 1995 he graduated with a master's degree in computer science from

Boston University Boston University (BU) is a private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. The university is nonsectarian, but has a historical affiliation with the United Methodist Church. It was founded in 1839 by Methodists with its original campu ...

Career

Before Linden Lab

Before joining Linden Lab, Ondrejka served as Project Leader and Lead Programmer for

Pacific Coast Power and Light Locomotive Games, Inc. (formerly known as Pacific Coast Power & Light) was an American video game company based in Santa Clara, California. The studio was owned by THQ, the studio developed games for a variety of game machines and consoles, while ...

, where he helped to develop

Road Rash 64 ''Road Rash 64'' is a racing video game developed by Pacific Coast Power and Light and published by THQ for the Nintendo 64. The game is the fifth of six entries in the ''Road Rash'' series of video games, the only entry to be published by THQ a ...

and built a core technology team to deliver titles to the

Nintendo 64 The (N64) is a home video game console developed by Nintendo. The successor to the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, it was released on June 23, 1996, in Japan, on September 29, 1996, in North America, and on March 1, 1997, in Europe and Au ...

and Sony

PlayStation is a video gaming brand that consists of five home video game consoles, two handhelds, a media center, and a smartphone, as well as an online service and multiple magazines. The brand is produced by Sony Interactive Entertainment, a divisi ...

consoles. Prior to 2000, Ondrejka also worked for the

Department of Defense Department of Defence or Department of Defense may refer to: Current departments of defence * Department of Defence (Australia) * Department of National Defence (Canada) * Department of Defence (Ireland) * Department of National Defense (Philipp ...

and the

National Security Agency The National Security Agency (NSA) is a national-level intelligence agency of the United States Department of Defense, under the authority of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI). The NSA is responsible for global monitoring, collecti ...

Linden Lab (2000-2007)

Ondrejka joined San Francisco-based

in 2000 and was the fourth employee retained by the company. During his tenure at Linden Lab (2000–2007), Ondrejka was chiefly responsible for the development of the Linden Scripting Language, and reportedly spearheaded Linden Lab's initiatives in favor of user

intellectual property Intellectual property (IP) is a category of property that includes intangible creations of the human intellect. There are many types of intellectual property, and some countries recognize more than others. The best-known types are patents, cop ...

rights and

open Open or OPEN may refer to: Music * Open (band), Australian pop/rock band * The Open (band), English indie rock band * ''Open'' (Blues Image album), 1969 * ''Open'' (Gotthard album), 1999 * ''Open'' (Cowboy Junkies album), 2001 * ''Open'' (YF ...

source code In computing, source code, or simply code, is any collection of code, with or without comments, written using a human-readable programming language, usually as plain text. The source code of a program is specially designed to facilitate the wo ...

. Ondrejka departed Linden Lab in 2007, a move initially rumoured in the

virtual world A virtual world (also called a virtual space) is a computer-simulated environment which may be populated by many users who can create a personal avatar, and simultaneously and independently explore the virtual world, participate in its activities ...

blog Massively and subsequently confirmed in

CNET ''CNET'' (short for "Computer Network") is an American media website that publishes reviews, news, articles, blogs, podcasts, and videos on technology and consumer electronics globally. ''CNET'' originally produced content for radio and televi ...

and by numerous other sources following an official statement. Ondrejka's departure, which former Linden Lab

Chief Executive Officer A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...

characterized in a BBC interview as amicable "differences... about how to run the company and how best we organise ourselves as a company going forward", was a source of controversy and speculation in the media and

blogosphere The blogosphere is made up of all blogs and their interconnections. The term implies that blogs exist together as a connected community (or as a collection of connected communities) or as a social networking service in which everyday authors can pu ...

After Linden Lab

In 2008, Ondrejka was recruited to join

with the title of senior vice-president of digital strategy. Digital business president

Douglas Merrill Douglas Clark Merrill (born 1970) is an American technologist and fintech entrepreneur. He grew up in Arkansas and graduated from the University of Tulsa, majoring in social and political organization. Merrill attended Princeton University, where ...

commented on Ondrejka's appointment that, Ondrejka's experience in building virtual environments will be valuable to EMI in creating "new digital communities for fans and artists", specifically with a view to enabling people to find and engage with musical content. In November 2010 Ondrejka was hired by

, which also acquired the assets of a startup he cofounded in April 2010, Walletin. He got the title of engineering director. In 2011 he became the director of mobile engineering.

In Second Life

Ondrejka was known in Second Life as "Cory Linden," and created an

avatar Avatar (, ; ), is a concept within Hinduism that in Sanskrit literally means "descent". It signifies the material appearance or incarnation of a powerful deity, goddess or spirit on Earth. The relative verb to "alight, to make one's appearanc ...

to appear in the 3D world as the Flying Spaghetti Monster. His activities in the world were characterized by Wagner James Au as "puckish" and playfully anarchic, often to the benefit of

newbies Newbie, newb, noob, noobie, n00b or nub is a slang term for a novice or newcomer, or somebody inexperienced in a profession or activity. Contemporary use can particularly refer to a beginner or new user of computers, often concerning Internet ac ...

.New World Notes
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References

External links

Interview with Second Life's Cory Ondrejka

PodTech interview with Cory Ondrejka

User generated content in Second Life with Cory Ondrejka

Cory Ondrejka's Departure in his own words
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ondrejka, Cory Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Video game programmers United States Naval Academy alumni Boston University alumni American chief technology officers