Philip Rosedale (born September 29, 1968) is an American

entrepreneur Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic value. With this definition, entrepreneurship is viewed as change, generally entailing risk beyond what is normally encountered in starting a business, which may include other values t ...

who founded

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 a ...

, which develops and hosts 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 ...

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 ...

''.

Biography

Early life

Rosedale was born in

San Diego San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the eighth most populous city in the United State ...

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

, in 1968. He took an interest in computers, technology, and

virtual reality Virtual reality (VR) is a simulated experience that employs pose tracking and 3D near-eye displays to give the user an immersive feel of a virtual world. Applications of virtual reality include entertainment (particularly video games), e ...

from an early age. He started his own company selling database systems to small businesses at 17, used the proceeds to fund his college education and ultimately earned a

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University o ...

degree in physics and computer science from the

University of California, San Diego The University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego or colloquially, UCSD) is a public land-grant research university in San Diego, California. Established in 1960 near the pre-existing Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego is t ...

Career

In 1995, Rosedale created an Internet video conferencing product (called "FreeVue"), which was later acquired by RealNetworks, where (in 1996) he went on to become vice president and chief technology officer.http://lindenlab.com/about/management#rosedale Linden Lab profile of Rosedale A year later Rosedale left RealNetworks and founded

, named after a street in Hayes Valley (a neighborhood in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

). With the creation of

, he fulfilled his lifelong dream of creating an

Internet The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, pub ...

-scale virtual world. In 2006, he and Linden Lab received

WIRED ''Wired'' (stylized as ''WIRED'') is a monthly American magazine, published in print and online editions, that focuses on how emerging technologies affect culture, the economy, and politics. Owned by Condé Nast, it is headquartered in San ...

's Rave Award for Innovation in Business. On March 14, 2008, Rosedale announced he would be stepping down as the CEO of

and assuming the role of Chairman of the Board of Directors. Rosedale had stated that his goal with

was to demonstrate a viable model for a

virtual economy A virtual economy (or sometimes synthetic economy) is an emergent economy existing in a virtual world, usually exchanging virtual goods in the context of an online game, particularly in massively multiplayer online games (MMOs). People enter th ...

or virtual society. In his own words: "We don't see this as a game. We see it as a platform that is, in many ways, better than the real world" (Google TechTalks, March 2006). In 2008, Linden Lab's ''Second Life'' was one of three products to win a

Technology & Engineering Emmy Award The Technology and Engineering Emmy Awards, or Technology and Engineering Emmys, are one of two sets of Emmy Awards that are presented for outstanding achievement in engineering development in the television industry. The Technology and Enginee ...

in the category of "User Generated Content – Game Modification". In October 2009, Rosedale announced that he would be less involved in the development of Second Life, because he was focusing on a new project. The announced project turned out to be a company named LoveMachine Inc, founded with

Ryan Downe Ryan Downe is an American musician and audio engineering, audio engineer. His debut album ''The Hypocrite'' was released in 1996 by Elton John's label, The Rocket Record Company. Two music videos were produced to promote this album: "Where Am I Go ...

. In June 2010, he announced that he was back to the office as CEO of Linden Lab. However, in October 2010, Rosedale announced he was leaving his position as interim CEO. In November 2011, Rosedale released a new project named Coffee and Power, a site that Rosedale calls a "meta-company," that enables people to connect for small jobs and services. On April 16, 2013, Coffee & Power posted to their company blog that they were going to stop work on Workclub, their mobile application and begin work on a new company named High Fidelity Inc. In January 2022, High Fidelity acquired an interest in Linden Research and Philip Rosedale rejoined to Second Life as a strategic advisor.

Personal life

Philip Rosedale is married to Yvette Rosedale. He lives in San Francisco with his four children.

References

External links

High Fidelity
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rosedale, Philip American technology chief executives Businesspeople in information technology American computer businesspeople Living people Second Life 1968 births People from San Diego University of California, San Diego alumni