Philip Rosedale

Philip Rosedale is the Founder and CEO of Linden Lab, the company that produces a massively multiplayer online game, Second Life. He has stated that his goal with Second Life is to demonstrate a viable model for a virtual economy or virtual society. In his own words, "I'm not building a game. I'm building a new countryÓ. He built his first computer in the fourth grade and started his first computer software company while still in high school. In 1995, he developed FreeVue, a low bit rate video-conferencing system for Internet-connected PCs, resulting in the acquisition of his company in early 1996 by RealNetworks. He then served at RealNetworks as vice-president and CTO for three and a half years, where he was responsible for the development and launch of RealVideo, RealSystem 5.0, and RealSystem G2. In 1999, he joined Accel Partners as an entrepreneur-in-residence and began the basic research that would become the technology behind Linden Lab.