# Philip Rosedale

> Philip Rosedale is the founder of Linden Lab and Second Life, cofounder and advisor at High Fidelity, and CTO of Second Life following his October 2024 return. A physics graduate and former RealNetworks CTO, he works on virtual presence, community currencies and experimental computing projects.

- **Role:** CTO at Second Life / Linden Lab; Cofounder and advisor at High Fidelity
- **Organizations:** Linden Lab, Second Life, High Fidelity, RealNetworks, FreeVue, LoveMachine, Worklist.net, Coffee & Power, FairShare, California Institute for Machine Consciousness, Filecoin Foundation, Improbable / MSquared
- **From:** San Diego, United States
- **Nationality:** American
- **Education:** B.S. in Physics, University of California San Diego
- **Known for:** Founded Linden Lab and created Second Life, launched in 2003., Created FreeVue, acquired by RealNetworks, and helped lead RealVideo development., Named to TIME’s 100 most influential people in 2007.

## Career timeline

- **High school** — Started a software company that helped fund college.
- **1992** — Graduated from UC San Diego with a B.S. in Physics.
- **1994** — Moved to San Francisco and developed FreeVue, an early dial-up videoconferencing application.
- **1995** — FreeVue acquired by RealNetworks in late 1995, according to his own biography and Linden Lab; some older biographies give 1996.
- **1996** — Became VP and CTO at RealNetworks; helped lead the development of RealVideo.
- **1999** — Left RealNetworks and founded Linden Lab.
- **2003** — Second Life launched.
- **2007** — Named to the TIME 100.
- **2008** — Announced his departure from the Linden Lab CEO position to become chairman.
- **2009-2011** — Pursued ventures including LoveMachine and Coffee & Power; briefly returned as Linden Lab interim CEO in 2010.
- **2013** — Cofounded High Fidelity as an open-source virtual world platform for VR headsets.
- **2019** — High Fidelity refocused on spatial audio.
- **2022** — Returned to Second Life as strategic advisor as High Fidelity invested in Linden Lab.
- **2024** — Returned full time as Second Life CTO and joined the Linden Lab board in October.

## Achievements

- Founded Linden Lab and created Second Life, launched in 2003.
- Created FreeVue, acquired by RealNetworks, and helped lead RealVideo development.
- Named to TIME’s 100 most influential people in 2007.
- Rosedale and Linden Lab received WIRED’s 2006 Rave Award for business innovation.
- Linden Lab’s Second Life received a Technology & Engineering Emmy in 2008.
- Cofounded High Fidelity and helped develop its spatial audio work.

## Latest updates

- **2026-10** — His personal site dates its GPU Flocking simulation to October 2026.
- **2026-08** — His personal site lists a piano-learning neural network experiment and an Endgame podcast appearance.
- **2026-06** — His personal site links his SL23B Meet the Lindens appearance on YouTube.
- **2026-03** — Discussed emergent worlds and localism with Jim Rutt.
- **2024-10** — Linden Lab announced his full-time return as CTO and appointment to its board.

## Links

- Website: https://rosedales.com/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/philiprosedale
- Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/philiprosedale

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/philip-rosedale
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-10-22