Linda Stone is director of the Virtual Worlds Group in the Microsoft Advanced Technology and Research Division. She is a visionary both within Microsoft and to the industry at large. She is also extremely effective in making things happen. Her vision of the Internet is a place that embraces humanity and serendipity and supports rich social interaction, as well as recreation, information, and productivity. This takes us to multimedia virtual worlds.
Virtual worlds can bring a social and cultural context to the Internet.
For better or for worse, chat and social interaction on the Net account for more than 30 percent of hours logged. People crave contact and connection with other people. Linda began her high-tech career at Apple in 1986, moving to Microsoft in 1993. At Apple, she was involved in business development and market development for multimedia, working with developers, the creative community, and the New York publishing crowd. Apple was testing the waters and wanted to understand what a multimedia developer community would look like, what types of products might exist, where multimedia would be sold, and how the industry would take shape.