What they would have to do is make it so that one can plug in any physics engine that one likes, but that leaves the problem that there are not at present any serious opensource physics engines. That is not to say that there will not be in the future, of course.

Second Life will just be another one of those “guided” open-source projects.

I am sure this is a lesson to LL and SL – they cannot afford to invest as fast as they need to to stay competitive – and how to leapfrog the competition if it is your “genetic survival” at stake? Open Source! What a nice lateral solution – you relinquish a lot of control, but get more stable code in exchange – and of course, if people adopt your code in making their own servers – a few protocol changes and you have remade the internet (a giant leap from this, for sure, but I am sure not inconceivable).

But Open Source is scary – it is a communal effort – with no one responsible or in charge – for the code at least. It is at least as scary for LL as for SL denizens. But it appears to be a *neccessary step*

Oh, baloney, Gwyn, nothing of the kind. As I’ve noted on Tao’s blog, they aren’t incorporating any real critics or any kind of voice in their strategic planning except the ones from their existing choir of fanboy geeks.

Of course the Lindens, true to form, true to their long history of creating the FIC, and NDAs, and SL Views, and all the rest of it, are going to have a select cadre of types they trust and have a comfort level with and pass on the world to them first, on favourable terms.

But why should they get to do this? It’s our world, our imagination, remember?

I can see that the only way to address this is to form some kind of pressure group that will demand accountability from them and their amen choir. I’ve been doing that all along, of course, but I can see where unless some really coherent and strong lobby gets going that puts on the table either support for land and content value or compensation for its loss, they won’t bother. Tekkies that they have under their wing won’t care, and will be all entranced with the technology — the world is a byproduct, a side issue to them, something for blingtards to do while they serve as unwitting load testers.

What’s also uber annoying about this is the idea that there’s some window that opens and shuts and that if you don’t get on the select list today by sucking up to the right Lindens, you can’t participate in the formation of the Metaverse. My God, that sort of idea is whacked. The Metaverse goes on being formed around the Lindens — in spite of the Lindens.

Of course there are things like OpenSim and other stuff which will become a replacement in the future.

I would also like to imagine completely different region implementation like more game like (think EVE Online).

But for all this use cases or scenarios are needed so they eventually can be supported by a new protocol (does not mean that they need to get implemented but the more flexible the better).