hi Ener

Actually, Astra viewer already has direct account creation which is as simple as adding any name not currently used on the grid and add new password for it. And it logs you in with the new name and thereafter its all yours. This only works on Aurora grids which are set to allow it though.

Not a lot of people know that *grins*

Gaga

I agree with one thing for sure. Open Sim urgently needs it's own viewer and perhaps one can be set for several modes even. Mode 1 to access Open Sim worlds with a greater array of features and mode 2 to access Second Life and it's seriously limited feature set.

There is now another sister project to Aurora sim apart from the Imprudence/Kokua one. The new project is based on Astra viewer and the developers are working to give better support to Open Sim in general and Aurora sim in particular while still being compatible with Second Life content. I had been pushing the Imprudence devs for a long time to include an improved grid list feature but nothing came of it although it was acknowledged. I wrote an article about all this on my blog back in April here...
http://metaverse-traveller.blogspot.com/2011/04/o...

However, I had better luck with the Astra devs because I became more directly involved and, already, Revolution Smythe did some preliminary work on the grid list function in preparation. I had asked Rev to improve the listing window to include options for owners to add their own grids so users can search for grids that better meet their needs. This, I hope, will be a feature of the new Astra viewer where you can find a grid and add your login info to favourites before you even login to a grid.

I think it could be developed much further too to actually have search focus on a wide range of individual sims as well as grids so one can find places to visit and content to buy right there in the viewer splash pages when you open it rather than wait to login to open search which is limited to a single service associated with the grid you enter. It just needs the viewer developers to be willing to maintain a back end database server to support the viewer.

The viewer developers could stand to actually make money from this kind of service in order to meet costs too while the viewer remains free to download. Adding your grid or sim should be free but only a simple description at most and the login address of course. But the developers could charge a fee to owners who want to add a picture and a more detailed description as well as key words to aid search results. Perhaps there could even be bidding for placement results and this would increase revenue to fund more development.

Anyway, the current version of Astra is for development and testing so is not suitable for public use. A lot of work is going on however but I will cover it soon on my blog once I get more information and a public release becomes available. I should say though that this is my personal vision of what a viewer should be able to do to support the open Metaverse better. Maria gives some good ideas above that could also find a solution in the viewer. We just have to break out of the limited Second Life framework and get a bit more cutting edge.

Gaga

@Miguel. In an ideal world everyone is giving and everyone is receiving but Open Sim is not an ideal world. If HG is left with no content protection then there will never be any of the high quality content that you find in Second Life and until there is the traffic will not grow. Second Life was built on user participation which means people have been able to build, create content and make money from their efforts. Like it or not, Open Sim has to follow the same economic model as SL while advancing in new ways. Second Life is over priced, out of date and Linden Labs is out of touch with their user base but there is nothing wrong with the basic model. It has been proven to work but take the security out of it and it would quickly fall apart the same as the walled garden grids built on Open Sim would. The security of SL and closed commercial OS grids is based on the crude security of an iron curtain. Open Sim and Hypergrid has to rise to the challenge of openness with protection if the open Metaverse is to grow.

Great article Maria and full of good sense. It is hard to say what the future holds for Open Sim but if HG is to work for the good of the open Metaverse and progress then, I agree, security solutions need to be built into the core. I think these blog articles have some effect on the thinking of developers so they are important in that they give insight into what people want and hope for.

Revolution Smythe, lead developer of the Aurora team, has said a lot about Open Sim security (or lack of it) and it is given utmost priority in the work they are doing. IWC (Inter Worlds Connectivity) works similar to HG with added layers of security but, even so, as you pointed out, there can never be a perfect solution unless there is a fundamental shift towards advanced technologies like Mesh Networks which I touched on in an article on my blog a while back. None the less, an extra permission for HG dose seem to me to be a good short term solution. Short term solutions, though, usually leave problems behind when something new and better needs to be implemented - like a whole lot of content tied into the outdated permission if it all changes. The one thing I hear a lot in Second Life is "I can't go try Open Sim because all my stuff is in Second Life and would cost too much to replace if I could even find any of it for sale." I can't ever see a day when Linden Labs changes that and allows content to travel to outside grids but, in any event, I think extra permissions in Open Sim would make it impossible anyway. Whatever happens though, I think the last thing anyone wants is to have ill-thoughtout short term solutions to long term problems.

BTW, what's good news for some with Kitely pushing billing back to November is bad news for "Nymphets" like me that care not to use real names or Facebook. Still, my promised KC must be starting to add up which makes it not so bad I suppose.

Gaga

P.S. I know what Nymphet means but I use it in the sense of @Nymwars (no saucy comments please).

The part that caught my interest was "Distributed inventories" and I wrote about this recently on my own blog here... http://metaverse-traveller.blogspot.com/2011/07/a...

I had a long talk with Revolution Smythe, lead dev of Aurora Sim, and he told me that, ideally, Mesh Networks would offer the best chance of content security across the Hypergrid Network where nothing actually leaves the grid in which it is sold or given away. Mesh Networks acts as a relay - or rather, every grid acts as a relay for distributing data. All grids keep their content regardless and only distribute data about it through the network so no matter where you travel your inventory is drawing on data in the network rather than directly from your home grid. What you create is always stored on your home grid database and you can sell access to the data distributed in the network rather than selling copies that are transferred to some other database. In theory this makes it impossible for content thieves to steal the original items.

@Lawrence

Just a case in point, Tateru Nino has published an article that, to my mind, sums up the current state of Second Life, it's shoddy customer service and the huge problem of lag...
http://dwellonit.taterunino.net/2011/08/29/so-goe...

I agree with you that Second Life has a diverse culture and large economy but, seriously, most of the work creating that was done by residents while Linden Labs fumbled along from one bad mistake to another. Customer service use to be far better when Lindens had their feet inworld and listened to the residents. In recent years they have simply lost any real connection with the people that pay the bills and Ron Hubble said it all when he said "Second Life is a success but he doesn't know why"

What he should have said is Second Life is in decline and we need to find out the reasons why and address them urgently.

But, of course, you can't expect them to admit what the metrics are saying.

Gaga

@Lawrence. I have a Q4, 4gig ram Windows OS with NIVIDIA GForce 8600 GT and high speed Internet so I shouldn't really have any problem with Second Life. I have been a resident in SL for over 4 years too and I have known it to be better than it is currently and with weekly server updates and constant issues with scripts failing there after that worked fine in the past. Every week I have to go check teleporters to reset them and find other scripts failing. And I have lost track of the times objects have been lost to the scene and from my inventory. All this and plenty of other issues dose not lead me to describe Second Life as a fully developed product.

To be honest, I also have a two virtual servers running Opensim on one and Aurora sim on the other. Of all three products, Second Life I rate as weak on performance. Opensim marginally better and Aurora sim considerably better than both. Linden Labs charges $1000 to setup a sim and $295 a month service and for that you have very little control while putting up with a product in constant development just the same as Opensim and Aurora which both cost a lot less to operate and you do have considerably more control. And Linden Labs don't let you connect to the rest of the open Metaverse either.

There are advantages and disadvantages in all three platforms and I have substantial investment both in money and time in all three. I think that makes me at least an informed users if not an expert. I do the footwork you see and experience the good and the bad so I can make the comparisons.

Using Opensim and Aurora I expect to encounter problems - I accept it is alpha software and I don't use it commercially anyway. With Second Life I expect more given the high cost and, from an ordinary users point of view, I do not consider it value for money but, like so many others, I am hopelessly addicted to experiencing virtual worlds and working with them. I have made many friends in SL too so I know how they feel and believe me everyone complains about lag. It's a lot of money to pay for a laggy experience and, while I might try to understand the problems, most just want to have some escapist fun. Lag is not fun for anyone.

@troymc. *laughs* I stand corrected!

I pulled that word from the back of my head and, your right, I know nothing about horses other than they make me sneeze when I go near one.

I agree, Second Life suffers terrible lag and is worse now than ever it was. I visited two well-known sims this weekend and, on the first, my avatar was the only one there and it took ages for the over-primed region and all it's textures to download. Even when I could move it was slow - really slow! On the next sim it was pretty much the same but there was about five avatars plus mine and someone was sailing a boat.

I would agree that some sims using Open sim can be laggy too but these are usually standalones on home PCs with home-use DSL (there are a lot of those connected to OSgrid) but venture to commercial grids like InWorldz and Avination and there is a marked improvement. I agree business users need to consider what they get for their money and a well resourced private label grid running Open sim where you control everything is still better than expensive Second Life where you have very little control of anything - least of all content.

I have two sims in Second Life where I keep prims to a minimum, take great care with textures and keep scripts down too using low-lag items wherever possible. And yet I still find the sims laggy even when only a few avatars are present.

What SL has got going for it is traffic (discounting bots, alts and campers) and a lot of content. But, with content, one has to remember a lot of it is either badly scripted or over-scripted with re-sizers and such which contributes a huge amount of lag to the sims.

In terms of what works, yes, Open Sim lacks decent physics and some of the features we are use to in SL but consider group chat as an example; it's broken and has been for years despite LL recently claiming it has been fixed.

My usual advise to people asking about SL is to forget it. It's expensive, laggy and full of griefers. If you hope to make money in SL then you need to be original because most stuff has already been made better than noobs can ever hope to do the same. However, if you want to be scammed or find gambling then SL has pretty much everything you want including some of the sickest adult content imaginable. Oh, and that's not to mention all the spamming that goes on.

But there is one big downside to SL any business user should consider, Linden Labs has never been terribly good with customer service and their policy decision making tends to ride rough shot over community opinion.

The "experts" appear to have conveniently neglected to mention all of that.

Well said Alexandro. Keep up the good work. Hey, I shall have to visit and see what you guys are doing.

Gaga

That is sad to learn Maria. I did that review for Chapter & Metaverse last year. The grid owners are a great bunch of people and very welcoming too. And Breezie is a great builder there.