The Second Life of Philip Rosedale? Apparently.
Wednesday, October 01, 2008 | 
~
Ari Blackthorne™
Uncle Phil is still out in the world talking things up. However, now that he has retreated into the shadows of the boardroom instead of out front running the company, he may be allowing a bit more information to slip-out. Well, that's what I perceive, anyway.Glyn Moody over at Computer World (UK) had an interview with Philip Rosdedale, creator of Second Life and founder of Linden Research, a.k.a. Linden lab.
First thing's first: I like this article because it's not the typical interview-in-print routine with the "interviewer sez: this; Interviewee sez: that" and so on.
Rather the information gathered from the interview is digested and then presented as a column report. What was said and the receiving perspective of the one interviewing...
"The Second Life of Philip Rosedale: "Although I had appreciated that these were challenges, I was still surprised to learn of the time-scales they implied: Rosedale spoke of server code being released ‘over the next few years’. Happily, there's already another open source server project, OpenSim, for people to play with meanwhile. The bad news about OpenSim is that it uses .NET/Mono, which involves technology that Microsoft claims to have patented (not in Europe, of course). Worse, Second Life is also moving in Mono's general direction:
We’re very pleased to announce the beta testing of Mono in Second Life. Mono is a technology which will increase the speed of scripts running in Second Life. The goal is that everyone will experience reduced lag and improved stability and that it will be possible to script complex behaviours that were not previously feasible in Second Life.
This is a given. My point is in how it is presented. it';s an easy and interesting read, unlike many 'interview-style' presentations that basically look like what we are now familiar with as IM logs copied and pasted into the page.
Interesting, but tedious to read.
As for the whole open-sourcing of the server side of the technology... a few years may be too late. Open Sim is really beginning to gain serious traction and becoming more popular by the day. There are several iterations of it available already, my favorite being TribalNet.
"Rosedale seemed not too aware of the potential dangers of tainting his project with Microsoft's technology, although he did say that other languages like Java, could also be adopted alongside it, so at least the use of Mono is not irrevocable if Microsoft starts to get silly."
I think this to actually kind of funny. But true.
Philip is smart, but he's young. His mind works in logic and puzzles, not business tactics and strategy. So in the end, it's good for Linden Research/Lab; Second Life and it's users that he has recognized this and called for an experienced CEO.
I have always believed, and many other bloggers also have mentioned the idea that there will be private grids that will 'plug-into' the main SL grid. IBM already is doing this.
This is all business research and development for future profitable endeavors (products and services) that Linden Lab, IBM and countless others are hopeful will come to pass and be in high corporate demand eventually.
"Another interesting project he is working on is the creation of ‘private regions’ within Second Life. These are secure virtual words that are not on the main grid, but which can access it through teleports. IBM has been at the forefront of this work to produce what is effectively an intranet-based virtual world that is nonetheless compatible with the main Second Life system."
(Via ComputerWorld UK)
Categories:
Socially Mundane
blog comments powered by Disqus
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)