Hello... From ANOTHER new member!

[Thom]

This project mustn't die!!!

Hello. I'm glad I found this place; I only hope I'm not too late. But even if this project is dead I hope some of us can work together.

I suspect my story's not that different from many of yours. I've been on SL (and WoW, if that matters) and seen a glimpse of what the future may hold, and yet... Something's not quite there yet, you know? And especially the way Linden Labs seems to handle things, we don't want to wait for the future on their schedule, even if they've gone "open". (The concept of an open client for a closed server architecture makes me chuckle a bit.)

I think a true, ground-up open-source, but perhaps more importantly, open-protocol solution is the right one. Look at what's had the most mainstream success in the history of the Internet: SMTP and HTTP. Protocols that are 15-25 years old, and while they've been improved upon, the basics are still more or less the same.

I'm not a network engineer, unfortunately. I'm a web programmer, and my expertise outside of a basic LAMP setup is next to nil, but I'm a good project manager and I'd like to think I'm a good "idea" guy. I'm more than willing to pick up C# if I can pitch in and be useful, but at very least, I hope I can take part in some discussion to bolster a project like this and make things better.

I guess I've rambled on enough for now, but I'll leave few bullet points that I think ought to be fundamental goals for a project like this:

• Clients and servers should be interoperable, i.e. any client (think browser) should be able to talk to any server regardless of client OS, server architecture, etc.
  
• Servers should be decentralized.
  
• Focus on the basics: providing content and communication between the client and the server. Whether the server is using OpenID authentication or a MySQL database should make no difference to the client.
  
• Don't reinvent the wheel if we don't have to, and borrow concepts wherever we can. Can we deliver content (textures, models) in a manner similar to HTTP? Then lets do so. SSL or TLS for authentication? Sounds good.

Alrighty... Have a good night!

[HashBox]

Hey Thom, the hostname for this project seems to have died, along with every other piece of it. I am only able to access this board with a few tricks. I have moved on.

Despite how it sounds, Linden Lab is working hard with the community to establish standards for interoperability with new clients and servers, and also alternate grids.

If you haven't already done so, I suggest you take a look at the OpenSimulator project (http://opensimulator.org), which aims to provide a clean room implementation of the Second Life server. The OpenViewer project (http://openviewer.org) is also beginning to see some light, and is designed to be extendable, it can use different UI's, Protocols, and Renderers.

OpenSimulator already has a few features that Second Life doesn't have, such as web/vector graphics on a prim, and multiple scripting languages (LSL, C#, VB, and JavaScript to name a few), and can handle megaprims etc. Definately take a look if you haven't already.