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metaXLR8 streaming media and game server

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Produced by metafuturing

We have installed OpenSim on a Linux server on an experimental basis. Since our server is an experimental machine, to show the capability of the OpenSim software in a production environment we have also purchased a region on Central Grid, an independent virtual world using the OpenSim development software. See our OpenSim Server Help pages at http://metaxlr8.com:81/.

OpenSim is a BSD Licensed Open Source project to develop a functioning virtual worlds server platform capable of supporting multiple clients and servers in a heterogeneous grid structure. OpenSim is written in C#, and can run under Mono or the Microsoft .NET runtimes. In other words: an open source version of the Second Life server, designed and developed on a modern software engineering platform, and accessible by standard Second Life clients. At this moment the project has produced the 0.4.5 version (0.5 expected soon), so it is not yet operational and still far from offering the complete set of features available in the proprietary Second Life server (no voice, no permissions, no groups, no money...). However, the project has been steadily gaining momentum over the last few months, there are already a few alternative grids based on OpenSim (most notably Central Grid) and I believe it may reach operational maturity (version 1.0) in 2008 and become a serious competitor to Second Life soon after.

At that moment, we will have a standard metaverse system candidate with open source server and client (the Second Life client has been open sourced at the beginning of 2007 and there are already stable alternative clients). The OpenSim system will then a serious candidate to becoming the foundation of a metaverse based on open standard and code. Think of Compuserve and AOL before the web, and Apache and Netscape after the web. Of course other systems under development have the same ambition (most notably Open Croquet), and it will be very interesting to see how things will develop in 2008. I am not betting my money on either, and at metafuturing we will definitely follow, work on and try to contribute to both in 2008.

This is open source software. This means that if you think of a nice new feature, you are free to try implementing it and proposing it for integration in the system. A couple of months ago there was an interesting question posted to Linkedin: “What features in OpenSim would you like to see worked on for your business or entertainment? Web 2.0, 3D environments, whatever you want to call it, is coming! In the next few years there will be a migration from the internet as we know it and into an avatar-based virtual world used for many purposes. There is a project going on now (OpenSim) that is an open-source venture to create simulator applications that should be able to link into this world. What features for business, education, anything you can think of, would you like to see being worked on?”.

My answer was: “Well, all features available in the Second Life server software, of which OpenSim is meant as a clone. Plus (specifically for business applications): import documents from a popular office format (MS, OO...), use webcam feed for videoconferencing, in-world web browser with Flash support, video streams linkable to any suitable surface”. I would now add that OpenSim should not simply copy the features of the Second Life server, but try to make something better in view of the lessons learned in Second Life.

There are two major improvements that I can think of. One is a better and much more professional permission system. Every developer knows that the Second Life permission system, developed to protect the creations of individual designers, creates big problems to professional B2B projects and is frequently the main source of major problems in large projects. I think the permission system should be redesigned conceptually before implementing a clone of the Second Life permission system, and with the requirements and workflows of professional projects in mind.

Then I think in this Web 2.0 age of mashups, there is no need of reinventing the wheel. If a features needed is already available in an existing system with a large user base and some degrees of openness, often the smartest thing to do is providing the feature via an interface to that system. So, I think the social network module of OpenSim (or other candidate metaverse platforms) should be based on existing social networks such as Facebook, MySpace, Ning, Orkut or Linkedin. NetworkS - there is no reason to choose a social network when it is possible to implement support for all using the Facebook platform for Facebook and Opensocial for all the others. The same consideration should apply to another important system module: the money system. Second Life implemented an alternative in-world currency, the Linden dollar, but there are alternative currencies with growing user bases such as E-gold, Pecunix, and eCache and a network of independent exchanges like Vertoro (see also here). I think the smartest way to implement a money system in OpenSim would be via appropriate interfaces to a growing list of electronic currency operators and exchange providers.