Found thanks to the incredible Techmeme and Fortune.com, an article about Second Life opening up its desktop application (not the server) to the Open Source community. As a sometime resident (I dont visit nearly enough – my first life is keeping me away) this is a killer event for the developer community and the user.
Rosedale and other executives say they fully expect there eventually to be multiple virtual worlds that use Linden’s code, or that at least are interoperable with Second Life, so avatars can pass from one world to another. Says Rosedale: “Say IBM builds its own intranet version with our code that’s somewhat different from Second Life. But it’s probably not that different. A user may say ‘Wow, this virtual thing IBM’s built is pretty cool. Now I want to go the mainland.’ And we have another customer.”
Sounds like the kinda thing Marc Canter would dig.
Open source, open standards, open ID, and now… OPEN WORLDS. Taking SL out of one set of servers, distributing it, making a community of second lives – furries in one (or 100), builders in another (or 1000), designers in another, regular folks running through all – different social mores, codes of conduct, experiences, platforms…
Article here.