Sunday 27 March 2011

InWorldz and other Pioneers..

As Aliz said a while back...."you can tell the pioneers by all the arrows in their backs"... yep.

Well, I guess it does go with the territory but you would expect, or I would at least, that other pioneers weren't the ones with the bows. That's not the case tho....well...it is for the most of us. In total contradiction to a recent troll's opinions we are, as a group I think, very supportive of change, pioneering efforts and innovation. Mostly we are impatient for technology to catch up with what we 'would be able to do' if the hardware and software were better.

So it does come as a bit of a surprise that some people have decided to hold on to their negatively tainted opinions of InWorldz, often with no real basis in reality. I am particularly thinking here of a few people in Builder's Brewery building group who like to slam IWz every time something positive gets said. I have given up trying to say anything rational and just accepted that some people have alternative agendas.

When Hypergrid Business blog last week showed a rather negative tone to their post about the new Phlox script engine that IWz has developed, it was only natural that Maria was challenged on the basic premise of the blog.... namely that if IWz gets too good it will have trouble reuniting with Open Sim in the future if it wants to.... partly true, but partly rubbish.

Anyone who takes a great leap forward [this scripting engine is 100 to 1000 times faster than SL, tho it retains compatibility] is gonna leave the slow people behind. This does potentially alienate him/her from the past.... but that is exactly the point of new technology.

To present this as a negative "they may have painted themselves into a corner" situation is clearly the rubbish part. Maria implies that the future is the Hypergrid, a sentiment I partly agree with, and therefore if IWz isn't as crappy as OS it will make things difficult in the future.

I would have to pose the alternative thought...namely... if IWz can stride ahead on this baby, then future tasks will be resolved just as well. Success breeds success. No point in trying to drag the mass up to your level if you have struck out into the lead, is there?

...and, as you will see from the comments, there are people who have made their thoughts fairly clear.

Jim's Random Rants and Raves gives a very clear overview of the whole debate if you would like to read more on InWorldz and Other Grids.

This is really a major step for IWz and SL is looking more and more jaded for every new step, every new tool that IWz provides.

[I just flew up to 3000 meters without flight feather, where I started a new build, linking phantom and regular prims, anim smooth has repeat textures, ...not sure what else I haven't told you about...oh, yes.... a new IWz viewer....might be time to do another InWorldz vs. Second Life post]

Back in SL this week, myself, for a build for UWA art sim, I would have prefabbed it and linked it all if it had been in IWz, but there I'll have to wait til I get access cos the linking is still the primordial 32m.... I'll be telling you a bit more about it in the coming days...

Have a good day

:)))

11 comments:

  1. Good one Sorror... ;o)
    Poisonous... lol
    Us

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  2. The Big Picture question: is it to be an Open World or a Closed World? Do we build a walled city or do we open the gates? Maria raises the very valid issue of whether InWorldz is making it more difficult to unite with the rest of the Metaverse if they should choose to do so in the future. I personally believe the future will be an open Metaverse with Hypergrid teleports connecting the United Grids. That world will continue to grow and innovate, and will unite later on down the road with other technologies, creating an Omniverse. I appreciate the protective sentiments of those who defend InWorldz from the outside, but there's really no enemy to protect it from.

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  3. Another couple points to be clarified.

    A lot of the argument stems from the assumption that hypergrid will be the only interconnect available for virtual worlds in the future. I am not seeing that as a definite fact. There is the Aurora project, Second Life itself, and probably a few other projects going that might try to do interconnect differently. Hypergrid is not a standard by any means. There is no documentation to follow the protocol itself, no standardization process, and it is in a constant state of flux.

    Secondly, to assume that we can write a script engine, integrate a Physics SDK, but not be able to reintegrate an interconnect in the future is pretty darn silly. If our customers ask for it, and if/when the protocol offers most stability and backwards compatibility so that every version doesn't leave islands of metaverse disconnected, we can of course plug in interconnects. But it really has to be a demand of our customers and worth it to them.

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  4. @Tranq... well exactly my point when I wrote...."I would have to pose the alternative thought...namely... if IWz can stride ahead on this baby, then future tasks will be resolved just as well."

    To assume that this task would be beyond you when you have managed so much already in such a short time is somewhat narrow minded.

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  5. @ Wizzy, I am sure the world will tend towards an open one, but how that will happen remains to be seen. I am confident that IWz will rise to the challenge when the time is right..... but there are still unresolved issues. The enemies are surely those will malicious intent ... copybots and griefers... and the grid owners primary mission currently is to be seen to be protective of their citizens IPR.

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  6. Dang Blogger ate my first comment.

    I guess it depends on what you want in a VW. Educators care less about IP rights and more about being able to jump from project to project with the same avatar.

    That said, content-creators who do that for a living need protection.

    Maria was vague when I asked her when an inter-grid marketplace might emerge. It must be possible to deliver content to me at Jokaydia Grid that cannot leave that grid when my avatar jumps out.

    For some of the reasons cited at Jim's blog, linked grids, hosted by someone like Reaction Grid or hosted locally (as we do with other campus servers) make great sense for higher ed. Given the lack of rewards and incentives for faculty to make content, we'd love to pay folks to make cool things for our projects.

    But for now, we get rewarded for writing about or teaching with virtual worlds. Eventually, if virtual worlds with UGC move beyond their small niche status, the skills to make good stuff will emerge in our student body, and we'll hire them.

    Meanwhile, creative folks could make a lot of money selling goods to us on our grids. It must be technically possible to do so in a way that does not violate IP.

    Perhaps the next generation of hypergates the Pathfinder talked about recently will do a better job of locking IP to one grid.

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  7. Yep, I get constantly frustrated at the number of commercial opportunities the Lab has missed. How difficult can it be to deliver stuff to different grids.

    I'll always make you a tree of two if you need one...:))

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  8. haha poor Iggy; now you know how I feel...

    Jim's post mentioned above is excellent. My question is, wtf is all this "one grid to rule the world, one grid to bind them" approach? It is antithetical to the entire network core structure and principles. It's a constant pushing, and to me it stems from this pinheaded corporate mentality to rule and monetize in quarterly blips. Monocultures are much more susceptible to disease, breaching, catastrophic failure and rot.

    If someone's approach isn't working, the net will decide, as it has in the past. Vote with your mouse. Anyone pushing "our way is the only way!" is a fanatic and a Dark Emissary of Basement Cat (as well as suffering from anemia of imagination).

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  9. I agree with Miso, innovation isn't about moving in lock-step with every other party in the field. Diversity is often analogous with progress, assuming the major players are all smart enough to adopt the 'best practices' as they are pioneered.

    Sure this will fragment the metaverse to a degree, but that's inevitable really. There's never going to be 100% interoperability, not as long as one gird/viewer is better than another, which hopefully will always be the case.

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  10. Excellent post soror! Well im sure hypergrid jumps will be solved. But i suspect via a web interface maybee. If all virtual worlds can be visited via a web interface in the future we dont need traditional hypergrid jumps, maybee (?)

    I dont see Hypergrid jump as important right now. Its easy enough to relogg between grids if you have friends in other grids. I dont see what all the fuzz is about. No big deal for me. The quality of my main home grid is more important than to jump around *lol*

    "you can tell the pioneers by all the arrows in their backs" So very true ;)

    Hugs!

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  11. "one grid to rule them all..."

    So, Miso, I've commenced my ever-decade reread of LOTR (pass number 5!).

    Who on that grid-that-shall-not-be-named is the Lord of Barad-dûr?

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