Future developments
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The term "Metaverse" was coined by the writer, Neal Stephenson, in his sci-fi classic "[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snow_Crash Snow Crash]" - a book that inspired a generation of developers to create 3D virtual environments. Second Life is only one such environment, there are many [http://editthis.info/sl_wiki/Alternatives_to_Second_Life alternatives] already, and more to comre. | The term "Metaverse" was coined by the writer, Neal Stephenson, in his sci-fi classic "[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snow_Crash Snow Crash]" - a book that inspired a generation of developers to create 3D virtual environments. Second Life is only one such environment, there are many [http://editthis.info/sl_wiki/Alternatives_to_Second_Life alternatives] already, and more to comre. | ||
| - | The development of the Second Life toolset has been restricted by the size of Linden Labs. At the end of 2006 they employed a little over 100 people in total, and the development team would represent only a fraction of that number. The possibility of taking the Second Life software to Open Source had been the subject of much conjecture in 2006. Finally, on 8th January, 2007, Linden Labs made the client source code (called "the viewer") available under [http://secondlife.com/developers/opensource/gplv2 GNU General Public License v2.0] | + | The development of the Second Life toolset has been restricted by the size of Linden Labs. At the end of 2006 they employed a little over 100 people in total, and the development team would represent only a fraction of that number. The possibility of taking the Second Life software to Open Source had been the subject of much conjecture in 2006. Finally, on 8th January, 2007, Linden Labs made the client source code (called "the viewer") available under [http://secondlife.com/developers/opensource/gplv2 GNU General Public License v2.0]. Linden have provided extensive supporting documentation in the form of an [https://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Open_Source_Portal Open Source Portal]. Within 24 hours of its release the code had been downloaded over 1700 times. Latest figures are not available. |
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| + | Why is this significant? Aside from getting a faster turnround on bug fixes and tweaks, it opens up a host of opportunities for integration with other internet tools (browsers, IM, chat, web services), and hence integration between the 3D Metaverse and the 2D internet. | ||
[[Category: Metaverses]] | [[Category: Metaverses]] | ||
[[Category: Second Life]] | [[Category: Second Life]] | ||
Revision as of 13:46, 14 January 2007
The term "Metaverse" was coined by the writer, Neal Stephenson, in his sci-fi classic "Snow Crash" - a book that inspired a generation of developers to create 3D virtual environments. Second Life is only one such environment, there are many alternatives already, and more to comre.
The development of the Second Life toolset has been restricted by the size of Linden Labs. At the end of 2006 they employed a little over 100 people in total, and the development team would represent only a fraction of that number. The possibility of taking the Second Life software to Open Source had been the subject of much conjecture in 2006. Finally, on 8th January, 2007, Linden Labs made the client source code (called "the viewer") available under GNU General Public License v2.0. Linden have provided extensive supporting documentation in the form of an Open Source Portal. Within 24 hours of its release the code had been downloaded over 1700 times. Latest figures are not available.
Why is this significant? Aside from getting a faster turnround on bug fixes and tweaks, it opens up a host of opportunities for integration with other internet tools (browsers, IM, chat, web services), and hence integration between the 3D Metaverse and the 2D internet.
