Open Architecture and the Rest of Us

TONIGHT
6:00 PM SLT
Sutherland Dam

Did you see the Lindens' post about their concept of open architecture, and the small group discussion they had with programmers?

http://blog.secondlife.com/2007/09/19/slgarchwg1/

Well, this is not just a technical matter but involves eventual changes to the world as we know it that will have a profound impact on many people, especially those in business on the grid.

While saying this project is just about the technical architecture, they are discussing -- and therefore making decisions about economic, political, and social matters -- and many people are not even aware they're up to this. Here are some of the topics already laid out in the wiki:

http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Brainstorming

o currency -- whether to close the LindEx and end the micropayment system in favour of Paypal or currencies hosts will devise
o land -- how/whether it devalues in a host-your-own environment
o regions -- deciding whether to allow in agents based on age, RL identity, financial
o hook-ups -- will everybody pay to hook up to SL Central? How much? Or will many not bother and want to hook up only to each other?
o content -- the harsh reality is that Open Architecture is Copybot, Institutionalized, and everything that is seen in the viewer as it is open-sourced is available to any licensed user.

Right now, the discussion is a lot like having the anarchists decide what to do about globalization. It's time to get started some kind of process that is like world economic forum that tries to understand the impact of these changes and proposes ways to prevent, mitigate, or adapt to them reasonably, without the extreme solutions often provided by tekkies that they then present as fait accomplis.

All welcome, but griefers summarily ejected.