Proposition 105 - The Matrix. It's not the rubbish you think.
From: Blueman Steele
"Heres a Revolutionary Idea. You wanna make SL into the Matrix? Then then distribute the server and allow people to host their own sims on a linux box like as if it was a counter-strike server or something.
I think you may be being put off this one by the way it is written.
At the heart of this is the idea of the metaverse. Not a good presentation or description, but that is what it is.
Not that long ago people who suggested letting any Tom , Dick or Harry put a page on the web got the same sort of response.
Ten, twenty years down the line, this is where SL must go, or it will be left behind on a limb.
Via an open source standard, anyone will be able to host a dynamic 3-d space, with content. Like a webpage, it will be accessible via a portal or doorway (or by teleport) from any other space that cares to provide such a link to it. It will similarly link to other spaces and old-fashioned webpages. There will be windows and walk-thru doors into other people's servers, located (like web servers) anywhere in the real world.
New ways of using the extra dimension, and sometimes the avatar, to present and organise information will have been designed.
Computer operating systems will use this same metaphor, replacing/supplementing the "windows and icons" metaphor which was once similarly startling and controversial.
But this metaphor, like ours here, will smoothly incorporate every aspect of commerce, buying and selling will be easy. IP rights will be more of a problem with open source, but I expect that sophisticated encryption will provide a solution.
All this I predict.
Whats more I predict that this is the way the Lindens and their investors are thinking too, long term. They are trying to get a head start before the opensource standards get solidified, and everyone else starts joining in. They (and we) are pioneers, feeling the way. That's one reason they avoid heavy policing. You mustn't start something you can never carry through. That would be inappropriate or impossible in the Open Metaverse to come.
Thats where Proposition 105 leads, though it might not look like it. Its too far ahead to bother voting for it yet. Unless you just wanna show the Lindens you believe in it too.
I voted for it, as a gesture.
Can't you feel the energy? The excitement?
You're not just playing a game - you're building the future!
