OpenSim = $, and LL

I haven't had time to dabble much with OpenSim. But I have some thoughts about how it may evolve, and I'd like to get a reality check from those who know more than I do.

Opensim's platform is still under development. When they judge it's mature enough, developers like Adam Frisby (Zaius), who has been active in software development there, will be well positioned to become land barons. Azure revisited, deja vu all over again! I hear a group of medieval sim owners are also making a home using Opensim.

Here's where my theory starts: They will put together large continents, probably themed, and advertise them, just like estate owners advertise here, hoping to attract communities of residents. This time though, since they own the servers, the profit model will be closer to LL's than to an SL estate owner. So they have less need for massive scalability, because an OpenSim land baron can have much more modest revenue goals than LL (being a set of, say, 5 people instead of over 300 plus VCs needing payoff). So it need not be not a venture-backed or even bank-backed business, though an ambitious Opensim baron may be backed by a small set of private investors, to keep his initial unpopulated server farm up for a year. I think Opensim barons could make a PILE of money with orders of magnitude fewer total users than SL, if they learn how to run a cloud of servers efficiently and reliably, and aren't TOO greedy.

Providing a grid with user-created content which is robust with 3,000 concurrent users is much easier than providing one which is robust with 100,000 concurrent users.

Opensim barons also will be well-positioned to build private continents for businesses who are interested in collaboration in 3D -- possibly as subcontractors to IBM, for instance, possibly on their own.

Should LL be worried about the competition? I don't think so. There is nothing to stop LL from using the OpenSim platform themselves for small private grids. There is nothing to stop them from buying out an OpenSim land baron. In that scenario, content portability between SL and OpenSim servers would be a plus. If I were at LL, I'd be following it closely and even helping now and then.

Does this whole OpenSim land baron theory sound feasible, or do you see a reason why it's nonsense?
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no business model, inworld. (for opensim regions)

Currency is a hot debate between users vs developers, and developers vs developers, on HOW or even ARE we going to put it in the opensim (feature support).

And as it seems now, their won't be official currency support in the Opensim software.
There are two currency modules made, but that was long time ago (begin stages of opensim), and is by no means stable and supported. (The module developers themselves say clearly: DO NOT USE THIS IN A PRODUCTION ENVIRONMENT, IT ONLY FOR TESTING/SHOWCASING)

So, the only way to gain money with opensim software, is renting regions out (though outworld payments, like paypal) just like webhosters do, for webspace.
But inworld renting/buying won't be possible (at least not for the coming 2 years).

Besides, OpenSIm is still Alpha code, thus not stable and feature rich enough for a real productive environment (large scale).

Many things are missing, or incomplete, for an enterprise usage.
And personally, i think the development team is a mess, nowadays. Not clearly structured, or scheduled etc.. It used to be, but nowadays it's chaos, project wise.

Also the site is a complete unclear/outdated/inconsistent pile of information. (which is hard to navigate through)

but that aside...

currency in Opensim will be a NO NO. (for at least two years, cos the, mainly, developers don;t want it, while many users/potential users/guests want it added. hence the mentioned hot debates/flamethrowing around the subject)

LL will welcome the competition and if any of those other worlds get professional enough LL will invite them to have access to SL.

I've looked into the possibility of "my own grid" a while back... more than once, actually. I didn't do it, mainly over feasibility concerns. I could list all the reasons but needless to say it would be a big rambling post that would state the obvious (I think).

Regarding hookup to the main grid, I discussed that at VP level with Linden Research once, and they were actively considering it. But as they recognised the value in the connexion, the question was: how much should such a thing cost?

Realise that linking one's private region to the main grid is a great "sidestep" to paying region tier of 295/month.

Well, that's all very interesting. I wasn't aware that any sort of even informal decision had been made to avoid currency. So, altho Opensim land barony could exist, the commerce would all have to be via associated websites, not inworld. And renting of sim subparcels would require inworld code that doesn't exist. Definitely makes barony more awkward.

Thanks for the info!

We discussed it a while ago at Robin's office hour, so it was a while back and I suggested hookup should be close to tier costs for a full region, which went down like a lead balloon but I still think that's in the right ball park.