I just watched a video feed of a conference from Gametech in Orlando via Metanomics in SL.
One of the issues that came up about VRs and their application to the military was regarding price. As in how to make it all less expensive. Particularly in regards to content portability. There was a great concern that they (as in military companies and providers) couldn't take their toys to all ports hither and thither. That they were stuck on proprietary platforms. All of this kind of talk reminded me of a comment once made by Prokofy Neva. That little Second Life was at the epicenter of enormous interest by various parties and it was trying all it could to remain autonomous. That this was most likely one of the main reasons why the company culture was so insular.
This led me to look upon the whole issue of various groups fighting over content, control and platform direction as a battle over a very successful proof of concept venture. Second Life is not a commercial platform. It is an experimental proof of concept to the world that a non-game virtual environment can be done. How well is open to personal opinion. The company is not public it is still under the domain of private capital. As such, it is at the mercy of the various whims and ideologies of it's investors. The investors still look at Second Life as an experimental prototype with it's direction still open to change.
The monkey wrench in all the works are the regular users. As far as we are concerned Second Life is done. We erroneously thought that becoming a social entertainment VR was what Second Life was all about. However all the jabs that Linden Lab made at becoming entertainment have been half hearted. But once again they are trying to give themselves direction as entertainment and as a result hired Rod Humble (an exec with experience in the gaming industry) as the new CEO. Truly everything hinges on whether or not Rod Humble is successful in turning SL into some kind of attraction like a regular mmorpg game. Because if he isn't, I believe Second Life as we know it today will cease to exist.
The military and it's satellite company providers are now very large investors in the Second Life prototype. Recently they purchased the Enterprise platform subdivision of SL. And it is truly no surprise why. Second Life is a reliable and working platform. There would be no need for the US Military to commission it's providers to program a working alternative. Of course since they did spend a lot of money for this variation of the platform, they are looking to cut corners off in other areas. They want their purchase to come with benefits. Benefits such as getting rid of proprietary content restrictions. Its all under that cynical notion that content should be free to move. But what it means is that the military doesn't believe in Second Life as a stand alone company with proprietary rights to it's IP. Now why would they have that opinion?
I think about the track record of the various big names of LL, including Philip Linden, and all of them support the notion that the platform of SL should be like some kind of utility. That it should be a jump off point for some kind of mega grid with free highways to move information. This led me to a deeper understanding why these people hated the notion of land arbitrage and shopkeeper economy in SL. These money making elements depend on proprietary systems. They depend on lawful restrictions to protect property of the guinea pigs who thought Second Life was about them. Meanwhile, we guinea pigs in SL were just an example that the grid was workable. An example to various interested parties that many would do high grade graphic work and accept chump change for payment.
Many of the VC bigwigs of Second Life don't really care if Second Life becomes a big entertainment platform. They just wanted to create a "Snowcrash" world and go down in the history books as the first founders of this mega grid. They already made their billions, so SL's success as a stand alone company wasn't of utmost priority. Now that the military is sniffing around, the same entity that funded and launched the internet itself, this group is getting excited. I have a fear that they will happily throw Second Life users out the window, requisitioning our content to placate the Military complex. Especially if it means it will launch the Snowcrash.
