I'm hoping my university will get me a sim so my students and I can work together on exciting projects without prim worries--it won't have any effect on Saminaka, and I will issue you all an invitation for any interesting things we do in future. It would provide a permanent home for The Middle Passage Experience, and a hoped-for expansion of the Experience as well. Oooooh, the thought of landscaping without prim concerns is very exciting!But my Fall seminar with the students will involve virtual world
s in general, so it seems necessary to explore other ones as well. Interesting scholars on SL are helping me feel my way around these complicated new arenas, and have been telling me about open-sourced sims accessed through Second Life alternative viewers. There are several, and I'm going to take my closest looks at New World Grid, a French construction (http://www.newworldgrid.com/) and OpenSource Grid out of California (http://www.osgrid.org/). Apparently you can move between some of these grids, and there's even a 30 Euro program that will back up your SL inventory, making it accessible (though, for full perm items, not necessarily legal) in these other worlds.
s in general, so it seems necessary to explore other ones as well. Interesting scholars on SL are helping me feel my way around these complicated new arenas, and have been telling me about open-sourced sims accessed through Second Life alternative viewers. There are several, and I'm going to take my closest looks at New World Grid, a French construction (http://www.newworldgrid.com/) and OpenSource Grid out of California (http://www.osgrid.org/). Apparently you can move between some of these grids, and there's even a 30 Euro program that will back up your SL inventory, making it accessible (though, for full perm items, not necessarily legal) in these other worlds.I'm going to report more on this after a tour, but let me give you a little preview. Neither is as professional as SL--New World's registration website had several non-working links, making it a little tricky to get inworld. OS Grid was equally problematic at first--it used the same external viewer as New World, and, not being as savvy as some, even a second download continued to open New World for me, not OS Grid.
Why bother exploring either? They look much like SL, but supposedly have less of an economy--and land ownership can come via the 
astounding number of 45,000 prims per sim! In some cases (no, I don't know the details or which of the grids this applies to), if you have your own server, you have free land--you are your own Lindens, in a way (it takes, according to advisor Khoisan Fisher--interview with him next week and more on these matters--a computer with a 2 gig processor and 1 gig RAM can do the job).
astounding number of 45,000 prims per sim! In some cases (no, I don't know the details or which of the grids this applies to), if you have your own server, you have free land--you are your own Lindens, in a way (it takes, according to advisor Khoisan Fisher--interview with him next week and more on these matters--a computer with a 2 gig processor and 1 gig RAM can do the job).I decided to remain Tamsin Barzane in the New World--I didn't even check to see if I could use my own RL name--a curious psychological displacement, I suppose! The new basic Tamsin was an embarrassment, with her crewcut and herky-jerky walk.
It was strange to get on, pick up some freebies, and feel very much the noob--I didn't know where to d
rop and open them. Why? The search interface directed me to SL spots, but when I clicked them for a tp, they told me those SL locations no longer existed--a glitch, certainly, for one was Saminaka! I haven't explored much yet, but my first map foray let me to Tropical Paradise, where a quarter region granted the owner 2000 prims at 10? a month. That ? is not a typo, but the character that appeared--presumably euros, but I'm not sure.
rop and open them. Why? The search interface directed me to SL spots, but when I clicked them for a tp, they told me those SL locations no longer existed--a glitch, certainly, for one was Saminaka! I haven't explored much yet, but my first map foray let me to Tropical Paradise, where a quarter region granted the owner 2000 prims at 10? a month. That ? is not a typo, but the character that appeared--presumably euros, but I'm not sure.There is a virtual Venice, because I saw it
in this Flickr photo by Olish Newman (Newman is this world's surname counterpart of the Lindens, the world's administrators).
in this Flickr photo by Olish Newman (Newman is this world's surname counterpart of the Lindens, the world's administrators).Both NWG and OSG are considerably smaller than SL, which limits social interactions--at least so far. But if you have a school or some other project, it might be just perfect. Both call for over-18 year old participation, and low numbers: New World has only 3623 users, and 228 regions--just over 500 are on right now. Its blog began February 2008, when this opensourced world went online. It will be interesting to see how it differs from SL--I was interested to see that several persons of color were among the default avatars (though no Asians seem to be defaults, here or in SL--odd indeed).
Khoisan tells me the OS Grid has about 2500 regions, but neither comes close to SL's over a million users, alts or not.New World seems to survive on charity; UPLOADS ARE ALL FREE! For creators, this is enticing, but SL is also about appreciating the work of others, and their personalities. I haven't run into anyone on New World yet--though my first weeks on SL were much like that, too! I look forward to tours from Khoisan, and if any of you have used these or any of the other grids, please let me know your observations and thoughts.
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