Linden Labs just announced that the client for their Second Life virtual world is now open source under GPL v2. The SL blog entry says, in part:
Stepping up the development of the Second Life Grid to everyone interested, I am proud to announce the availability of the Second Life client source code for you to download, inspect, compile, modify, and use within the guidelines of the GNU GPL version 2.
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At Linden, we have always been strong advocates of the use of open standards and the advantages of using open source products. Though Second Life makes abundant use of non-standard technologies, our basic UDP protocol message system for example, we rely on open standards and open source implementations when appropriate and available. Since many of the components that will make up this network are not yet done, we are not publishing long white papers or RFCs at this time � instead, we are giving everyone what we have along with a goal of producing those open standards with the input and assistance of the community that has brought Second Life to where it is now.
Bravo, folks, this is an excellent move.
Ah, I was just about to comment on your blog about this, but it seems you’ve already found out!
You linked to a blog post by Chris Pietschmann who mentioned the possibility that an Open Source virtual world like Second Life could become a new 3D web.
I’ve started a wiki page on this topic. If you’re interested in contributing some thoughts you can log in with
username: iwontspam
password: ipromise
I’d value your input!
P.S. I can’t remember if I linked to the wiki page or not http://hippygeek.co.uk/wiki/3D_Web
If I did, disregard this comment.