Thanks JWP. I think the ‘cross-pollination’ will help all involved.
I’ve reread the thread feeling a little lost as to where we are and are going in the thread. One of the early posts asks where we put the sections for these interests, under what project. I’l kick in the umbrella name Hyper and Other Grid Projects.
Another item came up, ‘shards’. For the way the Uru community thinks of shards I would say SL is shard, Blue Mars is a shard, OSGrid is a shard. I think the defining criteria for a shard is ID and password. The criteria is going to get fuzzy as the grids interconnect. So, the Hypergrid is headed toward a super shard.
Other main points in the thread are financing, free Uru, a profit center for creative work and Cyan IP. I think addressing the financing is important. We keep losing Myst-Uru builds because of financing. Looking at real data I cannot be optimistic about nearing the bottom of the recession. Anything without wide popular support and low cost is not likely to survive.
We have those who view their Uru work as play and a hobby and do not want to engage in for money (pay expenses) or profit (make money) effort. We need to frame the finances in such a way that it is clear all financial paths are open. I think mentioning JWP’s desire for a free Uru be part of each sections preamble in the financial sections.
Within those financial sections I think it is important to provide a path for those that want to create for profit. The demand for 3D models will likely increase as the OS and SL grids open to the use of mesh models. Showing how modelers can cash in on their work seems reasonable.
The Cyan IP continues to be an issue and we have no clear word from Cyan on how that is going to come down. I do not have a FCAL. I have heard that it addresses the issue of where Cyan textures can be used and it says something along the line of only in a Plasma environment. If that is true, it is probably that will be repeated in open source. That would exclude all software resources (mesh, textures, etc.) and story components (place and character names) from use on the Hypergrid. That brings up the question of how tenuous the relationship to Uru can be. Does Myst Style work and how do we define that?
I’ve revised the sections:
Hyper and Other Grid Projects Project
* Myst-Uru close to Cyan story Section
* * Client/Player (Plasma) Subsection
* * Server Operators (Plasma & Alcugs)
* Myst Style - distant story related or style only related
* * Client/Player – may not be Plasma/Alcugs related. SL/OS/BM
* * Server Operators - SL/OS/BM
* Modeling – This is going to become more related to SL, OS, BM and MOOU as meshes come to SL & OS grids. So rather than repeat it in section, have a single section.
* * In-World Building – Terrain, buildings, furniture, avatar attachments, etc.
* * Out-World Building – Blender, Maya, 3DMax – meshes, sculpties, server base terrain
* Story and Role Play Discussion - Generalized Rules and Methods
* Financial Resources for Grids – this can cover both non-profit and for-profit efforts.
* Grid Hosting – for developing the services here? Reviewing services we are using.
* * OpenUru.net Hosting Services
* * Other Hosting Services
* * Hosting at Home
I see this as a possible structure for the mechanics of making ages/regions. Individual projects such as Devokan would have a section in the Hypergrid project. This seems overly complex so... if someone has a better plan...
I think the OS and SL grids will continue to evolve. IBM and several other companies and universities have and investment in it. Hosting sims is probably the next big Internet product for many hosting companies. I think competition will increase and prices will drop.
If hosting OS grid sims becomes ubiquitous getting hosting for a MOOU server may prove more costly. I suspect many may look at the OS grid alternative. However that works out I anticipate a group moving to OS grid hosts and another focusing on the MOOU or Plasma servers. Excluding home servers, I expect the cost and complexity of the Plasma servers to be more.
The complexity of a Plasma setup will likely provide a niche market that OU can fill. Some may want to help develop that service and profit from it. I think this is the direction JWP is thinking…
It may
only be the Plasma based servers that can use the Cyan content and story references from MOUL. Until we have the licenses, we won’t know but I wouldn’t be surprised by such a limitation. That could influence many to go the Plasma server route and provide a demand that OU can supply.
The
“How to ….” sections for OS/SL grid general building probably do not need to be repeated here. Those sections can be filled with links to existing material. If Uru fans decide to make original tutorials, having them here would be nice. Good tutorials on popular subjects can pull people from all VW’s and also expose them to Myst-Uru.
Dot’s idea of building on what we have is practical. She is still working out a base in SL. But as more ages/regions are added a Nexus will eventually be needed in each grid. For special events home sims could be connected to the Hypergrid. I’m considering how I might do that with my COX connection and router. Now that I am using dynamic IP at home (cheaper) I probably have a more typical connection. Working that out and posting the how to should help others.
Whether one runs a MOOU or OS grid from home the connection setup will be similar. So, some sections will have overlap. I thought of trying to have separate sections but to do this for more than few seems overly complex.
The inter grid connections are of interest beyond the Uru community. IBM, SL, and others are into that and working it out. However, one of the interesting things done in Land of NoR is their main gaming continent. It grew from one sim to 28. (now 13) Currently all 13 sims are side by side. Not all the sims are owned by the same individual (I think). I am assuming something similar is possible in OSGrid. We should probably consider how that might work if someone wanted to be near Devokan. How one goes about getting that to happen and what permissions are needed needs to be worked out. Or decide if that is even desirable. Even with building restrictions NoR has some of the chaotic feel of main land SL.
Whatever, I would like to get some of the sections set up on OU. If the root sections are setup on the wiki we can start working with them as we have time.
On publicity… I do SEO work. So, I am always building links for my blog and Myst-Uru sites. It can take some time but I can usually move a target to top 10. So, much of how we plan to publish information starts now and each post with a link adds to tiny bit to the position. The text used in the link is important. So as we get sections of the forum set we can start building position. The trick is to anticipate what people will search on and use those terms for appropriate subjects. So, searching on
Emerald Viewer Review brings up my blog article. This link is another little plug for it.
Central Portal Area… This might be a coveted resource. I think it is needed. Some in-world directory (Nexus) will be needed. Sim owners will need to understand how to label their sims so they can be found with in-world search so new people can find us.
). Being able to work on adjacent regions meant that we could look at sightlines from one area to the other, and thereby improve the views. It took us just over a month to build the two areas developed so far, mostly from scratch (it helps that Paislee has school holidays). 
