[Opensim-dev] Micropayment

[Aldon Hynes]

Ezekiel, Sean,

   I do hope I'm not being dismissed as a 'marketing guy'.  I've been trying
to keep the discussion of how finances are handled in OpenSim on a technical
level.  I initially brought it up in terms of how we handle authentication
as a response to a suggestion of dealing with anonymous users.  As we looked
more closely at it, I tried to focus particularly on how money is handle in
scripts since that seems to be the real key do commerce in Second Life and
hence is likely to be key in OpenSim as well.

   When I connect to my OpenSim grid, I see that I have 1000 dollars.  I've
looked at the database schema, and I don't see where that is stored.  It
would seem as if it ought to be in the users table.  However, I don't know
enough about the entity relationships to know if it would be better off in
one of the other folders.  In addition, I'm not well enough acquainted with
the code, or the data abstraction layer at this point, to have a good view
of how to approach modifying the schema.

   I also scanned through the code, but I couldn't find the section of code
where the number of dollars that a user has is communicated back and forth
between the server to the client.

   All of that said, I think Ezekiel is right.  I've worked on too many
projects in the past were an important part of functionality is not
considered early on and it becomes a mess trying to shoehorn that
functionality in later.  In my mind, the currency component is one of those
pieces of functionality I would hate to see shoehorned in at the last
minute.

   So, I do hope that we maintain a good threat about the currency and not
simply dismiss it because of potential non-technical issues.

Aldon
  -----Original Message-----
  From: opensim-dev-bounces at lists.berlios.de
[mailto:opensim-dev-bounces at lists.berlios.de]On Behalf Of
ezekiel at daelindor.com
  Sent: Wednesday, November 14, 2007 5:03 AM
  To: opensim-dev at lists.berlios.de
  Subject: Re: [Opensim-dev] Micropayment


  Sean,

  you are absolutely right. The technical discussion should not be drowned
by enhancement requests from the 'marketing guys'.

  However, while you dev guys are working hard to get the core up to speed,
someone must plan ahead to add the features that make this whole venture a
success.

  If we discuss the money and usability stuff in a separate thread, how do
we make sure that we get heard and you don't end up with an excellent
implementation of an SL clone - minus the hipe ?

  Ezekiel


  >I think that in world Money is one of those places where the OpenSim
  >grid runners are going to need to provide code appropriate to their
  >situation.  Running a sim with no money is easy.  Money opens up all
  >sorts of other non technical issues: privacy laws, taxes, refunds, etc.

  >It would be nice to avoid drowning out the technical conversation on
  >list with lots of money pontificating.

  >That being said, patches are always welcomed. :)

  >Sean Dague
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