[Opensim-dev] An Open Letter to Open Source and OpenSim Communities

[Kyle "G"]

Well said Ryan I look forward to hearing more from the REX team in 2009!
Kyle G
www.reactiongrid.com 

-----Original Message-----
From: opensim-dev-bounces at lists.berlios.de
[mailto:opensim-dev-bounces at lists.berlios.de] On Behalf Of Ryan McDougall
Sent: Wednesday, December 10, 2008 6:14 AM
To: opensim-dev at lists.berlios.de
Subject: [Opensim-dev] An Open Letter to Open Source and OpenSim Communities

Recently there has been much discussion in OpenSim, other Open Source
communities, and within realXtend itself. As a result of changes
within realXtend, there is some new direction and focus. I would like
to clear up any misconceptions and help set the stage for future
cooperation.

The biggest change is that reX has asked added a technical architect,
Ryan McDougall, to help shore up its long range planning, and improve
community relations. The result has been an ongoing process of
planning for 2009 that pre-prioritized community involvement, and a
commitment to strategic goals, including a from-scratch BSD-derived
viewer.

This means that our interactions with you will now be different. It
will be open and clear and everything you expect from a member of the
community in good standing.

Let me also explain a bit more about realXtend past history and future
strategy.

When RealXtend first began, it was with an idea about merging what was
real and what was virtual, in order to create tools and experiences
that affected peoples lives positively. Open Source was a core
principle in the project, because RealXtend was intended to become a
defacto standard for the coming revolution in how we interact with
world -- both real and electronic.

Many technology-bases were evaluated, and it was felt that a
combination of OpenSim and the Second Life(tm) viewer were the best in
class. Because there was much to learn and discover, the first couple
prototypes were made away from the respective communities. When
RealXtend decided on continuing evaluation of OpenSim and Second Life,
attempts were made to join both communities. Some of those attempts
were awkward or rebuffed, and without the experience of how to be a
member of an open community in good standing, it was decided it would
be more efficient to continue prototyping separately.

Now RealXtend finds itself at a cross-roads. Our prototypes have been
wildly successful in many ways -- except the ways that matter to
paying end-users. We find that it is becoming more and more difficult
as time goes on to maintain forked software and keep pace with
duplicated efforts in OpenSim. To remedy this fork, we have engaged
Deepthink to modify OpenSim to accept a port of RealXtend, and to make
most of the port itself.

The client side of the equation, however, remains more problematic.
While it is Open Source in name, it is not in practise, and our
changes will never make it back into the upstream repository. In order
to disengage ourselves from the wake of the private entity who
controls the repository, and make the sort of important, innovative
changes that we think are necessary, we have concluded that we must
have a truly open sourced client viewer that we have some ability to
participate in.

We do not make this decision lightly, knowing how much work and money
that doing so represents. We take on this challenge because we know
someone must, and with the hope that with the help of many community
and corporate partners, we can together, make this a reality, and open
a new chapter in our industry.

We will begin this new process in January and continuing until
February of 2009, with a feasibility study. That process will conclude
with a proposed road-map as a result, what will be able to take us
through 2009 and beyond. The process will begin internally with
RealXtend, in order to solidify a unifying core set of principles, but
very soon move outward to include a call for proposals and comments
from all of you. With a clear road-map and a successful consultation
process, we are confident that we will birth an cross platform Open
Source community that will be at the forefront of the 3D Virtual World
revolution.

We invite you to give your feedback by visiting the RealXtend website,
trying out our software out, signing up for our mailing lists, or
joining us on IRC.

Sincerely,
Ryan McDougall
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