[Opensim-dev] social network software

[Stefan Andersson]

Diva,
 
at this moment in time, we've integrated OpenSim with Facebook, DotNetNuke (.net community framework) as well as with proprietary intranets and communities - basically by substituting, subclassing and rewriting the OpenSim services, fetching and mapping various amounts of community data.
 
(Most often the user and login services, but also scene and grid services for community-based on-demand content creation and allocation)
 
Our experience is that OpenSim is encouragingly malleable, but also not surprisingly, that things could be made even better.
 
* Services could be defined in a common shared set of interfaces and abstract classes that can be reused and implemented by non-opensim code - this to enumerate for the application programmer what needs implemented.
* the functionality of the http handlers could be extracted out into this common set so that they too can be re-used or subclassed.
* the sl legacy 'avatar first and last as user id' and the userId-Guid-centrism are two real issues. So far we (Tribal) have been able to get around these by implementing seamless logins (the user does not log in with avatar first and last, but thru supplying userId direct thru url monikers or launcher apps) and various guid mapping schemes, but it sure could have been easier if opensim supported a separate userid concept, and that it was object oriented.
* akin to the userId situation, most mature solutions have a 'Session' concept that is not really reflected in OpenSim - we do have a sessionId but one really would want to be able to subclass that to send application-specific data with the session, and this session to be a part of all backend transactions.
 
I'm not sure what feedback you were really looking for, but this was a quick write-up of things we've encountered so far. ;-)
Best regards,Stefan AnderssonTribal Media AB Join the 3d web revolution : http://tribalnet.se/ 



> Date: Sun, 5 Oct 2008 11:29:27 -0700> From: diva at metaverseink.com> To: opensim-dev at lists.berlios.de> Subject: [Opensim-dev] social network software> > Hi,> > Is anyone experimenting with combining social network software (e.g. > http://elgg.org/) and opensim, as an alternative to the built-in social > features of SL? Is there any fundamental incompatibility in doing that? > (I'm thinking the user base being part of opensim may be a problematic > overlap; or maybe not. I'm also thinking elgg's GPL2 license may be > problematic; or maybe not) If there are no fundamental problems, could > that be used as the basis for access control etc.?> > The idea would be to have all this user/social management as a separate > component, possibly running on a separate server, and write only the > code for accessing the social network server over the web whenever > necessary. The interface for people to manage their info (friends, > groups, etc) would have to be via web browser, instead of LL viewer.> > Any thoughts?> > Crista> > _______________________________________________> Opensim-dev mailing list> Opensim-dev at lists.berlios.de> https://lists.berlios.de/mailman/listinfo/opensim-dev
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