[Opensim-dev] OpenSim - What's Taking so long

Thu Jul 8 21:43:21 UTC 2010

Hi,

generally, there are two ways to go about advancing development of a
project. One can do it as a closed, or as an open project.

With an open project, this is rather easy. You simply compensate a
developer for their time to develop certain features of the program
and publish the source code under the project's license.

At that point, I would see no issue with using the name
OpenSimulator as a name to describe the project, provided it is not
used to appear to endorse a business venture or another product or
service.

With closed source, the use of the name should be limited to "based
on OpenSimulator" when describing the product. Further or more
extended use of the name would be frowned upon.

Developers here, myself included, have taken payment to provide
OpenSource code to the community. I am sure that you will find
receptive ears when asking for certain features and offering
compensation. I, myself, am not adverse to this.

Regards,

Melanie

Drew Hart wrote:
> I will contact you offlist Wordfromthe Wise.  And what was said makes
> sense.  I guess my only concern, and I am serious about doing some serious
> fundraising, is the use of the name Open Simulator.  I guess if I raised
> money and laid out my position, that I am an independent third party
> interested in hiring coders to contribute to OpenSim, that should make using
> the name okay (people would know I am not officially conected)?  Also, we
> would need some independent "observer/accountant" to make sure everything is
> cool and the money spent wisely, but I know several that would volunteer
> their time to do that (attorneys/accountants).  So if anyone else wants to
> work on fundraising, etc., contact me at drewehart at gmail.com.  Or if anyone
> has other ideas on how non-programmers can help the code move along, I am
> open to anything.  Even if some of the experts want to hold some training
> sessions so we can learn coding - though I am not sure if that is
> practicable.  Thanks,
> 
> On Thu, Jul 8, 2010 at 1:02 PM, Michael Cerquoni <nebadon2025 at gmail.com>wrote:
> 
>> One of the problems with OpenSimulator project doing this, is it is not an
>> established company.  There is no central office or managers for this
>> project.  That aside if you wanted to try to raise funds to hire programmers
>> who will submit their code you could certainly do that, you do not need
>> OpenSimulator project to do this for you.  You could also ask some of the
>> OpenSim developers directly if they are interested in working for bounty if
>> you can raise the funds.  Another problem right now is most of the
>> developers are way to busy to organize fund raising events, and from my
>> experience Money doesnt always solve problems, and can tend to complicate
>> things to the point they never actually get done, because once the funds run
>> out work just flat out stops and is very difficult to get going again.   One
>> thing you do not mention is what you would like to see finished or what you
>> feel is missing or incomplete.  OpenSimulator is a very open ended project
>> and will likely always be morphing and changing, there will likely never be
>> an end to its development, unlike a facebook website which has very limited
>> purpose to its goals.  I am going to assume you mean Second Life
>> compatibility, this is really just a small piece of opensimulator and I will
>> think that you will find that most of the people directly involved in
>> OpenSimulator are not that interested in recreating second life, there are
>> many avenues being pursued right now that look nothing like Second Life, one
>> of the major factors really holding this project back is the lack of a
>> Open-Source viewer that the OpenSimulator developers can work on that is in
>> a usable state, the Second Life viewer source code is off limits to
>> OpenSimulator developers and because of this making OpenSimulator be second
>> life compatible is not always easy or even possible at all in some cases.  I
>> think once we see viewers like Realxtend Naali and others become more usable
>> you will see OpenSimulator move even further from trying to be a second life
>> clone.  But these are just some of the reasons that I see OpenSimulator is
>> taking as long as it has, and it will likely continue to take just as long
>> no matter how much money you throw at it, but like i said, anyone who has
>> the desire can raise funds and hire developers to get involved and
>> contribute the code to this project, so please do not wait for the
>> OpenSimulator developers to do this for you, as some of the developers that
>> work for Intel Corp and IBM Corp, and others like Melanie and Justin have
>> been paid to develop and create patches as well as for profit grids like
>> Reaction Grid, so its not like this is really something that is not
>> currently happening.  Hope this helps to explain atleast a little of why
>> things are the way they are.
>>
>>   On Thu, Jul 8, 2010 at 7:38 AM, Drew Hart <drewehart at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>>   Okay, that was my catchy title that in no way means any disrespect.  I
>>> love OpenSim, have used it for years, tell everyone I meet about it and am a
>>> huge fan and supporter.  Recently a question was asked about a roadmap and
>>> progress.  I would like to expand on that.  OpenSim has now been around for
>>> a while - like years.  Yet I can't really use it for clients.  So here is my
>>> question.  As a non-coder, how can others help.  For example, I would gladly
>>> donate some decent money if there were a coordinated fundraising event and a
>>> plan to hire a couple of full-time, very qualified developers to really move
>>> this along.
>>>
>>> Please, please, please don't take this the wrong way.  This is NOT a
>>> criticism.  I know this is done by volunteers and I know that this is more
>>> ambitious than Second Life, but have we looked at other solutions to move
>>> the process along.  I think there are a lot of people like me who would
>>> contribute.  But, and I stress this.  Me donating say $1,000 by myself isn't
>>> going to do anything.  We would need a serious fundraising drive, and
>>> specific and talented people that we could hire full-time as
>>> consultants/coders to really move this along.
>>>
>>> I would imagine I am not the first to suggest this.  But every day I see
>>> this awesome product I want to use, yet it seems months or years away from
>>> stable wide-spread use.
>>>
>>> There are now several web sites that help in fundraising.  I am sure many
>>> of you read about the NYU students that raised several hundred thousand
>>> dollars in a short time so they could spend their summer coding a Facebook
>>> clone (sort of).  Now if 4 undergrads can get that kind of money for a
>>> Facebook clone, why hasn't OpenSim tried something similar.  These
>>> fundraising sites are hot right now - let's take advantage of them!
>>>
>>> Please read:
>>>
>>> http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/12/nyregion/12about.html
>>>
>>> The article was written before they raised much more money.
>>> <http://community.nytimes.com/comments/www.nytimes.com/2010/05/12/nyregion/12about.html?scp=3&sq=nyu%20programmers&st=cse>
>>>
>>>
>>> Drew
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> Opensim-dev mailing list
>>> Opensim-dev at lists.berlios.de
>>> https://lists.berlios.de/mailman/listinfo/opensim-dev
>>>
>>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> Michael Emory Cerquoni - Nebadon Izumi @ http://osgrid.org
>>
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>>
>>
> 
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