<html><head><style type="text/css"><!-- DIV {margin:0px;} --></style></head><body><div style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:12pt"><div style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">I feel pretty good at all that Diva and others have done. It appears that a lot of thought has gone into enough configuration to allow the different use cases. So, I would like to encourage this work and commend Diva, KMeisthax and others.<br><br>Charles<br><br><div style="font-family: times new roman,new york,times,serif; font-size: 12pt;">----- Original Message ----<br>From: Diva Canto <diva@metaverseink.com><br>To: opensim-dev@lists.berlios.de<br>Cc: William Cook <wcook@cs.utexas.edu><br>Sent: Thursday, April 3, 2008 6:22:53 PM<br>Subject: [Opensim-dev] OpenSim search<br><br>
Dear
opensim-devs,<br><br>kmeisthax
(David
Wendt)
and
I
have
been
working
on
supporting
search
for <br>OpenSims.
It
is
my
pleasure
to
announce
that
we
have
the
very
first <br>implementation
working!
Very
extremely
alpha...<br>Initial
deployment
has
been
done
in
a
few
regions
in
OSGrid,
with
the <br>time
and
generosity
of
my
close
collaborators
here
at
UCI,
Sean <br>Hennessee
and
John
Ward,
and,
of
course,
Charles
Krinke
from
OSGrid.<br>Here
is
a
search
interface:<br><br><a href="http://metaverseink.com/preview-1.1.html" target="_blank">http://metaverseink.com/preview-1.1.html</a><br>(select
OpenSims)<br>WARNINGS:<br>(1)
not
a
lot
of
words
there
yet;
try
"wright
plaza"
or
"irvine"<br>(2)
most
links
don't
work,
especially
the
all-important
Map/Go
;-)<br><br>Let
me
explain
what
this
is
all
about,
and
how
you
can
try
it
in
your <br>own
regions.<br><br>Fundamentally,
this
is
about
finding
3D
spaces
through
text
search.
The <br>search
problem
can
be
seen
in
many
lights.
It
can
be
seen
as
a
grid <br>problem,
or
as
a
metaverse
problem,
and
these
are
not
contradictory.
For <br>grids
that
implement
the
walled-garden
model
of
virtual
worlds <br>(intranets
and
not
only),
search
is
something
that
they
provide <br>internally,
but
no
data
is
exposed
to
the
outside.
For
grids
that
are <br>open,
the
regions'
data
is
exposed
to
the
world
so
that
3rd
parties
can <br>provide
value-added
services,
such
as
search.
The
way
we've
done
it,
we <br>take
no
sides
on
the
issue;
it's
up
to
the
grid
operators,
region <br>administrators,
and
users
to
decide.<br><br>So,
down
to
the
technical
aspects.
There
are
two
independent
parts
to
this:<br><br>A)
On
the
side
of
OpenSim,
this
involves
exposing
regions'
data
every
so <br>often
in
a
format
that
is
appropriate
for
data
collection
services
to <br>consume.
We
implemented
a
DataSnapshot
module,
in
the
true
spirit
of <br>modularity
in
OpenSim.
Our
module
is
fairly
independent
of
the
rest
of <br>the
code,
it
doesn't
even
need
to
be
compiled
together,
and
we
haven't <br>bugged
you
about
adding
this
code
to
the
main
distribution
--
which
we <br>hope
will
happen,
but
it's
not
necessary.
You
can
try
it
right
now
by <br>using
the
corresponding
dll
--
instructions
here: <br><a href="http://metaverseink.com/resources/" target="_blank">http://metaverseink.com/resources/</a><br>This
module
does
three
things:
1)
it
periodically
generates
xml <br>representations
of
the
searchable
data
of
the
regions;
2)
it
notifies <br>data
services
of
the
existence
of
the
simulator;
and
3)
it
serves <br>requests
for
giving
out
the
xml
files.
The
workings
of
the
module
are <br>ruled
by
a
few
configuration
settings
in
OpenSim.ini.
The
source
code
of <br>the
DataSnapshot
module
is
hosted
on
my
svn
server
at
UCI.
We'll
gladly <br>give
it
out
to
the
OpenSim
project,
or
we
can
keep
it
here.
Whatever
you <br>think
is
best.<br><br>B)
Once
these
snapshots,
and
their
serving,
are
in
place
it's
up
to
data <br>collection
services
to
come
and
get
them.
This
part
I
did
by
myself, <br>wearing
my
Metaverse
Ink
hat
--
it
was
just
easier
to
reuse
what
we <br>already
have
for
indexing
SL.
That's
what
you
see
in
that
web <br>interface.
Note,
however,
that
Metaverse
Ink
is
not
the
only
data <br>collection
service
possible.
Anyone
can
develop
their
own
data <br>collection
service
for
search
or
something
else.
Also,
I
plan
to
develop <br>a
grid-wide
search
engine
based
on
the
same
concepts,
that
closed
grids <br>can
use.
That
component
will
be
open
sourced
and
given
to
the
OpenSim <br>project.<br><br>About
data
exposure
control:<br><br>This
snapshot
module
only
exposes
data
that
is
marked
"Show
in
search". <br>(detail:
right
now,
it
only
exposes
parcel
information;
I
need
to
have <br>conversation
with
the
libsl
folks
about
the
objects'
"Show
in
search" <br>property).
So,
public
exposure
is
ultimately
controlled
by
the
users. <br>Region
admins
also
have
control
of
data
exposure
by
running
the <br>DataSnapshot
module
or
not.
Finally
grid
operators
also
have
control
by <br>allowing
the
regions
to
run
the
DataSnapshot
module
or
not,
and
to
give <br>out
the
data
to
external
data
services
or
not
(we
haven't
implemented <br>this
region-grid
protocol
yet,
but
it's
perfectly
doable,
if
people
want <br>it).<br><br>There's
tons
more!
But
this
email
is
already
too
long,
so
I
leave
it
at <br>that.
Bottom
line:
please
check<br><a href="http://metaverseink.com/preview-1.1.html" target="_blank">http://metaverseink.com/preview-1.1.html</a><br>and
then,
if
you
want
to
see
your
regions
there,
follow
the
instructions <br>here:<br><a href="http://metaverseink.com/resources/" target="_blank">http://metaverseink.com/resources/</a><br>(Note
that
the
updates
are
not
instantaneous.
It
may
take
a
while... <br>especially
if
the
engine
gets
stuck
while
I'm
sleeping
:-)<br> <br>My
kudos
to
the
original
architects
of
OpenSim
for
establishing
this <br>wonderful
plugin
architecture!<br><br>Comments
/
suggestions
/
...
very
welcome!<br><br>Crista
/
Diva<br><br>_______________________________________________<br>Opensim-dev
mailing
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