Xan Linden will be standing in for Zero Linden at the usual Second Life office hours in Grasmere at 1PM SLT (US Pacific time) on Tuesday, 1 July (though we'd expect a potential change of venue, as this one is likely to be packed). The topic for the session will be issues pertaining to intergrid permissions.

The debate about intergrid permissions has been a hot topic since 2005, when Linden Lab announced it would be opening up server and viewer code. If you've been awake for any of that, you'll probably be aware that content permissions are only preserved with the active cooperation of the receiver. Retrofitting interoperable content systems into an existing non-interoperable grid opens up a whole slew of issues that just haven't been dealt with previously.

The rights of content creators fuels the Second Life economy, so this is no small item, nor will it everything be solved in a single session. Indeed, the Architecture Working Group has been debating the topic pretty much since their inception. If you're going to show, be early (and check the forum thread for any venue or time changes).

Intergrid permissions, with Xan Linden originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 28 Jun 2008 01:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

It's only the first draft, but Linden Lab (specifically Mark Lentczner aka Zero Linden) has published the awkwardly named Second Life Grid Open Grid Protocol (SLGOGP) on the Second Life wiki.

While very preliminary and far from complete, the SLGOGP is essentially the beginnings of the technical underpinning that will ultimately allow the cohesive operation of both Linden-operated and non-Linden-operated Second-Life style simulators and grids.

If you're not deeply excited by protocol documents, this is probably not going to be your cup of tea. Otherwise, if raw technical protocols get you hot, this is a great starting point for technical discussion.

Linden Lab publishes draft Open Grid Protocol originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 11 Mar 2008 13:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.