Linden has reduced engineering resources tasked specifically with implementing the standards emerging through the VWRAP WG process. Linden will continue to be engaged on efforts that directly align with business goals and current development needs, and in fostering the ecosystem around Second Life ... For the near term, however, Linden will not be explicitly funding production of specifications or implementations related to virtual world interoperability. Linden Lab continues to be supportive of the standardization process and we hope to be able to be more actively involved at some point in the future.
josh goes on to say that he'll be continuing to serve as working group co-chair, but will participate as an individual, not as a linden employee.
I plan to volunteer my personal time to mediate discussions as co-chair of the working group, as long as there remains interest in tackling issues within the VWRAP WG charter. As individuals, many other Linden Lab employees are and continue to be involved in standardization efforts, around virtual worlds and other IETF efforts.
so... does this mean that VWRAP is dead? i think the answer would be "no, not dead, but it's definitely a metaphorical gut punch."
at the end of the day, corporations do not participate in IETF activities, individuals do. so linden's decision to pull resources from it's participation in VWRAP does not automatically shut the group down. but, it's no secret that linden sponsored many of the activities, instructing it's employees to participate in the standards development process on company time.
but it's hard to sugar coat this pill; the loss of a large commercial interest is going to cause a bit of confusion in the near term. individuals are likely to still participate, but without linden it's unclear who would be deploying VWRAP based services. at the end of the day, we can specify whatever we want; but if no one actually uses the specs, what's the point?
but all is not lost; the business motivations that led to the formation of the VWRAP working group are still there. there is still a market in virtual worlds for education, enterprise and entertainment. specifying protocols for virtual world services is still useful for driving down the costs of virtual world hosting and for supporting innovative ecosystems. in short, the fundamentals are still sound.
but there's now a bit of an "influence vacuum." the 800 lb. gorilla has quietly exited the tent, leaving a couple 300 lb. gorillas and a number of consultants. so, it will be interesting to see if any of the remaining players steps up to take a leading role.
our efforts in VWRAP are still useful, but the individuals involved in the standardization effort are no doubt interested in whose business requirements will drive the effort: IBM? Intel? Reaction Grid?
so... anyone interested in driving a low-mileage, late-model IETF working group?
I don't think the majority of VWRAP participants were ever depending on Linden Lab for deployments. Linden never made it clear what their specific interest in interoperability was, and most people assumed Linden was only interested in exporting services to whitelisted third party grids. Writing agent domain and region domain software for OpenSim or small standalone implementations is relatively easy and everyone is volunteering to host deployments.
ReplyDeleteWhat I'm more concerned about is who is going to be doing the hard work now. No one seems to want to spend their free time reformatting the OGP Teleport doc into a VWRAP draft. No one is making the proposed changes to the LLSD drafts to handle some of the base64/binary serialization issues and add the new string/binary conversion notes. No one is stepping up and saying "What's next on the agenda? Let's start work on that".
Discussion is cheap, code prototypes are cheap, deployments are cheap. Writing polished specs and keeping the train on the rails are not cheap. Any volunteers?