I thought the idea behind the creation of time was to stop everything happening at once? If so, it’s not working for me!
This is probably old news to most of you, as Hamlet has had it over at NWN for a couple of days, but for once I failed to take a peek over there when the restructuring announcement hit the headlines. My thanks to the ever-hunky Ciaran Laval for turning my nose in the right direction…
In his piece, Hamlet not only agrees with the view that LL, in their announcement, in fact mean having a web-based means of accessing SL in addition to the current browser, rather than replacing it; he also cites an example of the same – put together in 2007 by a now-definct (it would seem) UK company called Pelican Crossing.
The browser tool, initially backed by IBM, apparently offered “most of” the functionality found within the Viewer (what was missing is unclear), and therefore would suggest that browser-based access to SL could be both lightweight and workable. Which as has been previously said, shouldn’t be sneezed at.
Again, other that having the world-view somewhat reduced, and facing the browser tool and navigation bars, I’m not entirely seeing why people are hating the concept of browser-based access, if it is presented like this: with the necessary functionality to do things. To me, accessing through a browser (especially if you’ve never downloaded a Viewer) wouldn’t be an issue. And if the “viewer” element could be “popped out” of the browser, even better.
Certainly, there is mileage in offering such an access option, as I’ve already mentioned.
Pelican Crossing may well have gone (or have been sucked into the Big Blue), but if they could do it in 2007….
Inara Pey: Living in a Modemworld 
I have said before that a lightweight client would be welcomed but the fear people have is that the lightweight client will be the only client.
The messages from LL have been muddled, rushed and full of holes, so people are reading between lines that don’t exist, all it will really take is for an unequivocal statement to the effect that the client, building and scripting tools aren’t going away to calm some of the worry.
Plenty of us would find a cutdown client, web based especially, extremely handy, especially if we can do some of the basics whilst mobile.
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The messages haven’t been that muddled; *some* have exemplified a poor choice in words, yes (such as Mark Kingdon’s early comments vis-a-vis Facebook and the “future of the Internet” (and SL); and the comments about LL’s future plans appear to have been ill put together (yes, I admit I’m reading between the lines somewhat 🙂 ).
But…the whole move towards developing more accessibility to SL via mobile devices and potentially via a browser *option*, has been a theme within much of what Kingdon has said over the months.
It is a shame that LL haven’t matured their user-facing communications skills. Leaving aside the more obvious debacles over the years, the fact remains that – whether or not the overall arc of statements remains relatively on-target with what has gone before – they simply do not appear able to engage in clear-cut communications, which is suggestive that a lot of announcements tend to come from the executive level and bypass the eyes of a true PR professional who might otherwise point out the potential for misunderstandings, accidental ambiguity, etc.
This is something that has long been a problem at LL (as you and I both know), and while it may not currently damage their external reputation (and as such remain low on their “fix” list), but doing so would do much to prevent unnecessary antagonism towards their user base.
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