Category: Opinion

Further Confirmation

Posted on by Inara Pey

The other day, I posted a response to the Behind the Firewall product announcements. In it, and in a reply to a comment / question from Prokofy Neva , I stated pretty much that I felt that people were misunderstanding the SL Enterprise (as it is to be called) “model”  – and on two scales.

The first, and more trivial, is that some in SL have perceived the new product as applying to them  – even to the extent of expressing shock at the quoted price of $55,000 (I think people were expecting it to be a kind of “pay-to-use” content-populated OpenSim competitor.

The second mistake I tried to sum up in my response to Prok’s comment, where I stated:

This is why I really don’t think that the new channel [the “Work Marketplace”] is “the mecca for all content creators to aspire to”. The majority will be excluded simply on the basis of what they make. Joe Schmoe (or indeed Inara Schmoe) who makes nice houses and skyhouses isn’t going to cut the mustard. If corporate minds are going to want a shiny edifice in-world or on their squeaky-clean sim in a box, they’re going to want a Name behind it; someone with a Reputation and Qualifications. They are also not going to need comfy sofas, beds, lamps, cars, planes, boats, BDSM gear… and so on.
Thus, the channel will remain more of a funnel, bottlenecked at one end to prevent the “unsuitable” getting in while directing others to the status of favoured elite.

In other words, the Work Marketplace will be carefully filtered, throttled and guarded to prevent the likes of you and me participating because our wares are “no good enough”.

With the possible exception of Anne O’Toole, I seem to have been somewhat alone in voicing this view – even though the evidence is abundantly clear elsewhere. Hence, I’m a little surprised that Prok herself states outright disbelief at a recent statement by none other than Justin Bovington, CEO of Linden Lab’s bed mate, Rivers Run Red.

In the piece, Bovington states in reference to the Work Marketplace:

It has [to] be less Xstreet, more Wall Street. It has to reflect relevance, rather than drowning us all in deluge of content: clothing, furniture and avatars,” he wrote, adding “if [Linden Lab] attracts the right people to develop these apps, this could be the tipping point.

In other words, it will be the jealousy-guarded filter I described.

Bovington’s comments also tend to support the idea that the grid is to be further messed with – or as Amanda Linden euphemistically calls it, “improved” – as he also states:

We also think that Corporates will create a mixture of hybrid behind-the-firewall closed-off spaces on their Intranets and a private, gated Internet-accessible space for their partners and collaborators.

In other words, if he and his ilk get their way, stand by for a scenario I touched upon while commenting in Prok’s blog earlier today when commenting on the idea that avatars may soon be “streamed” by “type”:

This might be good from a sign-up perspective to some degree, but IF carried beyond that (admittedly a big “if” at the moment) I’m not entirely sure it’ll do SL any favours. With users so corralled / siloed, how hard would it be to start demarking areas of the grid as “no go” based on avatar type (e.g. your avatar is recorded as “role-play”, therefore “business only” regions are off limits to you)?

In reviewing the SLE product release, I referred to Amanda Linden’s seeming hostility toward the user base at large. In Bovington’s comments the hostility is now approaching a state of warfare.

The writing on the wall is becoming clearer every day. There are those  – as again I stated in my last post – who see SL a world of to unequal halves: those involved in corporate endeavours – and everyone else. And those of us in the latter category are to be tolerated, rather than embraced. To use a phrase I believe (in all fairness) Prok herself used not long ago: we are now the “legacy product”.

Behind the Firewall

Posted on by Inara Pey

Well, it’s here, with ballyhoo aplenty. The much-vaunted “behind the firewall product”.

Yippee, one might state. Others might be more ecstatic. Some, poor benighted souls, might even think it is for them (I did find it hilarious that one “SL businessman” expected the new “sim in a box” to cost around $100 USD, and was stunned at the $55,000 price tag!).

Make no mistake. This “solution” is not about, for, or really involving “business” as the majority of us in SL go about it. Nor is it really geared towards the education sector LL has (until recently) been treating as a possible bedfellow. No, make no mistake, the Behind-the-firewall “sim in a box” is aimed at one market and one market only: the big corporations.

You might say it is 2006-in-a-box. Remember back then, all the hype and trumpeting about SL being “the place” for business, with the like of NBC, Toyota, Nike, Coca-Cola and others flocking into SL….doing next to nothing and then stampeding out again six months later….

I really don’t know that this new product has a market or whether it has been built on wishes and daydreams. To read the hype, a lot of it has been specifically engineered in ways that suggest it goes far beyond the capabilities of the main grid. However, seeing is believing, and as I’ve not seen, I can say either way. Certainly, as a “next generation” communication tool, it’s going to have its work cut out to effectively and efficiently compete with the millions big corporations have invested in direct-to-the desktop communications and collaborative tool sets, the ability to host face-to-face meetings with the participants hundreds (or thousands) of miles apart (or separated be several floors in the same building) without the need to either ldeav their desks or poke around with some 3D “image” of themselves in a digital utopia…..

But…that isn’t my concern. so long as LL don’t hang all their hopes on this yet-to-be “solution” and as a result crash and burn should it crash and burn, I don’t really care if they hit the mark or shoot themselves in the foot.

What concerns me is what else they are doing alongside this announcement. Because frankly, this “sim in a box” now seems to be the thin end of the wedge (or chisel) that could fracture SL.  Ciaran Laval, in his blog, cuts to the heart of the matter.

Several times I’ve fought shy of posting to the official forum “discussions” challenging Amanda Linden as to why LL simply can’t develop a “Corporate mini grid” to which, if they wish, those corporations employing the new “sim in a box” product can connect at some future date. It’s been obvious for some time that the tool on its own would be limited in scope in terms of a revenue stream and that  – given the emphasis on collaboration – somewhere would be needed where corporations could meet, not only with each other but with LL’s vaunted “Gold Solutions Providers” and perhaps with potential customers; so why not simply section-off server capacity and build a grid specifically for that purpose?

Now we see the reality: LL don’t have to go that route, as they appear to have already earmarked the main grid for this purpose. Many suspected this when they thrust the “Adult Content Policy” on us. I and several others challenged LL on precisely this point, and were told we were wrong.

Well, seems we were wrong in a rightish sort of way.

What is really worrying though, as Ciaran makes clear, is that now the gloves are really coming off. LL is moving beyond inconveniencing its user base (vis-a-vis the OpenSpace sim fiasco, the Adult changes, etc.), and into open hostility we’re being told “our world” is now a “serius” place of work, that if we want to be taken seriously “in business” we must start wearing suits. The implications in Amanda Linden’s post on the sim in a box are clear: if things don’t match the corporate-friendly image LL require, then “improvements” will be made – so step aside!

In this respect, I actually disagree with Ciaran’s assessment. He refers to the move as a “stealth takeover”. Actually, I’d say that up until now it has been “stealthy”; but now it is blatant and in our faces. And the stink is even worse for that.

Of course there will be the inevitable cooing from LL about how their “core business” – you and I – still matter. And we will; so long as we stay in our nicely corralled environments, overseen by the Lindens themselves (Zindra) or by their new Land Baron friends, who will doubtless vigorously police their estates and “themed lands” in accordance with the meme that “residents should be seen (on a map) but not heard”.

I’d given go so far as to say that LL are actually looking to keep us around, albeit nicely constrained and within markets that the new “big boys” won’t want to touch. To name but two of the markets and the reasons I say this:

  • Markets like land (corporations are going to be interested in running zillions of sims and renting out parcels, obviously) – but the big land barons are, and guess who are already being enticed with “beta programmes” by Jack Linden et al to buy more land, and to possibly take on management of “themed” Mainland.
  • Markets like the Adult community. Sure, we might not be appealing to LL’s corporate image, but we’ve all now been brushed under the carpet, tucked away in private sims or on Zindra. And while we may be “unsavory” – the fact remains that the Adult community is one of the most creative in SL, and one where businesses can thrive with huge turnovers (and Stroker Serpentine isn’t alone in this). It has a lively, nay, bubbling community that cannot help make T Linden’s quarterly reports look good. Ergo, so long as we behave, we Adult Market users stay – which is likely the real meaning behind all the hollow assurances LL gave back in the Adult Change fiasco that they were not “changing” their attitude towards the Adult market.

And the reason both stay? Two words: fall back.

It’s insidious and it is nasty. LL are aware that they are taking a gamble. They are aware that if it succeeds, then they break their reliance on the “casual” or “home” user – those who have, as many keep saying, made SL the “success” it has been. They can finally move beyond the “narrow” opportunities we afford them and move into a bigger marketplace and Do Things, as I seem to remember Mitch Kapor demanding of the company back just before Mark Kingdon showed up.

But…they can’t just let us go. Oh no, not yet; because everything still might go, as my father was once fond of saying, tits-up. If that happens, LL will need a fall back position – you and me – in our nice, constrained environments in SL, still turning our hard-earned cash over to the Lindex mill in order to keep their coffers topped-up.

It’s a pessimistic view on things, I admit. And I hope to high heaven I’m wrong.

Signs and Portents….

Posted on by Inara Pey

Two recent events involving Linden Lab reps have caused yet more head-scratching.

The first is a posting from Amanda Linden on the subject of “work avatars“, espousing the view that if people are to do “professional” business in SL then they should consider having a “professional avatar” as distinct from their runabout everyday avatar.

I’ve found two things interesting with this – one of which is somewhat amusing, the other is more alarming. The amusing element is in the number of replies from people who have somewhat missed the context of the post. This isn’t about all of us engaged in SL commerce having to ditch our current look and come over all business-like. Nor is it about any form of “outing” real identities behind avatars on the part of LL.

No, the article is aimed squarely at the question of “professional” (read “corporate”) employees being in-world as representatives of their organisation, and the need for these individuals to keep their “professional” identity both divorced from any “social” identity they may have and use outside of working hours, and in line with the professional / corporate image they are trying to promote.

While many have mistaken the posting, as mentioned above, giving rise to a range of misguided (…?) responses, those that have realised the intent of the post have, in fairness given interesting feedback on the matter relating to the “validity” of “business” (or “professional”) avatars, the question of naming rights / abilities, etc. However, with one or two exceptions, no-one has really addressed the question of why is Amanda even raising this issue in the public forum?

Second Life was never designed to be an engine of business. Period. It was designed – if such a term can be used – as a fun-based social networking platform (and I never thought I’d hear myself say that!). Yet, in the drive to make it sustainable, Linden Lab have been increasingly forced to look at the corporate environment as a means of generating sustainable revenues and growth (again, this drive is to me one of the clearest indications that all is not well with the SL economy as an “engine of commerce”, despite the rosy pictures painted every quarter by those juggling with the finance figures). To this end we’ve had much focus from LL on their “behind the firewall” product which (I gather) is designed to be the nirvana for all corporate communications needs.

And, in its own way, this is fair enough. Second Life does offer some unique opportunities for internal management to corporations. Whether they can compete with established tools and technology (video streaming, desktop-enabling video conferencing, secure collaborative work tools and information sharing, etc.), is obviously debatable – but one cannot simply discount SL on the basis of existing technology, or for LL for trying to leverage what they believe is a potential market.

Where this becomes an issue, however, is in the way it impacts how Linden Lab view the grid as a whole. Until recently, the grid was a place of open interaction, creativity and development, where many different lifestyles and communities could converge and mix and share (largely) without rancour or fuss. Sure, groups were/are prone to their own bouts of drama; yes, Linden Lab did and does sometimes show an insidious favouritism here and there – BUT on the whole, for those in SL it really was a case of “our world, our imagination”.

That is no longer the case. The “big business is everything” mantra is one that is spreading across the whole of Linden Lab, resulting in a grid that is slowly but surely being sanitised, and individuality squirreled away on private sims and small holdings. “Adult” content has been largely removed to its own continent or private sims; any that remain on Mainland are (theoretically) unable to advertise or gain much visibility unless people stumble upon them – and where they do advertise, users are encouraged to AR them so they can be taken down.

We’re now seeing discussions emerging between Linden Lab and a favoured few relating to “zoning” areas of Mainland for “community building” – words that again subliminally suggest “homogenising” the Mainland into a nice, clean, “safe” environment where Corporate Daddy will feel safe letting his children (employees) “play”.

In this, Amanda’s enthusiastic posting is but the latest demonstration that there are those within LL who view Second Life as being “all about business” – and very little else, despite the lip service they may pay to the rest of us. The only reason the idea of having a “professional” avatar is being promoted is because Amanda and others in LL want to see the grid as a confluence – not of communities and lifestyles and interests – but of corporate marketing and exposure. A place where all those behind-the-firewall grids can safely connect and where their minions and roam outside the hallowed portals of their corporation and “do business” with others “safely” (and by “safely” I don’t necessarily mean “securely”, I mean simply without the “risk” of running into any one of two dozen exotic avatar styles we all take for granted in SL).

And this is the worrying aspect of Amanda’s post; not that we’ll all have to somehow be “outed” (as some on the blog comments are decrying), but that here again we see Second Life – a place never designed to support Big Business – being slowly but surely forced into a business suit, shirt and tie….

Nor, in passing, do I find this kind of commentary being followed by Philip Rosedale’s recent bombshell unconnected. Other the last several months we’ve seen several departures from Linden Lab that have raised questions concerning the company’s intended future direction. Until now, the hardest of these was perhaps Robin Linden’s departure.

While Robin caused a mixed range of reactions from those around her, she did, in many ways, having the “community” of Second Life at heart. Not all of us agreed with some of her actions all of the time, but she was committed to the idea of Second Life being an open community. As, I think it fair to say, was Philip. And now he, too – despite all the comforting words – is off. Why, exactly, is unclear. Lots of promises and pleasing words – but one cannot help but feel that in sharing the same workspace as Mark Kingdon, Rosedale finally realised the yawning gulf between his dreams and ideas and Kingdon’s (Kapor’s?) vision for the future of SL, and the fact that the two can no longer comfortably co-exist.

So what of SL and the rest of us? I have no idea. But, like many others, I’m concerned about further developments coming out of Jack Linden’s office, as reported by Ciaran Laval and variously-reported elsewhere.

First off, the issue here – and Ciaran states – is not that LL have discounted a bulk sim sale to the likes of Dreamland (who are a huge customer well aware of their potential buying-power – thus discounts are hardly surprising). What is worrying about the deal is – again – the degree of obfuscation apparent in Jack’s responses to valid questions pitched during his Office Hours, and as reported by Ciaran. So much so, that Jack himself had to admit he was coming over as evasive – before hiding under the excuse that this is some kind of “beta program” – a laughable response at best.

Discounts are discounts. End of story. They are a legitimate part of business practices and require little in the way of hiding from others – so they fact that Jack (again) feels the need to obfuscate (just as he did over OpenSpace / Homesteads, and with the Adult Changes, and with the Blake Sea situation….), suggests that either favouritism is involved here, and a programme to edge-out the smaller land owner and private sim owners is in the process of being developed, or – frankly – Jack is (again) demonstrating a degree of incompetence in his ability to deal openly with his clients.

Personally, given the push for a bigger Big Business presence in SL, the erosion of the voices and dreams of those who made SL possible, and moves such as this latest “beta programs” from Jack, I’m beginning to get pessimistic about the future of SL.

These moves simply do not bode well for the smaller, independent player or player groups within Second Life. Again, leave us not forget that, after the special “beta testing” Jack developed with USS over Blake’s Sea, we’ve now got the much-touted Community Partnership Programme, which is utterly biased against small independents – right from the opening words: “a new initiative focused on expanding Linden Lab’s relationship with large, inworld communities“.

Indeed, taken together, one cannot help but view the CPP and this latest behind-closed-doors deal between LL and Dreamland as part and parcel of moves to sanitise Second Life ready for the Second Coming of Big Business, as heralded by Amanda….

Linden Lab and content creation (2)

Posted on by Inara Pey

Well, it seems that LL are determined to capture more and more of the market represented by incoming new users. I’ve previously commented on the fact that they appear to be going up against private estate owners by providing prefab sims. Now, with (I’m assuming) huge swathes of Mainland cleared of the “pesky” Adult Content, it seems that Linden Lab are about to effectively bite the collective hand of the Mainland landowners there who feed them through tier, with this announcement, which will provide (quote) content already in place, including busy commercial districts and residential areas.

Given the way Linden Lab has handled land over the last couple of years – yes, the OpenSpace sim debacle is just coming up on the first anniversary of the original hike announcement – this seems a pretty sharp kick in the teeth for those actively engaged in the Mainland market as land owners, as Prokofy Neva lucidly states in response to Courtney Linden’s latest (and totally inappropriately-titled) post on the subject of land.

Whether one agrees with Prok vis-a-vis her comments on FIC-status land barons (although I personally can see this being the case only too easily) one cannot deny that the that fact LL are now moving on both private and Mainland “themed” and “pre-fab” land underlines the fact that the die has been cast as far as Second Life content is concerned and LL’s role here.

If this is the case, one cannot anticipate anything less that the out working of the recently-proposed content roadmap will further the move towards greater control of content (and potentially content creators themselves) by Linden Lab, under the guise of “controlling” the genuine issues around content ripping – in much the same way as the genuine technical issues relating to OpenSpace sim performance was used by LL as a thin excuse for the massive price / tier hikes implemented at the start of 2009. (And I’d point out that those underpinning technical issues still haven’t been fully addressed, 11+ months down the road from the original OpenSpace sim announcement.)

But why are LL making these moves into pre-fab sims, Mainland or otherwise? I don’t for a minute buy the spin that it is to improve the “new user experience” – people have managed perfectly well within Second Life for the last six years without any need for intervention on the part of Linden Land when it has come to the provisioning of land, homes and the like. And as Prok rightly points out – the issue is not one that couldn’t be solved through vetted advertising at infohubs and greeting centres and better-up front information on the options and alternatives people can find as they explore SL.

Can the need to maintain a cashflow be so great that LL are now feeling compelled to enter their own market in direct competition with the people they ostensibly support and enable? Again, that doesn’t read right.

Taken together with the Adult Content moves though, one cannot help but wonder if elements within LL are trying to “sanitise” SL – at least in part. If this is the case, one has to ask why….is it purely to make SL more attractive to “big business”? Last year, Philip Rosedale, speaking at Metanomics made a passing comment that he’d like to see SL and the teen grid (which some regard as an epic fail in and of itself – although whether this is the case or not, I can’t say; I’ve never been there as I’m entirely the wrong age!) at “some point in the future”. Well, the “future” gets closer each day….

Or is it simply because LL are once again moving towards that other chestnut that gets raised from time to time: they’re seeking to IPO Second Life and focus their efforts in technology licencing in terms of the grid technology….?

Speculation is rarely accurate given the traditional lack of information  / feedback / commentary from those within Linden Lab itself – but if I were to be pushed into indicating which of the above scenarios I’d consider to be the case – I’d be edging towards the desire to “sanitise” Second Life in order to make it more attractive to Big Business.

For one thing the other two don’t entirely stand up to close inspection. But, more prevelently, it’s pretty clear that with all the recent blog and other efforts (Amand Linden’s sadly laughable Open Letter to Your Boss, her myraid of other posts relating to SL as a platform of “business” and the oft-promoted “behind the firewall” “solution”), that LL are very much pinning their hopes on “cracking” the commercial market. As such, a more “sanitised” (or “uniform”) approach to mainland development seems to fit the picture. Sadly.

Vitriol “rules”

Posted on by Inara Pey

It seems that nothing much can happen in Second Life without at least one sector of the community responding with misplaced and vitriolic posts. We saw it with the OpenSpace debacle, and again with the Adult Change situation, where people opted to pour scorn and derision on both Linden Lab & those trying to encourage more engagement on both subjects, rather than join in sensible debate.

And, if I’m honest – and I do try to be – at times I’ve been guilty of the same.

But the level of vitriolic (and largely unfounded) statements and backbiting some have entered into with regards to the Eros / Nomine class action against Linden Research that is evident on the blogrum really take things to a new low.

Leaving aside most of those issuing forth with spite / outright hatred towards Stroker and Munchflower have, in reading their posts, either failed to read the documentation relating to the action or had a failure of comprehension about what the papers are actually stating – I’m stunned at the degree of petty jealousy towards Stroker as a businessman that is inherent in many of these responses. Particularly when these same individuals would otherwise have us believe that they are “mature”, “professional” “business people”.

And yes, Stroker is a businessman; he’s sought to establish a professional presence in Second Life in exactly the manner Linden Lab would like to see businesses develop and strive. It matters not whether the content of his business is of the kind LL themselves would like to actively promote – he has played by their rules and made a success. And like any successful businessman, he has every right to defend both the position his company is in, and the trademarks, IP, etc., invested in the products that business sells – regardless of whether the products are virtual or real.

Note I say, “he’s sought to establish a presence in Second Life in exactly the manner Linden Lab would like to see businesses develop and thrive….” This is important, because it seems to be the point that many of those pushing out angry blogrum comments aimed at Stroker (and to a lesser extent Munchflower) seem to overlook.

Linden Lab promote Second Life as an environment in which real businesses producing genuine products  – be they quantified in terms of physical prims, scripts and textures sold to other residents, or skills and abilities provided to others in terms of consultancy or expertise that results in in-world creations.

As such, Linden Lab does have certain responsibilities for in ensuring the environment in which they actively encourage others to engage in commercial activities is as secure as it can possibly be when it comes to protecting the goods and services provided by those entering the environment.

And the bottom line is that Linden Lab did little to prevent the emergence of tools such as Copybot (which came about prior to open-sourcing the viewer) and have done next to nothing to prevent its continued use – other than adding a somewhat woolly statement to the ToS against its “misuse”.

And while they have constantly promised to tighten-up things within SL, the fact remains that right now, six years down the road from SL’s launch, all we really have is a “roadmap” that the company is considering in order to “improve” things. A roadmap that is in itself somewhat questionable in its end goal – and which could be potentially far more “damaging” to the overall state of “free” commerce in SL than the action being brought by Eros / Nomine.

Thus, to suggest that Stroker and Munchflower are acting out of “greed”, or that they are risking the “status quo” of commerce in SL is at best misplaced sentiments – the issue does, whether people like it or not, go much deeper than this.

Which is why I can only  – for one of the few times in my life – thank Prokofy Neva for posting one of the most lucid, intelligent and positive comments on the matter. For all her faults, Prokofy has a knack for getting to the heart of a matter – whether one likes or deplores her more usual style of posting.

In this reply she hits every pertinent nail on the head and – and I say this with hand on heart – echoes many of the thoughts I’ve been having around the timing of this action and the possible underlying motives. The difference is, she’s put words around the possible reasons far more clearly than I could have managed (and indeed, I did attempt to post my thoughts on possible “conspiracies” yesterday, but gave up due to lack of clarity of thought).

But…whether or not there is much more to this matter than meets the eye, whether the plaintiffs may in fact be “in league” with elements within Linden Lab itself…is currently so much speculation. What Prokofy Neva has done – I hope – is re-focus the discussion on what should be under discussion – the potential outcome of this situation in terms of commerce as a whole in SL, and what responsible merchants should be looking to achieve in order to prevent many businesses from finding themselves out in the cold as a result of changes forthcoming either as a result of this suit or Linden Lab’s own “roadmap”.

So, let’s knock it with the idiotic and irrelevant arguments that we “shouldn’t bite the hand that feeds us” – again, for the reasons I’ve mentioned above – or that this suit is akin to someone suing the automotive industry for all car accidents – perhaps one of the silliest responses I’ve read on the matter. We may no all agree with the action Eros / Nomine have taken, and we all have a right to be concerned at the possible outcomes….

….But let’s at least try to be civil in discussing things, and mature in our dealings with one another.

LL and Content

Posted on by Inara Pey

Way back in the mists of time – during the OpenSpace farago, to be precise, a number of people, myself included, wondered if Linden Lab weren’t considering a shift from merely supplying land to moving complete, ready-to-occupy prefab sims. Anne O’Toole actually gave voice to our concerns, as I mentioned in a past blog.

Now, in the latest from Linden Lab we find that the idea of the pre-fabricated sim direct from Linden Lab is actually about to become a reality. In amongst all the gloss of Torley’s video and the PR department’s carefully-compiled script is this nugget, commencing at 1:13 in the video: “We’ve also completely redesigned the land store experience to make to make it easier to use and understand. We’ve launched themed private regions which are ready to move into after purchase…” (my italics for emphasis).

Exactly what form these “themed private regions” will take is unclear – but I’ll frankly be surprised if they are not Homesteads – even if this does mean a shift in LL’s current policy that Homesteads can only be purchased by those owning at least one full sim. I’d even be prepared to wager that should this be the case, the policy will be revised so that those with a premium account will be eligible to purchase such “themed private regions”.  But – Homestead or full sims, this move (however it might be dressed up) marks a substantial shift for linden Lab, bringing them into direct competition with both private estate owners and content creators.

Perhaps this is also why Linden Lab is now seemingly keen to engage with the major land barons on the question of Mainland development, zoning  – and even perhaps future management(?) – as recently reported upon by Prokofy Neva. Taken together, these two moves are anything but coincidental – the one (Mainland zoning deals) smacks very much of sweetening the other (selling pre-fabricated private regions) and making it easier for the big land barons to accept.

Beyond this is a further spectre. Jack Linden has made no secret of the fact that Linden Lab are looking to create “partnerships” with those using Second Life who meet some pre-ordained criteria (details of which are unclear beyond the fact that anyone engaged in “Mature” (will that be “Adult” now?) activities are precluded from such partnerships). So…following-on from this, will we yet see certain content providers elevated to special status, able to supply houses and builds for these new “themed private regions” while lesser mortals are effectively locked out?

Indeed, are we starting down the road towards Second Life becoming an environment much like the much-hyped Blue Mars appears to designed as – where all content creators must in some way be “licenced” by LL in order to operate fully and effectively in-world?

I know it sounds outrageous to say this now….and I hope I am reading far too much into things. However, then you take this latest (somewhat buried) announcement with the likes of Jack’ comments in seeking partnerships and LL’s recent acquisition and rebranding of SL Exchange, one has to admit the paradigm seems to be shifting – and control could well be the name of the game. Certainly, it could be argued that reining-in content creation through the control of outlets and in a possible “licencing / partnership” arrangement with the Favoured Few in SL may well be the “simplest” long-term solution to the twin issues of IP protection and convincing the corporate world that SL is a “safe” place to “do business”.

Time will tell, as they say.