I was sitting in Robin's office hours and looking around. I came to the realization that I am not looking forward to OpenSim.
OpenSim is the eventual program where the Grid All Hail the Mighty Grid exists as a centralized land. Instead of everyone coming into Linden Lab's jurisdiction, residents can host their own servers/land that are branches off of the Grid. Supporters of the idea argue that if a resident does not like Linden Lab policy, wait to host your own land and you can do what you want. So if you like gambling, build a server that's not hosted in the United States. (Even though that does not take care of the payment issues that was part of the reasoning behind the gambling ban. The Credit Card companies had as much an impact on the Lab banning gambling as US law.)
But instead of opening up our shared internet experience, OpenSim promises to sequester us more. The Goreans will be on their own servers. The Furries will have their own lands, which may be separate from the Babyfurs. The business people, the fashionistas, the licentious, the educators can all be sectored off in their own areas.
In many ways, SL is already sequestered, even if you don't fall into one of the sub-cultures mentioned above. If you don't make the effort, you can see the same people day in and day out. You don't know about the Turk that's studying astronomy in Greece. You don't discover the Spaniard that's lost his way in a house store. You don't find out about the people who decided to create a motorcycle gang in a land where you don't need motorcycles. The people that go to technical office hours, hang out at Bondage Playground or want to recreate a caliphate are hidden if you stay on your own little plot of land, which can be good or bad depending on your point of view.
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