The Grid?
I was on www.secondlife.com today, and found information on something they are calling “Second Life Grid“. For long-time SL users, the Grid is what the entire server platform has been called for some time now. At the SL loading screen there’s a little box with information on the Grid, like status, current users, etc.
So what exactly is Linden Lab doing with this new program? It doesn’t look like I can actually purchase the server code and maintain my own server. I’ve glanced over the site, and I have found some information about APIs and service providers that I haven’t seen before…but that’s about it. One of my colleagues took a look over the site and uncovered what I didn’t see…
…this is a marketing thing. I’m sure “Second Life Grid” as a program has a few benefits, but it isn’t really anything new. I think this is just an effort to distinguish the original “Second Life” with “Corporate” or “Educational” second life. It’s all still the same Second Life, but by framing it under a different name/different program, Linden seems to be attempting to legitimize SL as a business and education platform. Will it work? I guess time will tell. My gut reaction is that this is something they should have rolled out years ago, not when companies are supposedly leaving Second Life.
