Second Life vs. Open Source

Since Linden Labs has been developing Second Life, they've been committed to open sourcing. Or so they say. The client is open source but that leaves much to want for the server to open up. Why is that important? To give those involved in the world more freedom to explore this platform for many other applications and services. But how much will SL's server opening up help? What restraints could there still be? How would this change the current SL state?

I'm turning to the open source project, Wonderland, by Sun Microsystem for some insight (and possible development projects). And though this conversation isn't new, I have some opinions of how a very different virtual platform could overtake Second Life's value. Here are three issues and possible responses from open source projects:

Second Life and other current V world issues:

1. Heavy Focus on a connected "grid"
   Though not a bad way to start, it limits what applications can be built there. It would be like taking the whole web and putting it on one page with size blocks for web content. Virtual space can be programmable beyond set xyz blocks and some applications and services will want that. It's a design that I don't think is scalable. How can Linden Labs confront this?
   
   The host-your-own world is going to be difficult to tap into the SL grid and more difficult to manage upgrades (like the open clients now) so I'm not sure how Linden Labs plans to approach that if they do open their server. But I think it would only work if it's completely separate from them. I should upgrade my server when I want, how I want, and if I want because of security and customization issues.
   
   
2. Self-Economy structure
   Once again, an ok way to start but this sheds light on both legal and security concerns which make it a sensitive issues for looking at it's future. Government is becoming more and more eager to deal with taxation and monitoring for illegal monetary activity. But also that it has it's own money system controlled by one company isn't very satisfying. There are large countries that have trouble keeping their tenders valuable. Why trust a small companies policy making with something this important? Could this economy fall flat if a new virtual platform takes heed before LL can anticipate it?
   
   
3. Current self-feature box
   Though third parties have been tinkering with hacks and scripting to integrate other applications, if the flexibility and structure isn't in the base code architecture, it will not be easy to connect this platform with the applications we want to use it with. Linden Labs could start developing more integration features but that hasn't been on their To-Do list in any head-on goal. So we have to use what they've build for chat/VOIP, scripting, and search (some work-arounds attempted. BTW - Is Avatar Bot-ing scalable?). Not to mention other integration no where to be found, such as desktop application or scalable web integration. I don't believe databases, metadata, and out-of-world applications integration can be scaled using a poorly built API.
   

Wonderland (and other open source projects) response:

1. No land connectivity needed
   Yes, more like the web, you go to a micro world build to it's own specs. No Island limits to space and prims (It's based on your hardware and application resource requirements. No neighbors unless the owner builds the server specifically to share space. No limits to how many ways servers can be linked to each other (aka a door could walk you into a whole new space/server as appose to flying to the end of an island or mapping around). Also, land size can be dynamic or even limitless if the virtual space application means for it. I have ideas for different layouts of space, many probably bad ways to do it, but I have little to no freedom to explore that in a strict parcel/island map. Hence people trying to hack around some limitation with sky platforms.
   
   
2. Economy isn't separate
   I'd imagine a ground-up open source project, like Wonderland, isn't concerned about building it's own currency when there are plenty of virtual currency sources out there that can be regulated outside of the platform (duh...PayPal anyone?). But this ties into point 3.
   
   
3. Integration, Integration, Integration
   I don't think I have to say much here except integration features can be built much easier in an open environment and take advantage of the more development that is going to happen in virtual worlds in the next decade. This could be the way toward reaching cross-world avatars, free private spaces for you and your friends, powerful application development that could be much more linked to the web than SL currently is, and many more problems we face in SL. We all can't just go and build a custom virtual world from ground-up, but what if there was a development platform to would make it much easier to do just that without spending the big bucks on development or being trapped to a proprietary world? Now you're talking and we're seeing the move toward just that.
   

So much like the early web, SL and other current virtual worlds are clunky, limited, and very very new with much to be wanted. Good for the first step, but I think SL is in for a bumpy road since their trapped to what everyone has already created there. And these people and business can't afford it to change drastically, even though I think that's the future of virtual spaces. In the meantime, the people investing time and money there are at the hand of Linden Labs (the one with the big eye :)

But that's just a few concerns that I echo from others and my own skepticism. What do you think?