Open Source Virtual

I've heard a bit about this but it stayed in the background until recent changes in SL TOS/copyright raised some hackles in the blogosphere.

http://opensimulator.org/wiki/Grid_List

Of the grids listed, "Open Life" seemed the busiest so I opened an account. Worth a look just to compare with SL.

http://openlifegrid.com/Default.aspx

Fairly decent number of users here already. You use the SL client, just have to modify the command line arguments to point the viewer to a different grid.

I'm trying to get a sense of which direction the herd may start moving next if SL starts to lose its appeal. Only prob is you can't migrate anything (avatar, inventory) over, BUT I am not sure if that limitation applies in OpenSIM. That is, you may be able to migrate content from one open sim to another--by which I mean the way I can move my website from one server to another.

Looks like you can even set up and run your own grid. Once this catches on like running your own webserver, I predict land prices will bottom out and we'll approach the pricing levels for web space. The trick will then be relating grids to each other. Tesseract, anyone?

PS: I have not yet looked to see if/how this hooks in with MediaGrid and Immersive Education projects, which are also looking at open source sims.