As noted in the previous blog post, the second brown-bag meeting between third-party viewer developers and Linden Lab has happened earlier today and from reading the transcripts, this time around it went way better. No griefing, sim crashing or voice problems, and the consensus is pretty much that the policy is much more agreeable as a whole.
What was discussed this time around is more "small stuff", like issues with the policy and content import and export. While Section 2(b) hasn't really changed at all, Joe Linden did recognize that there is a genuine need for extended metadata to help address legal uses of non-creator export, but the policy won't change until that happens. Fair enough, in my opinion. There are ways for creators of permissive content to get around it(host it outside of SL, collaborative builders can export their parts of builds and share it with their collaborators until the build is completed).
Also, Joe specifically wanted to address the Imprudence team about their plans to drop support for SL. This is a very positive sign for me personally, as I do prefer Imprudence not just for the viewer itself, but because I find the developer team to be very professional and upfront. It's also a positive sign for SL in general as well, as it shows the Lindens do not want to see a mass exodus of development support to OpenSim-based grids(although they have inadvertently strengthened OpenSim viewer support).
The only thing about the meeting that didn't change, sadly, was that again it seems no developers who are already listed in the TPV directory were in attendance. Maybe some of them didn't want to attend out of fear they would get the third degree, although it seems that given the policy changes it's just water under the bridge now and their input would be welcomed.
All in all, though, it's a 180% turnaround from last week's debacle and the first positive change I've seen from the Lab in a long while. I feel like doing a headbob:
4 comments:
What still confuses me is that those meetings are held via voice. I think voice is a very ineffective way to communicate with an international audience, strongly bisasing against non-native speakers who are put at a double-disadvantage (speaking AND understanding).
@Peter: Indeed, voice was one of the big problems that screwed up the first meeting. Perhaps that was anoher reason a lot of already self-certified developers didn't want to attend(not an excuse for KirstenLee though, he's British).
@AntoniusMisfit: Huh? KirstenLee is a guy o_O???
@Zauber: Yes, KirstenLee is a British male in RL. Go to http://www.kirstensviewer.com/ and you can see an interview video of him. Way more mature and on the level than Fractured Crystal, IMO.
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