OSGrid, billed as "the largest free-to-connect OpenSimulator grid", added a fully integrated social network to its metaverse earlier this week. Elgg looks and operates in a very similar way to Facebook (check out Elgg's friend update stream at left), but as described by lead developer Adam Frisby (Adam Zaius in SL), it takes over a lot of the functionality that in-world groups use: "[I]f you have a group 'inworld'," explains Adam, "the exact same data should be used on the website. Join a group on the website - it should show up in world." Anyone in a large Second Life group, notorious for their frequent chat failures and other communication lapses, will probably recognizes how powerful this functionality can be. Imagine getting in-world group notices on the web, without having to log into the world and arduously drag the info from your archive.
"It’s more of a presentation layer," Adam explains to me by e-mail.
"I’ve rewritten the Elgg software so the backend it pulls from isn’t the Elgg database, but the OpenSim grid services one. So when a change is made in Elgg, it updates the OpenSim database instead of the Elgg one, likewise when a change is make by OpenSim -– Elgg reads from there so is updated immediately."
I've created my OSGrid account: also, of course, "Hamlet Au". Please friend me! And note that OSGrid is an incorporated non-profit organization, funded by donations from its users. (PayPal button at top right corner of OSGrid site.)
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