Linden’s Second Life developers have just announced a decision to release Second Life client source code under the GNU GPL version 2. The impetus for the decision is a need to make Second Life more scalable and reliable. A Second Life resident who blogs at Gwyn’s Home wrote in great detail about why Linden should open up their source code back in 2005. The Linux Journal wrote an article in November, 2006 called “Why We Need an Open Source Second Life“, saying that open source software would fall behind in the development of the 3D/virtual world internet, unless something like the Second Life code were opened to the online community. Author of the article, Glyn Moody, believes that it is very important for open source programmers to develop expertise in the technology underlying virtual worlds. He thinks it likely that the next stage in the web’s evolution will “incorporate elements from three-dimensional virtual worlds”. He quotes Philip Rosedale on why more evolution toward 3D online worlds is likely:

People always believe that the idea of simulating a three-dimensional world will make the experience of people in it different because it’s three dimensional, and that’s certainly true. However, there’s a second thing about the 3D web that makes it different than the 2D web, and is really important, which is that there are other people there with you when you’re experiencing it.

Look at MySpace. When you go to a MySpace page, you can listen to their music. What is the listening experience like? Well, it’s still just you sitting in front of your computer listening alone to that music. But in SL, if you’re listening to somebody’s music, whether live or pre-recorded, there’s a very good chance that there’s someone next to you listening to the same music, and so you’re able to turn to them and say: What do you think? Or you’re able to turn to them and say: Have you been here before, and, if so, do you know where the lawnmower section is?

That, I think, is what makes the potential of the 3D Web different perhaps even more so than the spatial difference between 3D content, and 2D content. And I think that alone makes it very likely that there will be a kind of a 3D Web, that has this shared experience property. That’s what everyone will look back on and say: Wow, that is what made it different.