Jim Purbrick (aka Babbage Linden) announced the Second Life rollout of Mono on the SL blog yesterday. According to Purbrick's post, the server side code is being rolled out as we speak, and will continue for several days (server version 1.24). Additionally, a new release candidate viewer (version 1.21) is being made available and will be fully Mono capable. Additionally, legacy LSL scripts will continue to function alongside their Mono counterparts, at least for the foreseeable future.

All of this is well and good, and certainly it should result in some interesting times ahead as we all rush in to learn what scripting will be like in the Mono environment. But the larger aspect is what lies ahead in terms of changing what Second Life is capable of doing. If Jim Purbrick's quote is to be taken at face value, then we are looking at a situation where SL will truly be a platform for cloud based applications that can work in 3d or 2d:

The integration of Mono is the first step in the evolution of Second Life into a true software development platform. Thank you to all the residents who have helped us take this first step.

Certainly it is easy to envisage SL running SaaS type applications both in world and via browsers and even on mobile devices. There are even situations where 3d collaboration and business processes would work better than 2d counterparts (e.g. supply chain engineering processes). But all of this has been discussed in other places and blogs.

The biggest consideration is what sort of cultural impact this will have on SL. Obviously no one knows the answer to that question, but surely more powerful applications will change what is possible, and once the creativity of the end users is unleashed, the results will be both predictable and surprising. Nonetheless, it will change SL, hopefully for the better.




BeateNetworks on StumbleUpon
BeateNetworks on Technorati

BeateNetworks on Digg

Enter your email address:

Delivered by FeedBurner