First, I'd like to inform you about a procedural texture generation library available at fxgen.org, which is entirely free and open source, and could be integrated into OpenLife to give you memory-inexpensive and resolution-independant textures. Much like prims, it's blocks of parameters that create textures instead; very small assets processed by the client.

There are some things I would like to see happen to the Grid. Yes, it's far-fetched, but I think the consequences would go just as far if not much more. The basic theme is to de-centralize the Grid and turn it into some form of Web, but keeping its 3D graphics, transparent sharing of content and interactions.

1- Don't implement money nor Permissions(copy-mod-transfer)
The main consequence will be that all assets will become free, and thus will spread better. Also, letting people use real-wold currencies free from a single server's control and only influenced by real-world factors will help to avoid things such as ad farms, land barons, asset scamming, and the whole savage capitalistic mindest. It also means that only those things that are made by a person (textures, models, etc) can still be sold, through the internet which is the only place where sane transactions belong. Lastly, being moddable means that no malicious code can be forced down on anyone since they can view it.

2- Local Assets + Separating assets, attachments and scripts
The Grid has the potential to become a very powerful and transparent sharing medium, but at some point asset servers will become a huge infrastructure to maintain. The simplest way to solve that is to spread the burden across all users, that is giving them local control of their inventory. It's no longer an ownership problem since content is now free (see suggestion 1). Another consequence is that now, a user can decide directly what they want to share with others, without having to upload it and bloat an asset server.
Another good thing would be to separate user-owned assets from scripts. An attachment is basically a prim which a character may wear, and an asset is everything else. Scripts, due to their ability to run code, are their own category.

3- Create user-held dedicated servers that can host one or more sims
This would probably be the biggest step, where servers can be independant from one another yet transparently accept content and avatars entering them. A server would basically be its own mini-grid, with a ton of permission flags such as:
- Land permissions; Terraform, Move/Edit/Delete All Objects, Run Scripts, Rez Objects, Fly, Push, Use Voice, etc.
- Admin powers: Kick, (Un)Ban, Block/Mute scripts.
- Passworded/Group access to server, sims and regions
- Server-wide Groups (to set specific permissions to certain people)
- Grid-wide Groups (To create clans and find similar groups of interests easily)

And then some new user-level switches:
=Inventories==
(Each Avatar has a server-based inventory, where the admins may add/remove things, but from which the users may always copy the assets to their local inventory)
- Allow Local Assets; Textures, souds, animations, prim settings, models and text can be uploaded from client, then displayed
(Set on/off for each asset type)
- Allow Local Scripts
==Actions==
- Allow Asset Type Upload
- Allow Build Mode (Attachments/Prims)

Another interesting option would be to have Sim-wide and Server-wide "repositories" from which certain scripts can be run, and that by default affect everything within their own range.

Under that optic the OpelLife Mainland itself would be such a server, the starting point and main "hub" to meet others, get help, share content, etc. before they retreat to their own place or someone else's.

4- But what happens to the Grid?
Under this vision, the Grid remains essential to make everything mesh transparently together, mostly for Instant Messages, Grid-Wide Group Chat sessions, inventory transfer across servers, the Search Engine, and most importantly the User Groups Database. Basically, it's what makes the whole community work. But at the same time, it's no longer the community itself.

5- In a Nutshell
The whole structure would change to become like this:
a. User: The avatars
b. Sim: The Environment blocks (Think game levels/maps)
c. Server: The Universes
d. Grid: The Community

I have to both agree and disagree with you, and also you haven't mentioned anything new, check the RealXtend project - http://www.realxtend.com

1. Very bad idea. I completely agree with Pratyeka - not everyone wants to share what they make. And also, people require some sort of incentive if they are to make new and innovative creations. I am against monopolization however - the way LindenLabs is the one who determines land price and L$ cost is the reason SecondLife has many undesirable aspects. Also, the permissions system of SecondLife really is outdated, as the SL platform had not matured enough at that time. It's time to face the facts - internet piracy can not just be stopped. The realXtend team is contemplating on a global permissions system which, although it wouldn't stop asset theft, would put a certain responsibility to the user. (Listen to the audio from last RealXtend meeting at http://www.rexdeveloper.org) Currency should exist, but it has to be left to the already existing internet payment services like PayPal to take care of that.

2. Again, not new:P RealXtend's global avatar system is exactly that. You can choose either to run your own avatar/asset server or register with a service that would do that for you. It's not released yet though, "briefcase"-type inventory which you can carry from grid to grid comes with version 0.3 and that's comming out soon, some final debugging needs to be made.

3. Can't that already be done? Just get any OpenSIM release and run a sim for yourself. If you want to include your sim to a grid, then join OSGrid - its a free grid service where anyone can add their sims to it.

4. Or rather, many grids, one avatar service.

5. That's almost how it is right now. Since anyone can host a grid, i'm guessing it will be up to the grid admin to determine which avatar providers would be allowed.

a. User: The avatar, hosted by an avatar service provider

b. Sim: The building block for a grid

c: Grid: The world, or community.

Server: The Universes <-- this is redundant.

And extra note :- A really good forum for such discussion and a chance to pick my brains on Openlife topics is the OpenOffice hour I hold regularly. (see events)

Sakai Openlife

I have to agree with Sakai here, The cost of developing this new "Grid" has to come from someware. And for the people supplying this cost (Namely The users) there needs to be a way to cover their cost also. That way is by creating and selling Objects, Scripts etc.

Sand seems to be looking for a "Utopian" society online and there might be nothing wrong with that but it is not realistic to expect everyone else to want the same thing. Not many people I know have the resources or desire to fund such a thing out of pocket.

I see these worlds, (Grids) as merging into a new "Internet" in the not too distant future. Virtual Reality, User Interfaces, Business transactions, relationships, the human expirence.... All changing at an astonishing pace.

JN