[mmox] A few assumptions if I may

[Gareth Nelson <[e-mail]>]

1 - We need an absolute basic core of identity
2 - We need a modular design where extra services (simple stuff such
as chat and inventory) are bolted onto that core with mechanisms such
as optional caps URLs (man I love caps)
3 - On the "intellectual property" issue, we should take the view that
if a particular system is serving up an asset, it is authorised to do
so - in other words, if you can do (for example) an HTTP GET on an
object, it may come with permissions flags in the metadata, but we
should enforce these flags only on end systems - clients, inventory
servers, asset servers and simulators - this simplifies the legal
issues and pushes liability to where it belongs, with the users
4 - This should be obvious, but anything intended for an actual RFC
should be 100% neutral of any particular virtual world/MMO or
platform, so stuff like the .NET remoting in opensim (a pet peeve of
mine) is out
5 - Binary protocols should be used whenever efficiency is important,
but designed in an extensible fashion such that one particular packet
type once defined will always mean the same thing and systems
implementing such protocols can rely on a  core set of messages always
being available with graceful degradation for anything outside of this
core - we need not see the whole world through HTTP-tinted glasses