Re: [mmox] A tentative top-down analysis

[Jon Watte <[e-mail]>]

Morgaine wrote:
> As the interoperating metaverse grows, providers can no longer think 
> of customers' clients as performing short-lived accesses to their 
> servers and then going away to access someone else's servers.  
> Instead, N providers may be supplying continual object state updates 
> for the items owned by an agent who is not registered with any of them.

That's right! Incidentally, this matches almost exactly the "connected 
server peers" model that I've been proposing.

However, the objects themselves are owned by one of those N providers 
(or else why is the provider supplying authoritative state for it?)

>
> What's more, those updates will often need to continue even when (i) 
> the avatar is currently offline, and when (ii) the items are dispersed 
> across many other worlds, and when (iii) the avatar is currently in a 
> world with which they do not have direct interop.
>

Saying that the object update persists in the simulation when you don't 
have interop with the viewer is like saying that you can browse the 
YouTube video library when you have disconnected your Internet 
connection. I don't think that would be realistic.

> The last point is particularly revealing:  provider A may have an 
> explicit agreement to interoperate with provider B, and provider B may 
> have an agreement with provider C, without A and C having any direct 
> agreement whatsoever.  Yet, an avatar registered on B and wearing an 
> unencumbered object from A will naturally be visiting world C, and the 
> worn object must continue to fulfil its normal purpose or interop has 
> failed.
>

Agreed!


>
> I see several other domains that should operate independently to free 
> metaverse inhabitants from the tyranny of tied choices.  Starting with 
> the first two for completeness, my minimum list would be:
>
>    1. Agent Domain (entry point for some agent-oriented services)
>    2. Region Domain (stateless world simulation services)
>    3. Communication Domain (groups, IM, PM, various transports)
>    4. Object Domain (storage of interoperable objects and avatars)
>    5. Execution Domain (delivery of power to OD objects)
>    6. Geographical Domain (terrain and topology services)
>    7. Fiscal Domain (everything to do with VW currencies)
>


I think this grouping is as good as any I've seen on this list so far. 
Thank you for putting it in reasonably clear terms, which I feel I have 
not managed to do myself!

Sincerely,

jw