There seems to be a lot of confusion about what an OpenSim Grid can /is suppose to provide. It is what everyone is trying to get their ideas around -- not just in the group project on which I am working. They are just the newest to the discussion table. To me, it's pretty clear. Everyone is correct. OpenSim can be and is whatever a person or group wants it to be.
That said, I think the best place to start discussing OpenSim and virtual worlds is with this poem by John Godfrey. I'll see you at the end of the poem with some more thoughts.
The Blind Men and the ElephantDo you think the elephant is less of an elephant because these men each had a different vision of the elephant? No. Of course not. Nor is God less God because we have different ideas. So what applies to the elephant and God also applies to OpenSim. OpenSim is not less because we as a whole group do not a whole view of it.
i.
IT was six men of Indostan
To learning much inclined,
Who went to see the Elephant
(Though all of them were blind),
That each by observation
Might satisfy his mind.
ii.
The First approached the Elephant,
And happening to fall
Against his broad and sturdy side,
At once began to bawl:
"God bless me!—but the Elephant
Is very like a wall!"
iii.
The Second, feeling of the tusk,
Cried:"Ho!—what have we here
So very round and smooth and sharp?
To me 't is mighty clear
This wonder of an Elephant
Is very like a spear!"
iv.
The Third approached the animal,
And happening to take
The squirming trunk within his hands,
Thus boldly up and spake:
"I see," quoth he, "the Elephant
Is very like a snake!"
v.
The Fourth reached out his eager hand,
And felt about the knee.
"What most this wondrous beast is like
Is mighty plain," quoth he;
"'T is clear enough the Elephant
Is very like a tree!"
vi.
The Fifth, who chanced to touch the ear,
Said: "E'en the blindest man
Can tell what this resembles most;
Deny the fact who can,
This marvel of an Elephant
Is very like a fan!"
vii.
The Sixth no sooner had begun
About the beast to grope,
Than, seizing on the swinging tail
That fell within his scope,
"I see," quoth he, "the Elephant
Is very like a rope!"
viii.
And so these men of Indostan
Disputed loud and long,
Each in his own opinion
Exceeding stiff and strong,
Though each was partly in the right,
And all were in the wrong!
moral.
So, oft in theologic wars
The disputants, I ween,
Rail on in utter ignorance
Of what each other mean,
And prate about an Elephant
Not one of them has seen!
It is not possible for us to completely understand a God we cannot yet see completely. On that we must wait.
But, However ...
An elephant ear is a glorious fan. An OpenSim Grid is a glorious classroom. An elephant trunk is undeniably a snake like no other. An OpenSim Grid is a playground like no other playground we are use to.
If the blind men had each continued on to explore, instead of stopping to argue that only his view could be right, they would have discovered that the elephant has two fans, four trunks, a rope with a tassel, two swords, that the snake does not spew venom, and that an elephant is so much more solid than one wall! And do you think that maybe they would have eventually discovered the elephant could easily move them all along upon it's back? (Subject, of course, to the limitation of the length of it's back.)
It's pretty obvious the elephant suffered little. The community of learners -- they suffered much.
An OpenSim grid can easily carry everyone's ideas and it is so much more than what one first thinks or experiences. If we stop to argue that one view is more right or wrong than another view -- view, hope, idea, plan, dream, insert your favorite vision type word -- we will lose out.
The amazing thing to me is that it is not just the new people having these "discussions." People who have been around virtual worlds long enough to know the whole still argue that it be used according to one view -- maybe two. Why?
So, this post covers the first impression I got while out reading blogs on the topic at hand. Next up: Panic in Plenty.
