Dream Harder

Why OSGrid?

Apple introduced the iPad yesterday. To be honest, I’m not too impressed with the device. But it shows one thing: The internet is pervasive. It creeps into every corner, into every home, into every part of our lives. Mobile devices are the new black, because they allow us to take the internet anywhere we go on our daily chores. It also shows another thing, that is less obvious, but also true: Our lives move into the internet. Things that were firmly rooted in the physical world, are moving to the digital. Music. Newspapers. Books. Imagine: How many more things could be digitalized? How many more things are actually better when digitalized? How many things can be done more efficiently, economically and ecologically sensible and human-friendly on the internet? Selling? Counselling? Teaching? Creative work? Management? Accounting? Production?

Why OSGrid?

Apple launched a new store along with the iPad, called iBooks. It’ll change the way we buy books just as iTunes changed the way we buy music. There’s no need to go to a music mall anymore. There isn’t even need for CDs. But is it the same? Physical shops have functions that go beyond the simple sale, even though the sale is the final ‘product’. Salespersons are advisors, counsellors, friends and co-fans, they are people that ‘understand’ you in that specific field you’re interested in. They should be. They’re pros. If you go to an electronics store, you might need advice, and you expect the staff to be competent at what they tell you. Shopping on the internet lacks this advice. That’s why there are so many sites dedicated to testing things, explaining things, giving advice. Many more than anyone could possibly comprehend. They’re often contradictive, and confusing to people not very well adept at the subject. Advice is based on trust. You trust the shop assistant because he’s an employee at the shop. It’s his job to be an expert. How do you know whom to trust on the internet?

Why OSGrid?

Second Life is about social interaction. That’s its base concept, which makes it so incredibly popular. Leave the content, but take away all modes of interaction with other avatars, it will become empty within the day. It didn’t do something other programs didn’t allow their users to do before. It just allowed them to share it. To do it together. That’s the single key to its success. What are people doing on Second Life? Just what the name implies: Live. Make a home. Go out. Talk. Shop. Explore. Play. Listen to music. Have a life. The same concepts that apply to their first lives, apply to their second ones as well. If anything, Second Life is cheaper, easier, and more free than first life. It is easy to get beautiful things for your avatar. It is cheap to access all the content. And it is so free to allow you to create things just as you imagine them.

Why OSGrid?

Combine. It is cheaper, easier, more free to live in the digital. The internet is pervasive. You could do a lot of things over it. Where does this lead to? Imagine walking into a virtual bookstore. It is staffed with professional book sellers. They are experts, they provide advice, you can chat with them about your favourite authors. And you can buy books. Imagine going to a virtual representation of your town hall. You can fill out forms there, get advice from the employees about them, have virtual appointments. Dream harder. Imagine the books will be delivered to your home. Imagine the books will be instantly available on your iPad. Imagine, the books will be instantly available in your virtual world software client, to read in-world, or take them offline anywhere. Dream harder. Imagine to upload a full body mesh of yourself as an avatar. Imagine going to a virtual clothing store and have clothes customized, designed and tailored to your measurements in any way you want. Not for your avatar. For you. Delivered within a week. Dream harder.

Why OSGrid?

The internet is based on open protocols. Anyone can know how it works. Anyone can connect to it in any way. Anyone can go anywhere. People will want to have control over their content. They will want to have control over where they can go to, what they can take with them, what they can do on their servers. People will want to have control over themselves. Virtual worlds are facing two great challenges: Infrastructure and assets. Infrastructure means the technology to provide a virtual environment, that can be accessed by anyone. The technology to have a 3d ‘homepage’. One that uses a standardized protocol, to be accessible by any browser. People will not want to have to use one client for this part of the web, and another client for another part. Creating different platforms for virtual worlds is like having to use Firefox to access Amazon and the Internet Explorer to access Youtube. Assets means that people will want to retain their identity throughout the virtual worlds they visit. They will want to keep their appearance, their inventories, their content, their wallets. Nobody will want to have to remake themselves from scratch every time they enter a different part of the web.

Who will offer this technology? Who will want to offer it? Who will be able to make all this code, all these protocols, all this technology open and free for anyone to use? No business venture can do that. It would mean instant death to their business model. No national agency will be able to do that. It would conflict with their own ambitions and goals. Only a free, open, and non-profit community will be able to do this. And they do.

Why OSGrid?

William Gibson said in ‘no maps for these territories‘: “We’re using technology to extend the human neural system (…) The internet is a kind of global prosthetic extension of human consciousness. It wasn’t consciously intended as one, but it amounts to one. (…) It’s become the place where we do everything, it’s become the place where we look for everything. We’re doing something new here; it resembles something that we’ve done before, but it’s different. I think it’s probably as big a deal as the creation of cities.” We are building cities. The population of a medium sized town is online in Second Life at any minute, people from all over the world, speaking all kinds of languages, with all kinds of knowledge and professions. We are building cities. People are meeting not by physical proximity, but by common interests. People who are able to choose their peers from all over the world, who are free to indulge in the things that really interest them without constraints. We are building cities. We are working on letting people get access to things they really want faster, cheaper, more efficient and more personal than anything ever before.

The new cities will be the cities of the mind. Their foundation will be open, and free. Dream harder.