"Not Rooting for Reuters" or "How I Learned About Journalistic Integrity the Hard Way"
So, I finally had my first bad experience with journalism in my efforts as the guy who does Virtual World Evangelism and I wanted to share it with you. Not only because it is a great example of what journalism should NOT be but also because I wanted to set the record straight. To that end, here is where you can find the original "article" written by Eric Reuters (his avatar name):
http://secondlife.reuters.com/stories/2008/07/18/microsoft-eyes-integration-between-opensim-and-windows-live-id/
And now to my reaction to it. First, let me begin by saying that LiveID was NOT the topic of discussion at all we were talking about Virtual World Evangelism and how I was helping the community. Eric took it upon himself to latch on to the LiveID topic without even digging into the details. In the hour-long conversation we had probably only 5-10 minutes of the conversation about integration this. So, without further ado, here are my comments on the Reuters article (NOTE my comments are preceded by //):
SECOND LIFE, July 17 (Reuters) - No one’s really sure yet how avatar identities will be managed in a chaotic world filled with thousands of interoperable OpenSim grids. But Microsoft believes it has a solution: its own Windows Live ID.
// This isn't a Microsoft effort, it is a community effort. Microsoft has no articulated strategy with regard to avatar identity management at this point.
Zain Naboulsi, a “developer/evangelist” at Microsoft looking closely at OpenSim, said the company seeks to integrate at least three of its free services into the evolving open source package: coding tool C Sharp Express; SQL server express, Microsoft’s database platform to handle OpenSim’s inventory calls; and Windows Live ID, a identity-management tool.
// Okay, first of all, I'm a Developer Evangelist without the "/" and, yes, we--the community and I--are absolutely looking at OpenSim as one of many alternatives to the virtual world space. We love Second Life as a venue but realize that there are other emerging worlds and want to explore them. Second, Microsoft isn't doing anything of the sort. The .NET Community led by Kyle (http://www.sldnug.net) is making all this happen. I just help out by asking questions of the product teams or the like as needed. Finally, C# Express is a free IDE and I'm not sure how you would integrate it with OpenSim. As for SQL Server Express and Windows LiveID, the community wants to make that happen and they have in fact done it recently with SQL Server by getting the supporting code into the OpenSim trunk. The credit for that goes to our very own Chris Hart (http://blogs.ipona.com/chris/Default.aspx) for helping make that happen.
Naboulsi insists he’s not out to sell software — all three of the technologies are free. But as OpenSim continues to gain traction, tying Microsoft technology into OpenSim’s code increases the pool of developers allied with Redmond. And if OpenSim takes off, a Windows Live ID-based avatar identity gives Microsoft a leg up against the identity management tools offered by Google, Yahoo, and OpenID.
// Yeah, I don't sell software we have sales people to do that. Nowhere in my job description does it say I have any sales commitment of any kind. My job is simple, engage with and help the community of .NET Developers that exists. I suppose we get a "leg up" if people use LiveID, but it is less about that in my mind than just making it easier to log into a virtual world. Personally, I hate not having a more unified login experience for all kinds of things not just virtual worlds.
In an interview with Reuters last week, Linden Lab VP Joe Miller said he expected OpenSim to grow rapidly in the future, but said Linden will target monetizable “value-added services.” A Microsoft move into avatar identity management could potentially put Linden Lab in competition with Redmond.
//Okay, once again, Microsoft is NOT moving into the avatar identity management space as far as I know. I work with the community and this entire conversation I was telling Eric this he somehow conveniently forgot to mention the community was doing this and not Microsoft. I know sensationalism sells but it really has to take a back seat to the truth.
Internet giant Google opened its own line of attack against Linden Lab with the introduction of its “Lively” virtual world last week.
“We want to come out with a shipping version of OpenSim that integrates Live services and SQL Server,” Naboulsi said.
// Again, implying that Microsoft is going to ship a products here. No, the COMMUNITY wants to get this stuff in there and I am helping them. For the record, the community also wants to put in OpenID and other stuff as well so this isn't a Microsoft thing going on with the desire to have a simplified login experience.
Microsoft has already made rapid steps. Reactiongrid, an OpenSim area, is now running on SQL Server, Microsoft’s offering in the highly-competitive database market.
// Microsoft has helped the community make rapid steps, yes. I am very proud of that fact, by the way, and absolutely couldn't be happier with the amazing progress the community has made.
Naboulsi, a four-year veteran of Second Life, said Microsoft’s first entrance into virtual worlds was random and uncoordinated. The company had set up a “Microsoft Island” for a one-off event before abandoning it, and was planning on ending its Second Life presence.
// Yeah I never said this. In truth, it was sort of uncoordinated in that there were multiple MS islands but they didn't seem to communicate with each other much but there was nothing random about going into Second Life. If you know Microsoft at all you know that we don't do anything randomly. We research, gather metrics, have committees meet with sub-committees, and then more meetings with data then we move. Nothing random about it so that part is just patently false.
He tied his company back into the virtual worlds space by holding meetings of Microsoft developers in Second Life, and grew .NET user groups from 20 to almost 800 members. “We’ve been going like gangbusters on meetings here,” he said.
// Yes I did. After they held a big event the folks who bought Microsoft Island were just going to "turn it off". Naturally I thought that was a bad idea so they agreed to give it to me. I have "run" the island since Sept 2007. I put run in quotes because I really don't run jack. The community runs it, Microsoft just pays for the island the community has done everything else including make it look a million times better than when we first got it.
But where Naboulsi differs from Linden’s vision is that he’s emphatic 3D technology is not about having an alternate identity divorced from your real life self. Microsoft views virtual worlds as the natural evolution of online presence.
// I never, EVER said this. You are talking to a lifetime subscriber to "2600 The Hacker Quarterly" (http://www.2600.com) , do you honestly believe I would not consider privacy issues? Where the hell he got this I have no idea. I did mention that, in the future, I believe we will have more 3D integration with our desktop apps and that when you want to have a conference you will just go down a virtual hall to a conference room but that was clearly talking about inside the workplace not out on the Internet in general. For anyone to suggest that there should not be adequate levels of protection for your identity in this day and age is pure insanity and I personally have been a champion of online privacy for a very long time.
“I have zero interest in gaming,” Naboulsi said. “The future is a simplified 3D world on your desktop.”
// For me, this is actually true. I have no interest in virtual worlds as a gaming venue. I know they make great games, don't get me wrong but my passion is around education and business. So I want to see virtual worlds become the way we do distance learning or have meetings with co-workers around the world. I do it myself today with the community and it works great, I hope to see the whole planet use it this way one day.
// Let me just add one more thing to my response to this "article". Throughout the entire conversation, Eric missed the one big point I was trying to make about OpenSim and technologies like it: they will empower regular people to have a virtual world anywhere they want it. I have a dream that one day every person will have a little virtual world of their own if they want it and then can hook it into the main "grid" to hang out with other folks. This isn't just my dream the Virtual World community that Kyle runs has it, the OpenSim folks have it, and many other do as well. We are all working toward the same goal to achieve the dream of virtual worlds for everyone. I look forward to that day :)
