The mission of the SharedUniverse project is to protect and enhance each person's Online Computing Freedom in the Virtual World.
What Problems Are We Trying to Solve?
Freedom: If we build the Virtual World infrastructure with Free Software, it will ensure the users' freedom (i.e. not locked-in to and constrained by a service provider to which he has entrusted all of his data). This becomes increasingly important as more and more of life's activities have a component in the online Virtual World.
Integration: As we become increasingly dependent on online virtual world services, it is not appropriate that those services should be segregated in silos of functionality provided by commercial service providers who are in competition with each other. The Virtual World is too important for that. Users will demand (and indeed they deserve) control over their data and integration of their services.
Our Strategy is Pragmatic and Incremental
Start with a Free Software base for a Content-Management and Community Management System (Drupal).
Implement identity aggregation tools to export and ensure free access to personal data currently stored in numerous service providers (i.e. Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, GMail, Hotmail, Yahoo!Mail, etc.) (see dataportability.org, and specifically, the GraphSync project)
Integrate existing partially-free virtual world services (i.e. Google, Yahoo, etc.).
Coordinate and integrate existing Free Software projects and their technologies to create a full stack of virtual world services built with Free Software. This will create Free alternatives to proprietary services where necessary and integration between them regardless.
Host them all in a Free (community supported) online virtual world, SharedUniverse.net, as a reference installation.
We are in the initial organizational stages of this project.
If you would like to begin using SharedUniverse.net, go here to see what the home page might look like for users rather than developers and contributors.
What is the rationale for all of this? Read on ...
We are all affected by the Virtual World.
What do the following all have in common?
Group collaboration, perhaps using Google Groups, Yahoo Groups
E-mail, perhaps using GMail, YahooMail, Hotmail
Instant Messaging, perhaps using Skype, PidginIM, Google Chat, Jabber, Yahoo IM, AIM, MSN IM, ICQ, Meebo, Mebeam
Desktop sharing, perhaps using Webex, GoToMeeting, VNC
Social Networking, perhaps using Facebook, Myspace, LinkedIn, Plaxo
SMS Text Messaging, perhaps using Twitter, Jaiku, Pownce
Telephone System Integration, perhaps using Jott, FreeConferenceCall.com
Blogging, perhaps using Blogger
3-D Virtual Worlds, perhaps using SecondLife, Google Earth, There, Active Worlds, Kaneva, any number of MMORPG games: World of Warcraft, Runescape, etc.
Photo Sharing, perhaps using Flickr, Picasa
They are all virtual world services, and we are all becoming ever-increasingly dependent on them.
So, what if those websites started changing the implicit agreements about their use?
We need a Free Software stack that can provide these services. This preserves our Freedom and exerts influence on the partially free service providers to make their services increasingly free.
And when are they all going to be integrated?
Competing commercial entities will never integrate the online Virtual World for the public's benefit.
This will only be done with a Free Software project.
The pages in this guide contain the philosophy, vision, guidelines, and requirements for the SharedUniverse online virtual world.
An Economy of Sharing
Overview
Free Software gives rise to unprecedented economic realities and possibilities. For the first time in history, significant amounts of economic value are able to be created with near zero variable cost. Software is essentially free to duplicate and run, and it can dramatically benefit its users. This raises new possibilities for the advancement of human good if a way can be made to pay the fixed costs and produce the software in the first place.
An Economy of Sharing
Two kinds of free economies can be envisioned: an economy of ownership, where software is owned and its use and distribution is restricted, and an economy of sharing where software is shared freely and each person gains much more than he has contributed. Both are rational economies, and the latter has the greatest power for the advancement of human good. Furthermore, this economy is happening.
A Defining Speech
The following is a speech given by Eben Moglen, the General Counsel for the Free Software Foundation in June 2007. Among many other things, he speaks about the economy of sharing as opposed to the economy of ownership.
Online Computing Freedom - Online Computing Freedom is the ability to choose and change your service provider(s) of virtual world services at will, to take all of your data with you, and to modify or retract the data you have entered
from non-favorable service providers. An increase in user freedom means
increasing the power of the users and decreasing the power of the
service providers. A user who is enjoying Online Computing Freedom is
not locked-in to or constrained by a service provider to which he has
entrusted some of his data.
Freedom - (for completeness, we provide a general definition) Freedom is the right, or the capacity and ability, of self-determination as an expression of the individual will, not subject to the coercion or constraint of another as a result of the exertion of their power [dict.org] [Wikipedia] [Wikipedia] [Webster]
Free Software - Software is Free Software if it confers certain freedoms on the its users [gnu.org]. Those freedoms allow the user of the software more control over the things he does with software. This is increasingly important, as more and more of our lives depend on software. Software that has been made Free under the GNU GPL guarantees that it will continue to be Free Software [gnu.org]. Free software has much greater potential to benefit society than does proprietary software [gnu.org].
The Real World - The "real world" is the world we experience with our senses apart from the assistance of technological communications systems such as the internet. We intuitively understand the notions of "human rights" and "ethics" in the real world. Some view the internet and the services that we use online as products (i.e. entertainment products, news products, personal productivity products). However, as society comes to depend on the Virtual World as an extension of the Real World, a part of living, rather than as a product one optionally purchases, a whole set of new ethical standards are introduced.
Life's Activities - A reference to "Life's Activities" in this context is specifically a
reference to those activities in real life which (increasingly) have a component in
the online (virtual) world. Some of life's activities are: to express one's self, to communicate, to organize, to learn, to conduct business and engage in commerce, to explore, to create, and to find entertainment.
The Virtual World - In the context of the SharedUniverse
Project, the "Virtual World" refers to online extensions to life
activities from the real world. Ethics, morality, and social
sensibilities which apply to the real world should be extended to
similar activities in the virtual world. The "Virtual World" refers to
just about everything that happens on the internet. The terms "worldwide web" and the
"internet" refer to the technological means by which this occurs, but
the term "virtual world" emphasizes that the activities are an
extension of the real world. This is a much broader usage than simply
referring to a "3D Virtual World" as might be customary [see Wikipedia].
Virtual World Services - Virtual world services are services which enable us to accomplish life's activities using technology such as computers, networking, and telephony. i.e. e-mail, instant messaging, video conferencing, discussion forums, blogging, etc. These are the services which allow us to act and interact in a virtual world.
Increasing Dependence - Humanity is adopting online virtual world services and becoming increasingly dependent on them. When a new online virtual world service appears, it is treated more as a commercial service offering. You can take it or leave it, and if the service provider requires you to agree to inappropriate terms (in the EULA), you generally accept them without resistance. Often, the service is offered at no charge in order to spur adoption, because the value to each person is increased if the number of people participating increases (i.e. the "network effect"). However, as adoption increases and people increasingly depend on the services for the extension of real life activities, the ethical balance tips away from the rights of the service provider to the rights of the user. Consider the public policy issues regarding telephones for a well-understood example of this.
Every Person - Online Computing Freedom is an issue of basic human rights. The online world is simply an extension of the real world. Therefore, the freedom we are working to protect and extend are familiar and basic freedoms that pertain to all people without discrimination.
Partially Free Virtual World Services - tbd
Free Virtual World Services - tbd
Full Stack of Virtual World Services - tbd
The Virtual World infrastructure - tbd
Silos of Functionality - tbd
Commercial Service Providers - tbd
Users' Data - tbd
Users' Services - tbd
Content-Management System - tbd
Community Management System - tbd
Community Supported - tbd
A Reference Installation - tbd
Likeminded Organizations
The following are organizations, projects, and websites which seem to be like-minded with the SharedUniverse Project in the pursuit of users' freedom.
The mission of the SharedUniverse project is to protect and enhance each person's Online Computing Freedom in the Virtual World by doing the following:
Envision a Free Virtual World enabled by a set of Integrated Virtual World Services (to be called collectively, the SharedUniverse Software).
Articulate the Vision for a Free Integrated Virtual World so that like-minded contributors can bring benefits to all in an economy of sharing.
Coordinate among Free Software Developers and Partially Free Service Providers to create an Increasingly Free implementation of this SharedUniverse Software. The spirit of the project is to cooperate with anyone who furthers the goals of the public in creating a Free Virtual World. The software is envisioned to be made up of hundreds of Free Software projects currently being developed.
Host a Free (community-supported) reference installation of this SharedUniverse Softare on SharedUniverse.net in such a way that it can freely interoperate with other installations, thus making a true online SharedUniverse.
The following pages contain the philosophy, vision, guidelines, and requirements for the SharedUniverse online virtual world.