The Guardian for this meeting was Storm Nordwind. The comments are by Storm Nordwind.

This discussion centers on the possibility that Linden Lab, who supplies and supports Second Life - the main means of communication for Play as Being - will swing its efforts into creating a successor to Second Life. The Firestorm website summarizes this as follows:

• The current plan is that the new platform will not be open source at least initially. (This means there will be no Third Party Viewer alternatives at least initially, and there will be a new viewer built by LL.) This could change over the course of time.
• LL intends to continue maintaining and developing Second Life while they develop the new platform and will operate them in parallel even after the new platform is launched. SL will remain as long as it is profitable for LL to continue operating it.
• The new platform will be built “in the spirit of Second Life” and will put focus on content creators as the primary customer. LL wants to make it so good SL users will want to migrate to it.
• Assets (inventory) from Second Life will “likely” not be transferable because they do not want to constrain what is possible by maintaing backwards compatibility. This wasn’t said with complete certainty, though, which suggests some content may be permitted.
• Second Life will continue to be improved, albeit on a smaller scale. Oz Linden is now Technical Director and in charge of a small team who will keep development in SL going.
• This new platform is still in very early stages, and it is unlikely even a beta will be seen before next year."

Storm Nordwind: Greetings!
Adams Rubble: Hello Storm :)
Storm Nordwind: What brings you here this fine day? :)
Adams Rubble: PaB?
Adams Rubble: :)
Storm Nordwind: Ah yes. I remember... ;-)
Adams Rubble: I am free this morning

Muppets: https://www.youtube.com/watch?<wbr/>v=cVGAxMo-kiw

Adams Rubble: It has been an interesting discussion on the group list
Storm Nordwind: The Phenomenology one?
Adams Rubble: yes
Adams Rubble: Nice to have Pema teach us some more for one
Storm Nordwind: yes.
Storm Nordwind: I find him very clear and uncluttered.
Adams Rubble: yes
Adams Rubble: I don;t know much about Daoism but Pila's suggestion about two sciences was interesting
--BELL--
Storm Nordwind: Yes. So many valuable points of view.
Storm Nordwind: And despite all the words, and the different points of view on the words, I just liked the original joke. :)
Adams Rubble: :)
Adams Rubble: yes, it was fun

The next generation may be a disconcerting daughter

Storm Nordwind: Did you see the thing about... er... what shall I call it.... hmmm... how about "Son of Second Life"?
Adams Rubble: or daughter :)
Storm Nordwind: less alliteration, sadly!
Adams Rubble: yes, it is a bit disconcerting
Adams Rubble: disconcerting daughter
Storm Nordwind: ha!
Adams Rubble: it would uproot friends and colleagues in addition to the physical disruptions
Storm Nordwind: I see it mostly as a positive step. This platform looks so old it will not attract the new blood anymore that will keep it profitable for a service provider.
Adams Rubble: hmmm
Adams Rubble: well, I guess those of us who are concerned will have to wait and see

Letting go

Adams Rubble: of course there is lots of stuff in people's inventories that should be archived in some way
Adams Rubble thinking of some of the wonderful places that have disappeared into inventories
Storm Nordwind: Perhaps it's a metaphor for life and its transience.
Adams Rubble: :) yes the Buddhist point of view
Adams Rubble: not the historiaan's point of view :)
Adams Rubble contemplates letting go of her inventory
Adams Rubble shudders
Storm Nordwind: Few things are durable enough to stand up to such changes, wrought by years, where they find themselves in very different contexts than they were originally planned for.
Storm Nordwind: We have the pyramids, for example, but how about the common laborer's wardrobe, and the toys of his children?
Adams Rubble: I think we have some of the toys :)
Adams Rubble: wardrobes only in paintings

A call for ideas

Adams Rubble: I see that SL seems to be stagnating but I do not have a vision of what it is missing I guess
Adams Rubble not good on the vision thing
Storm Nordwind: There was a call, almost a plea, at the end of the Firestorm article for ideas that might rejuvenate SL.
Storm Nordwind: But it is long past that possibility.
Adams Rubble nods
--BELL--
Storm Nordwind: The only rejuvenation could come with a new platform.
Storm Nordwind: The amount of work to shoehorn something into the existing SL, that would prolong its life, would be many times that of achieving the same but starting afresh. (Thus speaks the engineer!)
Storm Nordwind: And starting afresh supplies more potential.

A different and ancient view of Time, from northern Europe

Storm Nordwind: But your view of history is intriguing.
Storm Nordwind: It reminds me, obliquely, of old Heathen values.
Storm Nordwind: They did not have threefold time of past, present and future.
Storm Nordwind: They only had twofold time: past and non-past.
Storm Nordwind: When they looked to what we call the future, they were conscious of simply building new layers of the past.
Storm Nordwind: In a sense they walked backwards into the future, constantly conscious of building legacies.
Storm Nordwind: But they did walk.
Storm Nordwind: They didn't just look at the layers that were already there.

"What is missing?" is a leading question

Adams Rubble: what do you see missing from the currrent platform?
Storm Nordwind: That's a leading question! There is nothing missing, because that implies that something could be added or replaced to make it whole or satisfactory.
Adams Rubble: I am just trying to understand what is being sought

The right question

Storm Nordwind: The right question, in my view, is what experience does one want to have? Is the existing SL providing that experience? If not, how would one provide it? That is a very different kind of question.
Adams Rubble: OK, that one then :)
Adams Rubble: I am mostly happy with my experience
Storm Nordwind smiles
Storm Nordwind: But you have had that experience for a long time. It is a comfortable shoe that continues to serve. But the number of people who wear those shoes will continue to dwindle. Meanwhile the needs of the larger populace - well wishes, or what people will buy if it's sold them - are not being addressed. Those are the people who will define the new SL.
Storm Nordwind: So the answer is to look at what those people willingly and repeatedly pay money for to get an experience.

Money works both to reward and to point the way

Adams Rubble: is this mainly about money?
Storm Nordwind: In several ways...
Storm Nordwind: Yes there has to be some profitability for a platform developer.
Storm Nordwind: But yes the way people spend their money is an indicator of what experiences they consider to be enjoyable, or educating, or [insert adjective here], and therefore that will point the way for developers who want to create a new platform, whether they are are financially motivated or altruistically motivated.

Business models and story addicts

Adams Rubble: it is a funny model that the content providers are the ones who pay
--BELL--
Storm Nordwind: SL is unusual. And it's much harder to provide for than other worlds or experiences. It's too open-ended for businesses to invest in, because there is no dependency on content they can provide.
Storm Nordwind: That's why downloadable content is the way people [game providers] have gone.
Storm Nordwind: Few people sell games anymore that you buy once then do what you like.
Storm Nordwind: There's no money in that.
Storm Nordwind: Instead people sell stories that come to an end and have to have extensions bought for them, or new characters, or entirely new stories.
Adams Rubble: story addicts
Storm Nordwind: Yes. And the game providers are the pushers. Deliberately so. For that is the only way money can be made.
Storm Nordwind: Any other model will give us something - again - like SL. Which was fun and profitable to develop, and was a start for a while, but will languish and decline, because the returns from more development or support are too low.
Adams Rubble: and first step not allow third party viewers
Storm Nordwind: Indeed.
Adams Rubble shudders

Pixels perish

Adams Rubble: our avatar lives are numbered then
Storm Nordwind: All our lives are numbered! ;-)
Adams Rubble: we won;lt have to worry about getting olde :)
Storm Nordwind: Pixels perish. Eventually.
Adams Rubble: easy come, easy go
Storm Nordwind: And attachment brings suffering. As always.
Adams Rubble nods

Where is happiness?

Adams Rubble: is there a happy ending to this session?
Storm Nordwind: You already have the happiness within you. As do I. We can let it out and play. Or we can decline to listen to it. But it will always be there.
Adams Rubble: nice
Adams Rubble: It was nice seeing you this morning
Adams Rubble: I hope you have a very good day
Storm Nordwind: And you too. :)
Adams Rubble: bye for now :)
Storm Nordwind waves