Very much like DotNetNuke, there are a lot of folks who are devoting their free time to developing it. The current instructions on the website are not particularly designed for the newcomer.

The licensed server is BSD and it works using the recently ‘open-sourced’ version of the Second Life client. The standalone version allows you to control your own stuff in your own island or Islands. The grid version allows you to take it a step further… it allows you to connect your own ’sims’ to other Sims that other people have made on other servers.

Why is it relevant for DNN folks?

well, mainly because OpenSim is a BSD Licensed Open Source project to develop a functioning virtual worlds server platform capable of supporting multiple clients and servers in a heterogeneous grid structure. OpenSim is written in C#, and can run under Mono or the Microsoft .NET runtimes. Right now, compared with Linden lab's Second Life, Some stuff works, a lot doesn't. If it breaks, you get to keep both pieces.

Here are some of my worries!

One good news is that what you create with OpenSim is totally yours, totally private. The bad news IMHO is that when people do this they are likely to create many Forks, this will fragment the source and slow down progress. There are however, merits in running Second Life in a closed environment, prior to accessing a more public learning space. Ability to train users in a private world that they are comfortable with their first “real” in-world experience?

Also, this would mean that experimentation will be abandon, people don’t need to invest a lot of money for just playing around with the technology.

Salar Golestanian
Design, Programme and Skin it with DotNetNuke