More on "Sansar" as the Code Name For Linden Lab's Next Generation Grid

It was a few days ago on May 5 that Linden Lab announced the code name of their next generation virtual world still in development: Project Sansar. There's been some conversation here and there about it, such as the SL Universe forums, and New World Notes. Hamlet Au didn't like the name, "Sansar seems like such a silly name. I'm personally inclined to keep calling it Second Life 2 for now." It did remind him of two things. One was the name of the largest mainland continent in Second Life: Sansara. The other was Philip Rosedale's original idea for Second Life's name, "Sensarra."

Strawberry Singh posted in Twitter that "Sansar" was an actual word, meaning "world" in Sanskrit. It was also brought up the name could easily be twisted around in mocking ways, such as "Sexar." Adeon Writer explained a couple other meanings, "Sanasr is Turkish for Ferret. It's also some term for reincarnation. So reincarnated ferrets. And since the most important question to ask in a virtual world is 'Can you be a ferret?' I think the name is perfect."

Canary Beck in contrast to Hamlet Au thought the name was a good one, giving "Ten Reasons Why Sansar Would Be A Good Name For The Successor to Second Life." As listed, "It's unique, the dot-com TLD looks easy to acquire, it's easy to type and pronounce, it's easy to remember, it's short, it feels right, it's protectable, it carries no baggage, it's a place, not a life, it's exotic and visually extendable."

With all these in mind, I keep going back to the Turkish meaning of the word, ferret, and have this mental image of the new world being populated by masses of ferret Tinies, all doing the "Riverdance."

Bixyl Shuftan

Tonya Souther On Latest News of SL 2.0

Tonya Souther, the head of Firestorm's Apple Client team, recently had a few things to say about Ebbe Linden's recent talk about SL 2.0, or "Next Gen" as Linden Lab prefers to call it. Of their plans to not make the new virtual world open source, "possibly never," Tonya expressed her disappointment on her blog.

"... it doesn't speak well for their openness to NIH ('not invented here') ideas on the new platform. Basically, they're saying 'we know what's best for you, so shut up and eat your Brussels sprouts'. We've been here before. Remember Viewer 2? Yeah, me too. There's a reason that Firestorm has the overwhelming majority of users on Second Life, and Viewer 3 (the descendant of Viewer 2) is in third place: LL's viewer does not fail to suck. Users told LL all about that, loud and long - and LL didn't back off and didn't listen."

Toyna went on to say she could understand why Linden Lab was keeping their viewer closed - gaining control of their platform. Not being in control of it with Second Life  put them in "a very unenviable position for a business." But given their track record of listening to their customers with their first virtual world, how well does this bode for their viewer for the new one?

"... there has to be a happy medium there somewhere. I'm disappointed they're not even trying to find it."

For Tonya Souther's in it's entirety, click here.