I’ve been following the DataPortability conversation over at Google Groups for a while now. When I read about Open Grid I got all excited.

The Open Grid Protocol is developed by the Architecture Working Group which was initiated by Linden Lab, the creators of Second Life. The goal of the group is to define a standardized protocol which allows the above: Going from world to world without having an account everywhere.

sltestgrid.jpg

I wrote: I remember talking with SGI and other vendors about a VRML-based network that linked to the HTML world back in 1996, the same year I sat in a musty hotel room after Internet World coding up parts of IBM.com in VRML. Consider connecting to platforms like Sony Home, which could have many users in a short period of time if they play their cards right. Look into stuff like Tahoe for data storage, they’re already doing distributed datastores.

I went to check out the new SecondLife Beta Test Grid but was denied until I joined a special group. So much for openness, but look how cool the splash screen is.