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February 2008
Zoning in the New New World
apollo [blog] Mon 25th @ 06:23 EST
ldpw, mainland, sl-general
One of the joys of Second Life is the ability residents have to create and control their own surroundings, but it is also true that when many people with divergent tastes and goals occupy adjoining land areas things can quickly degenerate into chaotic build jumbles. Of course it is possible for groups of like-minded residents to band together to retain control of their environment, such as the Luskwood community on the SL mainland or the set of private sims that make up the Independent State of Caledon, to name two examples quickly, but these kind of endeavors are somewhat infrequent when compared to the size of the Grid overall.
There are many problems with trying to effect this type of project, especially on the mainland where it can be very difficult to acquire contiguous blocks of land and where resident control of the sim at the Estate level generally doesn't happen. This situation often leaves SL with a distinctively jumbled sense of style; full of wonderful creative energy, raw, primal and free. While rampant creativity is certainly not a bad thing, it can make for a confusing or disjointed experience for visitors and explorers of the Grid, and often leaves SL bereft of a publicly owned "showpiece" build.
Linden Lab has previously attempted to remedy this by creating zoned sims, where key infrastructure is provided by Linden-managed land and the overall theme and style of the sim is enforced by a Linden, but these projects have often been on a small scale like Boardman or undertaken as a short term project like the Shermerville sims were originally. Now after a break from their previous zoning efforts, the Lab has recently begun discussing The Linden Department of Public Works:
The Department of Public Works is a new program being launched and is all about improving the experience for users living on, or visiting the Linden Mainland.
It will be intriguing to see how this latest zoning effort plays out. The early information surfacing about it makes it seem as though it is very well planned and has a clear focus. With the right resident builders signing up, this could be a wonderful showpiece for SL.