Linden Lab, the company behind the the 3D world of Second Life has plans to institute a certification scheme for resident builders and scripters. Though many have signed up to participate in the forming of such a program together with Linden staff, there is an undercurrent of fear among some residents generated by the belief that the plan will cause a divide, and that it goes against the spirit of open sourcing the client and server software as has long been Linden's stated plan.
Linden says that they "believe this will benefit Residents, Developers, and anyone who wishes to use Second Life by clearly identifying both key skills and the holders of those skills" and that is is their "intent to work with an external certification provider to offer certification testing and maintain a list of those Residents who have been certified."
This has caused Tony Walsh to declare:
In my opinion, this is a stupid, unnecessary plan which runs contrary to the company's stated goal of opening up its entire virtual world system from server to client. Various company reps have suggested at one time or another that the logical pathway for Second Life is a form of 3D World Wide Web. Guess what? The web doesn't have a certification program: Any idiot with the right tools can slap up a web page. That's both the beauty and horror of the web, and I wouldn't have it any other way.
And I can't say I disagree. It would seem that providing such a governmental scheme and creating such a divide would run totally against the spirit of Open Source. But then we do have a Redhat certification program for Linux engineers, and even Google and Microsoft run similar programs, so why not Second Life?
Prokofy Neva says, in a scathing condemnation of the plan:
While some will welcome the system as representing a much-needed quality control for the world, the system poses serious questions not only about openness for creativity inworld and the free market of goods and services, but the Lindens' real intentions about "getting out of governance" when in fact, they're instituting a quisling/overlord system with a program that certifies what are likely to be their long-time pets as "the most skilled".
And therein lies one of the biggest problems for Linden I think. The move toward certification, which they say will launch late this year cannot help but to create a divide between those that have and those that have not been certified. Only time will tell for sure, but my gut feeling is that this is a bad move for Linden and Second Life that will leave a sour taste in the mouths of many skilled inworld creators.
