First Maria, good article. Well-written and well-thought out. I don't necessarily agree with it, but that's not a requisite of writing a good article. It presented food for thought and basis for a good discussion, and that's what I look for in a good blog.
At one time it wasn't really all that important what is a grid and what isn't. It's all small stuff. But it's starting to get to the point that it matters-- because statistics and "bragging rights" are being formed based on discussions of "grids"-- and it's becoming increasingly obvious that comparisons are being made to unrelated items. As you point out there are commercial grids, hobbyist "grids", educational grids, private business grids... and we get to the point people are wondering what it is we're talking about.
I appreciate you pointing to the blogsite at Elf Clan. I believe between that article and this one, this discussion is discussed pretty well-- and can still be discussed. I've updated that article to refer to this page as well. That kind of inter-blog cooperation is most beneficial.
http://elfclan.ning.com/profil...
I'm afraid I do have to agree with Linda in this one. It is likely just now becoming time to start defining and making a differentiation between "grids" (or whatever term we wish to use). I don't see a distinction between a commercial and social grid; in a way, aren't all grids "social" in some form?
We might question: should a one-sim no-signup installation should be called a grid under any definition? There's technically no "grid" there; it's one spot of land and the term of "grid" really doesn't apply. It may also be considered that a private installation (such as an artistic display) accessible only by the hypergrid is not in itself a grid; it is accessed by a grid. Do we wish to label the hypergrid a "grid"? I'm afraid I don't have a ready answer for that... since the hypergrid is more a VR highway than an actual grid... and thus potentially misnamed from the start.
An example given by a user on the Elf Clan site was that of a "country". While there are always exceptions to a rule, generally a country (example: Inworldz) has "states" or similar concepts (Elf Clan) which in turn has cities or towns (sims). Are we going to look at an installation with one sim and call it a "country"? It really doesn't compare in my mind. Two different things.
We used another illustration: a personal library, no matter how large and well-organized, would not be included in a research paper on "Public Libraries in the United States". It would have to meet certain criteria and qualifications. It's a "library" yes-- and maybe some view "grids" in a similar generic-term manner-- but I don't observe that's how most people view the term. As Zauber Paracelsus stated, most people view the term "grid" as referring to a "virtual world". That involves more than setting up a single sim on a home computer.
When we analyzed the concepts of TYPES of grid on the Elf Clan site-- it became apparent that when using the term "grid" as generally discussed in everyday conversation, there were about one dozen out of the 228 claimed grids that actually qualified in all aspects. That dozen seems to me to be a little more realistic according to personal experience. When we go out looking for "grids" I don't find 228 I can easily access and find a "virtual world"; we find about a dozen, if that.
Perhaps the differentiation that could be used is between "grid" and "installation"... which has already been used repeatedly in discussion. We can fully comprehend the concept of a "virtual installation" or an "OpenSim installation". But when something is called a GRID... like Linda points out that carries generally-perceived connotations that should be observed-- especially when one is doing statistical and growth analysis.
In every field, technical or otherwise, new definitions regularly need to be formed, or old definitions better defined and established. As a very good example, I discovered last year that the medical field has changed the meaning of the term "open heart surgery". At one time that meant opening the chest and doing heart surgery. Now there is a differentiation between "open heart" surgery (where the heart itself is cut into, "opened")... and "open chest" surgery (where the chest is split and opened). Why was this change required? Because lapriscopic (remote robotic arm surgery) has eliminated some instances of needing to open the chest to do open-heart surgery. So they changed the definition to meet the circumstances.
When there was just Second Life and nothing else... the term "grid" was irrelevant and used interchangeably. But today with other companies, schools, businesses, artistic and hobbyist installations popping up all over the place, thus the need to reconsider the origin of the term (which now seems a bit outdated), and form/recognize a modern definition that better fits common use of that term. We would not wish to ignore the change of perception in this and cling to old, outmoded definitions that obviously no longer apply.
Again even at that... to apply the term "grid" to single sim units, as far as I can tell never was valid. To be a grid, at the simplest concept... one would have to be a GRID... a matrix of sims. But by today's terms, that basic concept would seem too simplistic.
According to modern usage... it seems that "grid" is becoming more synonymous in the minds of most users as 'a virtual world with an owner/opertor and public signup'. I'm not presenting that as set-in-marble... just as a concept to throw out there for further discussion. : )
Personally, I think it would be a simple matter to recognize the difference in modern usage between a GRID (a virtual world) and an INSTALLATION (someone running OpenSim or similar software). We also have to make room for the concept that someone may develop (at some time) a totally different concept in software and it too will be a virtual world. If that happens, we may have to consider additional definitions.