I spoke with Latif Khalifa today about the Radegast viewer. I wanted to know if I’d still be able to use it come April 30. He said probably yes, but he wasn’t sure about any further development. When I asked why, he said it was specifically sections 7A and 7D of the LL third-party viewer policy that made him question if he wants to continue working on Radegast. If he doesn’t continue development, he says the client will still be available. I suppose someone else who knows how to program could take over Radegast and continue development and list it in the viewer directory, if it came to that.
It seems to me there are two separate issues tied up in all this.
1. Obviously, LL has made the policy seem very intimidating to third-party viewer providers. You can view the entire policy, including sections 7A and 7D at:
http://secondlife.com/corporate/tpv.php
He (Latif) seems to feel that if I were to, say, delete my home using Radegast, he could be held responsible.
2. Linden Lab has explicitly stated twice now that they are depending on third parties to handle access to Second Life for people with disabilities. On the other hand, just yesterday one of them said that access to Second Life is “all about choice.” It’s not “all about choice” if Lindens won’t even attempt to do any work to make their own viewer accessible. It’s not choice if I will be forced to rely on MaxVoice, Max the Guide Dog, and another viewer when I can do much more with Radegast, especially if Radegast is blocked from SL as of April 30. Max and the associated programs track usage and other data of which I am not aware, and that makes me very uncomfortable. Let’s not forget that Virtual Helping Hands has a history of “outing” people who use their product, without that person’s consent.
Even if Radegast is allowed to be used to connect to SL, if Latif feels he can’t in good conscience continue development, people with disabilities will fall farther and farther behind. There’s a real chance that people with disabilities who can’t use the standard viewer will be prevented from accessing Second Life.
What can be done to prevent this? Well, get informed first. Wade through all of the policy and make what sense of it you can. If you’re not happy, send notes or emails to Lindens expressing your thoughts on the situation.
Maybe we need to talk to some lawyers, and start putting pressure on the schools who use SL, and start filing Section 508 complaints against the government agencies who use it, and bring pressure that way.
April 2, 2010 at 3:33 pm |
Virtual Ability does not exclude a court case at this moment. As for Radegast, it is great, but at least as a temporary solution, Metabolt is part of official 3rd party viewer directory… ( http://viewerdirectory.secondlife.com/listing/show/listing_id/118 ). It does look like a cheap copy of Radegast, with lots of advertisement attached. I am still curious where it came from – to repeat, it looks like a copy of Radegast! – and whether Metabold is pressuring LL to ban Radegast currently.
April 2, 2010 at 5:10 pm |
Hi. Thanks for your comment.
I have tried Metabolt; it’s not nearly as accessible as Radegast is. I realize it would be an alternative for some disabled SL residents, but at the present time it won’t work for me. But as I say in my latest post, Radegast isn’t gone yet. You can get it at:
http://code.google.com/p/radegast/downloads/list
The URL has changed, but it’s there at least.
April 2, 2010 at 5:14 pm |
Hi, Ju. I am curious about your statement “Virtual Ability does not exclude a court case at this moment.” We know all the officers of Virtual Ability, and I haven’t heard anything from them to indicate a court case from that direction. May I ask where you got your information?
Nor have we heard anything about Metabolt pressuring anybody against Radegast. If you want to see more of what is going on with the Third-Party Developers Versus LL, check out https://lists.secondlife.com/pipermail/opensource-dev/ But put on your asbestos underpants, it’s flaming in there right now!
April 3, 2010 at 8:03 am |
Talvin, I am sure that I used the expression non verbatim. And as a non-native speaker, I apologize. Hurting Virtual Ability is the last thing I would do. I am more than sure that suing under accessibility-governing laws is the last resort option for all organizations that are doing the hard work bringing access to virtual worlds. So if I sound inflammatory in my first comment, please delete it.
Btw I started talking to geeks that would be able to create opensource plug-ins into V2.0 (I am not a programmer myself, just a supporter of cause; I hear from the geeks that doing that work should be possible). Correct me if I’m wrong, but the blind need Radegast to be there. And LL better hear that.
April 15, 2010 at 7:19 pm |
You might want to talk to Claudia Linden at her OH on Thursdays 15:00 SLT on Ambleside about these issues. I am sure she would also point out that the TPV policy is being considered by Joe Linden at the moment.
April 15, 2010 at 7:26 pm |
Graham, we are very much aware of the ongoing discussions with Joe Linden. It does not look at all promising.
If Claudia wants to have an Education Market to work with, she will put pressure on the rest of the team to change the policy that “Accessibility is the responsibility of Third-Party Volunteers”. LL needs to understand that “Separate But Equal” was struck down in this country. LL itself MAY be safe from a lawsuit directly (or MAY NOT!), but some of the big-ticket customers they are courting are by no means so secure.
If we don’t see a sea change very soon, every Federal Agency that has a presence in SL is going to get a Section 508 complaint. Once the Feds and the Education Market start bailing out of SL to avoid getting sued, maybe FINALLY LL will listen to what we have been telling them.
April 16, 2010 at 2:54 am |
I totally agree with you re accessibility and the new viewer and said as much in chat during the T Linden Metanomics broadcast. However, accessibility does not necessarily equate with Radegast (much as I like it) and LL would presumably generate an accessibility package based on what is already available, i.e. Max-based. Otherwise I suspect you are right in implying that many institutions with a small presence, i.e. most, will choose to pull out of virtual worlds (not just SL) rather than get involved in litigation. Education is actually quite a small market for LL (5%?) so they could decide simply to refocus. Of course, I’m not an expert; these are just my guesses.
April 16, 2010 at 9:34 am |
Max does not offer even half of the options and capabilities that Radegast does.
Too, Virtual Helping Hands’ leaders have a long history of ignoring the “Non-Disclosure” portion of the Terms of Service, which the Lindens have chosen to ignore despite complaints.
This is part of why I started the ScriptAble Project. I have heard too many horror stories about people who were just looking for some discreet Assistive Tech and instead got co-opted into being another VHH Poster Child.
Asking people to trust VHH is simply NOT an option. The leadership is not to be trusted, as we have learned to our sorrow.
June 27, 2010 at 12:59 am |
“Maybe we need to talk to some lawyers, and start putting pressure on the schools who use SL, and start filing Section 508 complaints against the government agencies who use it, and bring pressure that way.”
Fuck yeah, take it to the e-courts! You should really try to get the Obamas on your team, perhaps they can make a difference.