On Offworld

Any day of the week, no matter what the season, you'll find music and dance parties happening all over Opensim. It is one of the enduring and vivifying features of the hypergrid culture. I asked popular German DJ Genie Fegte to say why he thinks this is so.

Genie Fegte: Music is international and lets you forget the problems of the world for a moment. Music can connect people, even across language barriers. You enjoy the music together and shut everything negative and evil out of your head for a while. I think that's a main reason why parties are so popular in virtual worlds.

Offworld grid is a popular spot for dancing on Friday evenings, European time. It's a grid with a long history, all the way back to 2007 when the owner, Genie Fegte, set up his first opensim grid called  "Land of Vikings". This of course was before hypergridding became a commonplace in opensim, pre-mesh, and things were still pretty basic and often very unreliable. 

Genie Fegte:  I never let that put me off and continued working with Opensim. I am a perfectionist and when I have a problem in front of me, I sit on it until it is solved. I got my first computer in 1988. There was no real internet or pre-made programs. So I learned to program from magazines and books. Everything I know about computers today I taught myself.

Dorena Forever !

 Our two destinations this week took us to places of great historical significance in the history of opensim, now reaching well into its second decade. Grids and projects, residents and regions have all come and gone over these many years, and the virtual is often dismissed as temporary - a fad, a transient pastime. But our stops on this Safari prove that the situation is to a large extent otherwise. Through the vicissitudes of  code and server reliability, in the face of drama and data loss, some regions and their residents have endured and flourished.

This week we celebrated with Dorena her birthday which is just a week or so separated from the 'birthday' of the Germán grid that bears her name. Anachron Young invited us to a party on a spot full of meaning for the grid -the original sim where the whole adventure began!.

Dorena1 Verne: nice to see you:-)

Loru Destiny: Hello welcome Safarians :-)

James Atlloud: 32 avatars!  wow