In light of the resurrection of 3rd Rock Grid, the legacy community of 3rd Rock Grid has been fielding a number of questions about their intentions. This piece is written to address those questions and to clarify the group’s status.
To firstly recap the grid’s history, Lazuli Pooraka was the owner after a short stint by Trucker who inherited 3rd Rock Grid from Terry in 2008. It was Lazuli’s vision that set the tone of 3rd Rock Grid thereafter.
3rd Rock Grid in this era supported the performing arts and ran regular events to support Médecins Sans Frontières. After a decade at the helm, Laz passed ownership on to the 3rd Rock Grid community. A core group of community members, the Stichting—which went on to form “Cultural Harbour”—took over its management.
This was a community built around ideals being handed the keys for self-determination, and cementing those ideals through the formation of a legal not-for-profit entity.
After this handover, the grid was migrated from Terry’s servers in the US to European servers to comply with the tax obligations of its not-for-profit registration in the Netherlands. The Stichting maintained support for performers and Médecins Sans Frontières, and extended its activities to the visual arts while also pursuing partnerships in the education sector.
With the move to new servers and a migration to Linux, an opportunity arose to improve the operational code of OpenSim, to better comply with European privacy laws. OpenSim relies on unencrypted HTTP for broad asset transmissions and remains highly vulnerable to hacking and other forms of privacy breach. This was seen as a prudent investment.
Unfortunately, the move to bespoke OpenSim code went badly. A contractor (who I will not name in this piece) hired to do this work oversold his competence. He not only failed to deliver the paid-for product, he also refused to hand over his working code, which left the grid teetering on a knife-edge as the implementation of his code was already in progress. Then three years ago in this precarious state, the untimely death of a 3rd Rock Grid IT person led to the collapse of the grid.
The community was at a crossroads. It had to make a choice between calling it quits; taking over a broken asset and investing heavily in its reconstruction; taking over the 3rd Rock Grid domain and building a new grid from scratch; or forming a community entity that was nomadic—independent of grid infrastructure and able to operate as an enclave within any established grid framework.
There were a series of community meetings where the consensus was reached to choose the latter option. We formed an independent entity that inherited the NFP obligations and status of Cultural Harbour and outsourced the grid infrastructure.
In retrospect, this was a smart move. A grid is not a URL or a name, it is a collection of people, a community,
and a collective purpose. Rebranded as 3rd Wind Community we embedded ourselves as an autonomous enclave in ZetaWorlds on a dedicated server managed by Zeta. Our reboot was seamless through OARs and IARs.
Aside from autonomy, the biggest win for us has been financial sustainability. Running an independent grid involves technical management and the constant financial vulnerability of matching income to outgoings. By offloading the grid infrastructure and administration to the ZetaWorlds team, the community has been able to pass its infrastructure savings directly to its members. Our land rate card starts at just $2.50 per month for a megaregion.
Even at these very low rates, 3rd Wind operates at a surplus. Every extra dollar feeds back towards its mission of supporting the arts. Our books are open for members and the community controls fiscal allocation and governance. Our Cultural Harbour mission is a patron of the virtual arts, actively funding live performing artists and promoting visual artists through its flagship Nuna Gallery.
Nuna operates under the Public Gallery (educational) model; its main gallery is on ZetaWorlds while a busy satellite gallery operates in Second Life, bridging to a larger virtual community. Nuna’s creative reach extends into physical print via Nuna Gallery Press, which acts as an active art book publisher.
It is not just the arts that found a safe haven in the Zeta enclave. 3rd Wind is also the home of Starfleet Infinity, an active roleplay and gaming group. Built on the legacy of the United Federation Starfleet branch, this group now boasts 15 years of uninterrupted history. The stability of the ZetaWorlds exoskeleton ensures that this long-standing community can continue its mission for years to come.
Unexpected grid closures are (sadly) a risk of the Opensim adventure. Our story proves that a grid closure does not have to mean the end of a community. By choosing cooperation over isolation, and an enclave model over an independent grid, we have built a stronger, richer, and more secure home. There are no owner or shareholder mouths to feed. We are an enclosed ecosystem.
We are always happy to share our knowledge, resources and experiences with anyone facing a similar hurdle or interested in trying out our OpenSim model for themselves. And of course we wish Terry good luck with his new owner-grid venture, which is not affiliated with 3rd Wind.
Alia Soulstar is the avatar of a New Zealand based writer, artist, designer. She is a member of the 3rd Wind Steering Committee.