[liberationtech] OSAvatars Preview

[Ina Centaur]

Dear Educators, Nonprofits, OpenSim / SL Creators and Users -- and
Believers of Laissez-Faire:

Today I am announcing the availability of OSAvatars.com – an open
source repository of avatars and avatar components for OpenSim. The
Spring 2011 Collection is currently open for advance preview (with a
few items more to come). The entire archive and source will be
available for download for free by the public in March. Yes, this
repository is available for all to use, for free!

I want those in the OpenSim and Second Life ecosystem to be aware that
this is a collection of quality avatars being opensourced. It is my
hope that this helps provide a much-needed source of freely-available
quality content to be used and modified, bypassing the need for
participating in a cut-throat microeconomic system. As some of you may
be aware, I have become immensely disillusioned by the heavily
materialistic Second Life system. In that respect, consider this
content the stark opposite of that:

Here's free love -- via free content, to use and reuse, and to grow
from. Please spread the news! - http://OSAvatars.com



For OpenSim educators and nonprofits:

OSAvatars.com content is provided freely – please don't be scammed
into paying for it!!! New items will be released periodically on
OSAvatars.com, and requests taken per demand and time constraints.
While I cannot accommodate all requests, I hope that this selection
and future items will be of use in your endeavors in OpenSim-based
virtual worlds.



For Creators:

In creating and releasing an open source collection of virtual goods,
in an ecosystem where third party creators rely on micro-transactions,
I run the risk of disturbing the economy. In other words, by releasing
free content, I am in danger of being labeled as a traitor to
creators. To this possibility, I want to assure creators that, while
of good quality, the content I have open-sourced is not that of the
finest quality that you see on SL. I consider these mainstream
medium-quality content items. Anyone is certainly free to modify and
finetune them, and those who put in the immense amount of time to
create those highest quality items in this economy should not find
their markets affected.


Ina Centaur,
Feb 2011