You set up your 3D object, and when someone clicks on it, they go to the webpage for that object.

PayPal Micropayments is particularly nice for this, since the charges are lower for small amounts.

The problem is the in-world delivery. You need some way to tell the vendor that the payment has gone through. PayPal has a secure API for doing this, that websites use before they, say, let you download the digital product you bought.

For this to happen right now in OpenSim you need to have a module running on the server that takes care of the payment acknowledgement. There are PayPal modules available from a variety of hosting companies, including Dreamland Metaverse. When they set up your region, they also set up the payment module.

You need a secure, server-side module on any open grid. The OMC currency, which works on multiple grids (something like 14 grids now), also uses a server-side module to confirm that the payment was made.

If you have a completely closed grid — like Second Life, for example, or one of the private grids with in-world currencies where every region is operated by the grid owner, then you can have the confirmation happen on the vendor level.

Maybe, someday, we’ll have some kind of secure pipes from in-world objects to the Web, but for now modules are the way to go.

- Maria Korolov
Editor, Hypergrid Business

i chalk her stuff poofing to OpenSim (although her pod home did not poof?)

I think DreamWalker is incredibly talented and was not trying to implement e-commerce. It’s not like we get a lot of traffic!

Besides, all her stuff was blown away the other day. Ding! Ding! Ding!

Maybe because of this post? Conspiracy theories, gotta love ‘em!

Nothing like being able to purchase it on the spot!

Even with what DreamWalker is working on, I don’t see that as an in-world currency?

You are not given back virtual tokens. This is not an in-world currency and you are not paying an object or paying an avatar.

What is the difference between the flow Ener outlined and being sent out to a PayPal page, purchasing an item, and having it delivered as an importable file, either by email or a download link off a website? (similar to what Rexxed.com does)

This is similar to buying the BrainBoard. I understand that automated delivery of an item could be a concern and reflect on Reaction Grid. The adoption of an in-world currency is a huge headache and comes with international law and a host of regulatory nightmares.

In the final analysis, a boundary needs to be clearly delineated and perhaps no items should be delivered in-world? For example, in moving from private to public grid, I lost my BrainBoard. Is that a liability of Reaction Grid? Or between the creator and the customer?

even though we often mention Reaction Grid in our blog posts, we are not spokespersons for Reaction Grid

we simply blog what we think and what our experiences are – Reaction Grid is a great OpenSim hosting solution

there are many options out there for OpenSim, including hosting it yourself

the OpenSim community is filled with wonderful and innovative people, providers, and vendors

in fact, many of our science builds are being included in an educational presentation to teachers and that is pretty neato burrito in our books =)

she is not implementing anything in Reaction Grid and we have reached out to Chris in the past about this

and to be very clear – this is not endorsed by Reaction Grid

caveat emptor