OpenSim (OS) and Second Life (SL) technology leave a lot to be desired. 
If they are ever going to take off, there needs to be a serious
redesign.  However, writing an entire virtual world system from scratch
is a huge job, especially for a tiny team.  So we will use the existing
OS and SL open source software as crutches, using them to run at least
one virtual world, while we slowly replace bits and pieces as we get to
them.  In this way, we can have our cake and eat it to.  Not having to
slave away for years just to get to the point where we have a single
avatar standing still in an empty world.

http://SledjHamr.org/ discusses our plans.

BTW, until there is something that actualy works, there will be nothing
in this master branch except this readme.  Look at the experimental
branch for the WIP code.