Viradu started out as something else . . . something called "The Science Fiction Cafe" in SecondLife.com. It was a small plot of virtual land on which I built a place that people from around the world (staying up in their relative time zones) could "meet in-world" to discuss their favorite science fiction movies, books and ideas. One person even showed up as a Dalek. It was all really very cool.
Overtime, I realized I wanted something more, most humans usually do. Even though SecondLife, our "original mother world", has a virtual economy (the Linden dollar) and you could buy virtual goods creating an avatar-persona, I wanted a lot of my own virtual land to build on and cheaply too. I thought the limitations on number of prims was too prohibitive, after optimizing there was only so much I could build on a small plot of virtual land without spending thousands of real dollars on a virtual island server.
Oh . . . to have my own server . . . to control my own virtual space on the cheap, to custom build virtual worlds! If that's what you want as well, then you are reading the right website. Initially, I wasn't interested so much in buying and selling virtual things as building and enjoying them myself, and with others. So along came Opensimulator and OSGrid and HIPPO viewer with my answer. Basically the open source version of build your own for cheap. I have since left OSgrid and have struck out on my own with the Diva Distribution of opensim on the "hypergate grids". You can find out more about this and "How to Build Your Own Virtual World With Opensim" at my new site RocketVirtual.com
Eventually I believe there will be an ecosystem of virtual goods across virtual worlds as industry exchange standards begin to emerge, of which I think Opensimulator will be one (probably using something like the OAR files). Not just a few objects, but whole worlds will be exchanged. Until then, its the virtual equivalent of the Wild Wild West.
Now its cool again, after lots of hard work, I'm now ready to share my virtual space and what I learned with others for FREE! Viradu exists in cyberspace hosted in a data center for $70 a month, that's ~ .10 cents an hour 24/7/30days. Not many virtual worlds can beat that price.
Please take the time to read the Rules, because you agree to them by default of visiting and building in Viradu.
