IBM and Linden Lab, creator of Second Life, announced the intent to develop new technologies and methodologies based on open standards that will help advance the future of 3D virtual worlds.
As more enterprises and consumers explore the 3D Internet, the ecosystem of virtual world hosts, application providers, and IT vendors need to offer a variety of standards-based solutions in order to meet end user requirements. To support this, IBM and Linden Lab are committed to exploring the interoperability of virtual world platforms and technologies, and plan to work with industry-wide efforts to further expand the capabilities of virtual worlds.
IBM and Linden Lab plan to work together on issues concerning the integration of virtual worlds with the current web; driving security-rich transactions of virtual goods and services; working with the industry to enable interoperability between various virtual worlds; and building more stability and high quality of service into virtual world platforms. These are expected to be key characteristics facing organizations which want to take advantage of virtual worlds for commerce, collaboration, education and other business applications.
Originally posted on October 10, 2007 @ 7:39 pm