Folks have been saying for years that the “3D Internet” is going to be the next big thing, with everyone piloting avatars around in simulated 3D environments, chatting each other up, and (of course!) engaging in lots of lucrative e-commerce. And, certainly, tens of millions of people do something very much like that today, between smashing monsters in World of Warcraft to buying virtual fasions and bling-bling in Linden Lab’s Second Life. The problem, of course, is that you can’t take it with you: no matter what level you reach in WOW—or what a cool skin you’re wearing in SL—moving from one world to another means logging out and starting all over again.
To that end, IBM and LInden Labs have recently demonstrated their first efforts at virtual world interoperability, successfully transporting avatars between Second Life and an entirely different virtual world based on an OpenSim server, marking the first time avatars have moved from one virtual world to another. Althoug both companies are heralding the event as a major accomplishment, of course, there’s still a great deal of work to be done. (For instance, Second Life inventories didn’t transfer to OpenSim—bye-bye bling!). Nonetheless, the event is a significant step forward for the Open Grid Protocol, which aims to create a standard whereby avatars—and their virtual goods—can easily move from one world to another.
“Interoperability is a key component of the 3D Internet and an important step to enabling individuals and organizations to take advantage of virtual worlds for commerce, collaboration, education, operations and other business applications,” said IBM’s VP for digital convergence Colin Parris, in a statement. “Developing this protocol is a key milestone and has the potential to push virtual worlds into the next stage of their evolution.”
The two companies plan to continue developing inter-world operability and working with the Architecture Working Group open forum to refine the Open Grid Protocol, with Linden Lab offering extensions to the Second Life client software as open source, as well as running a test grid for working out the details. The companies have not announced any timeline for when inter-world travel might be available to everyday avatars.
