Virtual teleportation arrivesA whole new web
Aharon Etengoff: | Sunday, 13 July 2008
Creator of Second Life, Linden Lab and IBM have achieved virtual world interoperability by teleporting avatars between the Second Life Preview Grid and an Opensim virtual world server.
Teleporting an avatar between platforms will undoubtedly have a significant impact on the future of virtual worlds. Indeed, an open standard for interoperability would permit users to cross seamlessly from one three-dimensional universe to another.
According to Colin Parris, VP of IBM Digital Convergence, interoperability will, "push virtual worlds into the next stage of their evolution" and and allow individuals and organisations to take advantage of virtual worlds for "commerce, collaboration, education, operations and other business applications."
Ginsu Yoon, Vice President of Business Affairs at Linden Lab, notes that both companies support an interoperable approach as it sees the industry "moving to an interconnected model in the future."
The companies have not yet announced when the interoperability protocol will be available on the main Second Life Grid. However, the protocol interactions used for the test teleport will be documented on the web site of the Architecture Working Group (AWG), an open forum that are designing and publishing the Open Grid Protocol.
In addition, IBM is slated to offer the extensions developed for Opensim to the Opensim community, while Linden Lab plans to make available as open source the extensions developed for Second Life. Linden Lab will also create a special test grid that would encourage testing and further development, ultimately achieving a seamless journey between virtual worlds.
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http://www.theinquirer.net
Teleporting an avatar between platforms will undoubtedly have a significant impact on the future of virtual worlds. Indeed, an open standard for interoperability would permit users to cross seamlessly from one three-dimensional universe to another.
According to Colin Parris, VP of IBM Digital Convergence, interoperability will, "push virtual worlds into the next stage of their evolution" and and allow individuals and organisations to take advantage of virtual worlds for "commerce, collaboration, education, operations and other business applications."
Ginsu Yoon, Vice President of Business Affairs at Linden Lab, notes that both companies support an interoperable approach as it sees the industry "moving to an interconnected model in the future."
The companies have not yet announced when the interoperability protocol will be available on the main Second Life Grid. However, the protocol interactions used for the test teleport will be documented on the web site of the Architecture Working Group (AWG), an open forum that are designing and publishing the Open Grid Protocol.
In addition, IBM is slated to offer the extensions developed for Opensim to the Opensim community, while Linden Lab plans to make available as open source the extensions developed for Second Life. Linden Lab will also create a special test grid that would encourage testing and further development, ultimately achieving a seamless journey between virtual worlds.
...........................................
http://www.theinquirer.net