Back to Tech Blog homepage
One small teleport for avatars, one giant leap for virtual worlds is how Second Life is viewing the first crossing of its members between platforms.
While not quite the equivalent of finding a parallel universe or landing on the moon, the achievement is a significant one for Linden Lab’s partnership with IBM.
The two announced they were joining forces last October to develop “universal avatars” that could roam freely between virtual worlds. Today’s announcement on Linden’s Second Life blog, with its accompanying video showing the “Beam me up Scotty” moment, represents the first fruits of that collaboration.
“This is a historic day for Second Life and for virtual worlds in general…marking the first time an avatar has moved from one virtual world to another,” it said.
It also gives Linden and IBM the lead in establishing a possible de facto standard for virtual worlds.
However, they have shown little enthusiasm for cooperating with other virtual world owners on standards to date and have become focused instead on the business opportunity.
In April, they announced they would develop an enterprise-class virtual world to convince companies of the value of using avatars and 3D environments.
“Interoperability is a key component of the 3D Internet and an important step to enabling individuals and organisations to take advantage of virtual worlds for commerce, collaboration, education, operations and other business applications,” said Colin Parris, IBM’s Digital Convergence vice president, yesterday.
The teleporting breakthrough is a step forward in that regard, apart from one small glitch that could offend corporate sensibilities. The fully-dressed Second Life avatars were not wearing a stitch of clothing when they re-materialised in the other virtual world.
David Gelles, Joseph Menn, Chris Nuttall and Richard Waters in the FT's San Francisco bureau upload their views - plus tech insights from writers in New York, London and Tokyo
Richard Waters
Chris Nuttall
David Gelles
Maija Palmer
Paul Taylor, the FT’s personal technology expert, answers your gadgetry questions