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IBM ventures into 3D virtual world
By Chris Nuttall in San Francisco
Published: April 3 2008 01:06 | Last updated: April 3 2008 01:06
IBM and Linden Lab, the creator of Second Life, are to develop an enterprise-class virtual world to convince companies of the value of communicating through avatars and 3D environments.
The corporate world has been put off virtual worlds such as Second Life by a lack of security, control and stability. There have been sporadic incidents of residents staging terrorist-style attacks on in-world retailers and realtors with virtual bombs and flying genitalia.
The joint project between Linden Lab and IBM will put parts of Second Life’s “Grid” platform behind IBM’s company firewall for greater security and will host it on IBM Bladecenter servers for increased operational scale and stability.
This “first” for Second Life is aimed at creating a packaged product that businesses can deploy quickly. IBM and Linden’s efforts are an attempt to capitalise on a growing corporate demand for more bespoke virtual worlds and puts them in competition with developers including 500 Mirrors, Qwaq and Multiverse.
“The internet, not just Second Life, is the Wild West once you get beyond the corporate firewall,” says Neil Katz, chief technology officer of IBM’s Digital Convergence business.
“We are responding to what our customers have been asking for: they see the value in Second Life but are very concerned about security and want [internal] conversations to stay behind the firewall.”
Ginsu Yoon, head of business affairs at Linden Lab, says: “This is going to be a great test of the Second Life infrastructure in terms of its commercial deployment.”
IBM has staged meetings and demonstrations in Second Life for some time and Sam Palmisano, chief executive, has his own avatar. Last September, Italian IBM workers staged a virtual strike in Second Life over a pay cut.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008
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