ACM TechNews

A Bridge Between Virtual Worlds

Technology Review (08/11/08) White, Brian

The launch of Linden Lab's Open Grid Beta has given developers the opportunity to build and test software bridges that would link Second Life to other virtual worlds. The Open Grid Beta will allow users to move between a Second Life test grid and non-Linden Lab grids running the OpenSim software. OpenSim is an independent open source project for creating a virtual-world server. The Open Grid Beta is the first effort to run Second Life interoperable code that demonstrates previously hypothetical approaches. "We are still early in the game," says Linden Lab's Joe Miller. "The point of the beta is to give the rest of the development community the chance to try the protocols themselves." So far, more than 200 users have signed up for the beta program and 15 virtual worlds have been connected. Terry Ford, the owner and operator of an OpenSim-based world, says interoperability is the future of the Web. Interoperability will allow users to create a single avatar and identity and to move between virtual worlds, instead of having to sign up for accounts with each world that users want to use. IBM's David Levine, who is working with Linden Lab on the interoperability protocols, says this effort has a better chance of success than previous interoperability efforts because it is less ambitious and is focusing on the Linden main grid and a set of broadly similar grids instead of trying to create virtual world interoperability across the entire Web.

http://www.technologyreview.com/Infotech/21203/page1/

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