Standards For Interconnecting Virtual Worlds

Tao Takashi writes "Linden Lab, developers of the popular 3D platform "Second Life" started to think about an open standard for interconnecting virtual worlds. The motivation behind this is to make Second Life more scalable but also to allow connection of other grids not hosted by Linden Lab. The process of defining components and protocols is supposed to be handled completely in the open with community participation. When finished the protocol documentation is supposed to be submitted to standard committees such as IETC, W3C etc. The discussion has already started on the Second Life wiki and you can also find a first architecture proposal by Linden Lab."

So this means...

[AltGrendel]

That horde could invade EVE?

That would be something to see.

Arrrrrr! Fantastic!

[Panaflex]

Aye Matey - soon we'll be a sailin our pirate ships o'er the internet! Me crew shall pillage vast new oceans and search for precious booty!

Bad idea!

[OhHellWithIt]

After all, look what happened in the Chronicles of Narnia. You get one witch in from one world and let her into another, and all hell breaks loose.

Re:Open Standards, hmm?

[FLEB]

I see huge potential. Imagine the day when the internet itself is just referred to as Second Life, replacing the ubiquous web browser with an SL client, or that SL-only machines are sold...

Oh boy. VRML.

Real World Interface? Good Idea!

[aapold]

We need to get a client-plug in for that.

What I envision is something like this: We have several offices at various places in the world with low-cost labor and good wifi coverage. When you (in Second Life) enter a portal for "Real World(tm)", you pick one of these offices. At this point a hired "avatar" dons a pair of wifi goggles that lets you see what he sees, and gets commands from you to move about in this "Real World", and does so (they will require some minimal training). The offices should be positioned with a number of real world activities nearby such as playgrounds, beaches, bars, etc. You can either type commands that your hired avatar will attempt to say, or use voice chat to have you speak directly to other "Real World" people.

Should your avatar become incapactitated, it will be necessary to get some friends to do a "corpse run" to get the goggles back so you can venture forth again...

awesome!!