IBM charters virtual world life

Companies IBM and Second Life will push open avatars for virtual worlds.

IBM and Linden Lab, creator of the virtual world Second Life, say they'll work together and with others to allow avatars to move easily from one virtual world to another.

Avatars are the graphical personae of people in virtual worlds, universes that exist only in cyberspace. Creating an avatar requires a certain investment of time. "Open" or "universal" avatars would allow the inhabitants of different virtual worlds to shift from one to another almost as easily as moving from one web site to another.

Second Life�s Linden Labs says it�ll work with IBM and nearly 30 other companies to build a layer of interoperability across all online virtual worlds where avatars will be able to move from one virtual world to another.

That freedom could help expand business aspects of virtual worlds.

The concept is a 3D Internet which will eventually become more integrated with the current Web. The companies believe users are demanding more from these environments and desiring virtual worlds that are fit for business.

The two companies will collaborate on open standards to improve other aspects of virtual worlds including security and businesses processes.