Recently, IBM and Linden Lab announced a joint effort to develop new technologies and methods aimed at developing open standards for virtual worlds. The end goal? Interoperability and expanded possibilities for the web and online worlds, via a set of standards that would enable, among other things, universal avatars, objects that are portable from one world to the next, and universal protocols for transactions.

Amid a hail of marijuana leaves, boxes and a falling house thanks to griefers, Zero Linden held a conference in Second Life, covered extensively by the Second Life News Network, to discuss the collaboration and to clarify standards, announcing the formation of the new Architecture Working Group, or AWG, which invites residents to collaborate on the work at the group's wiki, which the group plans to update continually.

Explained Zero, “Interoperability means making a Second Life that can have regions run outside of Linden Lab with separate implementations and it means having agent domains that are run outside of Linden Lab with separate implementations. As far as scalability, the grid itself must scale to the number of agents, regions and online that I’ve outlined," he said.

He also clarified that IBM would not be providing any tech support or restructuring to Second Life's code, assuring residents that there would be no "swooping in of IBM engineers at the Linden Lab HQs."

"The AWG is on the one hand a much less ambitious effort, and on the other, the biggest thing that could happen in SL. It is less ambitious in that it is tackling only one view of what will be an Internet-wide Metaverse: take SL and make it work with 60 million regions, most run by non-LL entities. On the other hand, it is a much more concrete objective than other groups may be contemplating at this time,” Zero stated.

[Via Second Life News Network]