According to a ComputerWeekly.com article, IBM is developing its mainframe systems with the aim of enabling transactions in virtual worlds. Steve Mills, head of IBM's software biz, said recently at the company's UK research lab said that the virtual world-conscious tech giant is looking at new approaches to bolster its investment in traditional mainframe systems.

"IBM aims to invest the majority of its research and development dollar into building software that can link traditional transaction systems to modern interfaces, for example, releasing automatic teller machines that link to banks in virtual worlds such as Second Life," Mills said.

The company's currently testing its Smart Bank app, which simulates a high-volume banking environment with a virtual ATM linked to a real payment system that uses web services to authorize transactions in realtime from a core banking system.

The article says IBM is also pursuing an acquisition strategy in conjunction with the R&D effort, first with the August announcement that it will acquire Princeton Softech, allowing users to identify and store historical data on less expensive storage while storing current data on more resilient networks. Additionally, IBM's July purchase of Data Mirror allows realtime identification and delivery of modified data, while its June acquisition of Telelogic is geared to improve its services arm to support users developing industry-specific software.

"By following its acquisition strategy, IBM will boost its position in the transaction processing market and fill gaps elsewhere in its software management offerings," Gartner research VP Jim Duggan told ComputerWeekly.

[Via ComputerWeekly.com]

IBM and Linden Lab have announced that they will collaborate jointly on new technologies and methods based on open standards for virtual worlds. Together, the companies say they'll be exploring the the interoperability of virtual world platforms and technologies in a series of industry-wide efforts aimed at expanding the possibilities in online worlds and the 3D Web.

IBM and Linden Lab plan to work together on a series of issues relating to integrating virtual worlds with the current Web, driving security-rich transactions of virtual goods and services, working on interoperability among worlds, and building stability and service into virtual world platforms. All of these initiatives, the companies say, will help make virtual worlds more accessible for enterprise.

The companies released a list of specific projects, outlining the initiatives on which they'll collaborate: "Universal" Avatars, which aims to allow users to transport the same avatar and all its attributes among multiple worlds; creating requirements for standards-based software to facilitate secure asset transactions in online worlds, and improving platform stability and ease of use to accelerate user adoption and enable high-volume business use.

Other initiatives include the formation of open standards for interoperability with the current Web, including open source development of interoperable formats and protocols. In other words, IBM and Linden aim to develop standards to allow users to travel persistently among virtual worlds, the way we navigate from one web page to another on the Internet today.

Colin Parris, vice president of Digital Convergence at IBM said, "As the 3D Internet becomes more integrated with the current Web, we see users demanding more from these environments and desiring virtual worlds that are fit for business. IBM and Linden Lab's working together can help accelerate the use and further development of common standards and tools that will contribute to this new environment."

Added Linden Lab's vice president of Business Affairs Ginsu Yoon, "We have built the Second Life Grid as part of the evolution of the Internet. Linden and IBM shares a vision that interoperability is key to the continued expansion of the 3D Internet, and that this tighter integration will benefit the entire industry. Our open source development of interoperable formats and protocols will accelerate the growth and adoption of all virtual worlds."

Short piece up on ZDNet that peeks into IBM's corporate virtual world, Metaverse, and touches on the reasons they chose to build their own internal world rather than use Second Life -- as expected, confidentiality and security. The article also culled the company's three biggest lessons from using virtual worlds for business:

"Remember the users when building a virtual world. The goal is to enable collaboration, not make things complicated. Ackerbacker said IBM is still noodling over how to bring the emotional connection into virtual space and get employees there easily. “Can we create a learning environment that doesn’t get in the way?” asked Ackerbacker.

Cater to your culture. The avatar options in Metaverse–built on the Torque gaming engine–were distinctly IBM. For instance, ties are an option. So is gray hair is an option. And no one is some hybrid animal thingy.

Don’t be exclusive. If you want collaboration you have to make virtual worlds simple. Ackerbacker said IBM stripped down its user interface 'quite a bit.' 'We only have a dozen controls,' said Ackerbacker. 'Click on an icon and it’ll do something–fly, teleport and dress. We’re having an ongoing discussion on how to make it easier.'"

[IBM cooks up internal virtual world for confidentiality, security - ZDNet]

Forrester Research is bullish on business virtual worlds, predicting a time when 3D virtual environments will become essential workplace tools. Although the analysts note that it might take some time, and cultivation of appropriate resources, the lead set by early adopters like IBM and Intel means that other organizations will be looking at ways they can follow suit.

"Information and knowledge management professionals should begin to investigate and experiment with virtual worlds," says the report. "Use them to try to replicate the experience of working physically alongside others; allow people to work with and share digital 3-D models of physical or theoretical objects; and make remote training and counseling more realistic by incorporating nonverbal communication into same-time, different-place interactions."

CIO got hold of the complete report, and gleaned a few key reasons why business virtual worlds can be expected to advance: Travel is expensive -- both for finances and the environment, and carbon footprint-conscious execs may find it easier to meet in a collaborative virtual place than to make frequent plane trips.

Another factor is the cost of equipment in real-world training environments -- if that material can be made available persistently and virtually, costs can be reduced. CIO cites Virtual Heroes' military training simulations as one example of how virtual worlds can provide an alternate way to do certain types of training and education more safely and for less cost.

The report also points out that a virtual experience of working alongside others can help colleagues brainstorm more naturally, whereas they might feel more intimidated or face other conversational challenges speaking up in person. Finally, virtual world environments help create planning exercises -- like letting participants role-play to experiment with various scenarios.

[Via CIO]

Lately IBM has begun to talk more about its Bluegrass project, some research going on that aims to join 3D virtual worlds with collaborative software development. Intrigued, Worlds in Motion contacted IBM's Grady Booch, Rational chief scientist and self-described "Free Radical," about the project and about IBM's larger virtual worlds strategy.

It's clear that IBM has a prolific virtual worlds presence, but we asked Booch to detail for us just how prolific the company's use of Second Life and other areas is. Began Booch, "IBM is doing a heap of stuff, not just in Second Life, but in ActiveWorlds and elsewhere." To illustrate, he recalled the company's first public disclosure of their efforts, which began with Sam Palmisano's appearance in the virtual Imperial Palace of Second Life, while physically in Beijing.

The full detail on the company's virtual worlds efforts, the Bluegrass research, and a glance down the road follows the jump.

IBM has expanded its Second Life Business Center for India, increasing staff not only in that region, but in China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Korea. It's also added dedicated pavilions for China and Japan in Second Life. According to IT News Online, IBM says it's aiming to offer more multi-language support across the world.

The new staff will begin working with the existing Second Life staff from North America, Latin America, Europe, Australia, Singapore and Malaysia, who, according to IT News Online, have been working there since earlier this year. When we recently spoke to IBM's Grady Booch about the Bluegrass project and the company's virtual worlds activities, he highlighted how uniting global teams was a primary goal of IBM's Second Life presence.

India and South Asia VP Sanhjiv R. Pande commented on the expansion, "IBM India's presence in the Business Center in Second Life is part of bringing us closer to our customers. Clients are increasingly looking for convenient ways of interacting with their suppliers. We have always been accessible through our traditional Web engines with solutions that allow customers to interact and transact with IBM over the Web. We are now taking this accessibility to the next level."

[Via IT News Online]

Chinese virtual world HiPiHi has partnered with IBM for what Massively reports is an "essentially twofold" collaboration -- IBM will provide scalable architecture, with hardware, services and consultation, and the two companies will additionally collaborate on interoperability standards. From Massively:

Secondly, there's collaboration on virtual world interoperability standards, which started out as a broad set of agreements last year, and some collaborative coding on CHTTP-and-escrow conducted by Linden Lab and IBM. Information-tech industry standards of any size or complexity generally take over a decade to formalize, and quite some more years to gain useful levels of adoption - so that's a much longer game to play.

IBM is set to launch a free multiplayer online game, titled PowerUp, which challenges teens to save a fictional planet from ecological disaster. As part of the company's broader educational initiative, the MMO will launch February 16th, 2008.

The game features three missions for solar, water and wind power that must be solved, either by players alone or in groups, before various environmental crises destroy the planet. IBM says it developed the online world to support educators in engaging children on environmental issues, leveraging kids' interest in virtual worlds and games. Interaction between players is restricted to phrase-based avatar chat, IBM says, to ensure safety.

IBM says it took 16 months to develop the online game, with advice from nearly 200 teens in the Connecticut Innovation Academy. IBM's TryScience team from the New York Hall of Science worked with The Tech Museum in San Jose, California and the Bakken Museum in Minneapolis, Minnesota on the activities and game content.

The game will be accompanied by classroom lesson plans associated with the topics presented in the online experience, and will also include an interactive module to educate kids on 3D technologies used in virtual world building.

IBM international foundation president Stanley S. Litow said, "Innovation is the key to competitiveness in today's globally integrated economy, but just when we need it to skyrocket, interest in math and science has been declining in the United States. American competitiveness demands more interest in math and science by students. Virtual worlds and 3D are an unexplored resource in education. We asked our best researchers to incorporate the use of this technology into traditional educational curriculum."

IBM has unveiled a "Virtual Healthcare Island" in Second Life, intended to support its strategic vision for healthcare it released in 2006. The island itself is intended as a 3D representation of the issues and challenges facing the industry unveiled in that paper, hoping to highlight the role information technology will play.

The project was designed and built by a team from IBM India with support from U.S. project leads, and offers an interactive demo of the company's Health Information Exchange architecture.

In the interactive experience, avatars create their personal health records and watch it incorporate into electronic medical record systems accessible at various medical facilities. Users can then navigate among the different island stations to see how their electronic health records are used in a network that can only be accessed by authorized health systems and family members.

Dan Pelino, general manager of IBM Global Healthcare & Life Sciences Industry, commented, "We are pleased to offer our IBM Virtual Health Island as a tool for our healthcare customers and our worldwide sales force. The island allows each healthcare stakeholder to envision how the total system can be affected by intercession at each juncture of the healthcare delivery process. We believe that the use of our new virtual world provides an important, next-generation Internet-based resource to show how standards; business planning; the use of a secured, extensible and expandable architecture; HIE interoperability; and data use for healthcare analytics, quality, wellness and disease management are all helping to transform our industry."

IBM and Forterra Systems are working together on a unified communications solution it's calling "Babel Bridge," with the aim of creating a common collaboration system for U.S. intelligence agencies to use for virtual world communications.

The two companies have entered into an agreement that will match up Forterra's OLIVE platform with IBM's Lotus Sametime software, as well as its Unified Communications and Collaboration (UC2) platform. They're hoping to open windows on the display and discussion of multiple data forms in parallel -- including documents, graphic displays, and human expertise -- via Internet and mobile connectivity.

The two companies note the frustration U.S. government agencies encounter in dealing with multiple procedures and communications systems at once, and these efforts are aimed at enabling them to share information for planning and real-time action in support of U.S. interests such as the War on Terror. IBM and Forterra will be cooperating with MI5, the FBI and local ground operatives, who are already using OLIVE's virtual reality capabilities to practice anti-terror operations.

Under the terms of the agreement, Forterra will deliver plug-ins to the Lotus Sametime platform and integration to the IBM Lotus Notes calendar that allow users to access, schedule and launch meetings in the virtual world. Forterra will also embed services like presence and location information, document, whiteboard, and application sharing from the Lotus Sametime platform into the virtual world with the goal of enabling faster collaboration and information sharing.

Bruce Morse, VP of IBM Unified Communications and Collaboration, commented, "The true value of UC2 is realized when multiple collaboration capabilities are well integrated within a business task or process — like bringing several organizations together to share, review, approve and take immediate actions for national security. Managing communication and collaboration effectively within business processes can make all the difference between the success and failure of critical projects."

Linden Lab and IBM have announced that they're teaming up to run Second Life on servers inside IBM's firewall, for IBM internal projects. The two companies plan to pilot the service to allow other companies to run Second Life inside their firewalls by year's end, and make the service generally available later on.

Using the service being tested by IBM, its users will be able to log in to the private server behind IBM's firewall, and move back and forth between that and the public Second Life grid, taking their avatars and possessions with them.

IBM will use the service for conferences, special events, and meetings.

"This is really about satisfying a market demand," said Ginsu Yoon, Linden Lab VP for business affairs. "There are enterprises that can be very comfortable with a hosted service, and there are customers who really want to have things inside their infrastructure." Linden Lab wants to be able to serve both groups.

The IBM announcement comes at a tough time for Second Life. The service saw explosive signup and growth rates in late 2006 and early 2007, but growth stalled later in the year. The number of dedicated users -- people who spend significant amounts of time in-world -- has been flat since late last year, at about a half-million users. Overall, users have created 13.1 million Second Life accounts since the service launched four years ago.

Big companies flocked to Second Life for marketing last year, but since then many companies, including American Apparel, Starwood Hotels, and Pontiac, have left the service (although some, like Starwood, said they always planned only a limited-time engagement). Other companies, like IBM, Cisco Systems, and Playboy, continue to operate in Second Life. And the service has a thriving culture of small businesses that operate only in Second Life.

Among the problems driving users away: Second Life is unstable, difficult to use, and users need to be running relatively powerful desktop computers. Philip Rosedale, co-founder of the company, said last month he's stepping aside as CEO, and the company is searching for a new CEO who can bring veteran management skills.

IBM is using virtual worlds technologies from Linden Lab and Activeworlds to offer "rehearsals," or training exercises, to its services team, said Jim Spohrer, director of service research for IBM Almaden Research Center.

IBM simulates project management and customer interaction in virtual worlds, he said.

Rehearsal services in virtual worlds provide the benefits of of face-to-face rehearsals and role-playing, while saving time and travel costs, Spohrer said. Also, virtual worlds are flexible in ways that reality isn't. "You can experiment with a lot of alternatives and designs," Spohrer said. "Also, as you start developing these rehearsal services, you can start reusing the components from one service to another."

[The preceding article by Mitch Wagner first appeared in Worlds in Motion's fellow United Business Media publication, Information Week.]

IBM has announced that it has launched The Forbidden City: Beyond Space & Time, its educational virtual world developed in collaboration with the Palace Museum -- launched to coincide with the real-world Forbidden City's 83rd anniversary as a museum.

The virtual Forbidden City allows users to see and interact with other users, and can take tours and participate in activities -- such as tours that correspond to historical topics such as "Dragons of the Forbidden City", "the Supreme Golden Halls of the Forbidden City", the" Imperial Garden", and "the Symbolic Animals in the Forbidden City", or activities such as archery, cricket fighting, and playing the ancient game of Weiqi.

The Forbidden City: Beyond Space & Time was built using SOA architecture and includes open source components (including Linux).

“The rich cultural heritage of China’s imperial past, embodied in the Forbidden City for over five centuries is now brought to life and accessible to all through a virtual world created by IBM and the Palace Museum,” said Henry Chow, Chairman, Greater China Group, IBM. “This initiative takes the online experience to a new level of innovation with rich content, educational storytelling, community and social networking features that represent the next generation of 3D Internet applications. What makes me proud is that IBM now has opened the door to a cultural treasure and rich heritage to everyone, everywhere which in the past was only available to relatively few.”