Wow. Finally, some good news and serious intentions on the part of Linden Lab to make this 3D world better in the long run.
When LL and IBM announced earlier Wednesday that they were partnering to develop the 3D environment together, I could not resist smiling. After months of bitching and moaning about an unstable and barely tolerable grid, we see signs of the kind of seriousness needed to get SL back on track.
I believe that IBM's presence is a huge insurance. The computer world's pioneer has a solid track record. As it moved away from hardware manufacturer to a services-based company, IBM established itself as one of the most efficient players in the world of software solutions. It is one of the rare organizations that can give Second Life the shot in the arm needed to make it more credible than ever.
I especially appreciate the "specifics" of the partnership between LL and IBM. Who could be against their intention to make the platform stable for high traffic and transactions more secure? It also is very interesting to want to make virtual worlds "compatible" with universal avatars and connectivity. Who wants to have to choose between LL's and Sony's worlds for virtual lives? None of us should revel at the thought of extreme market fragmentation.
The only thing that makes me worry a little is the business integration accent that tints today's news. Will the technology development with IBM let businesses "overtake" Second Life as they did with the World Wide Web ? Will we have to go through a "Second Life 2.0" evolution in order not to be swallowed by corporations, as the Web did with its new Web 2.0 spirit?
No matter how it turns out, interesting times lie ahead of us. It may be worth hanging on for a few months until we start harvesting the benefits.