IBM

From Sl Wiki

IBM's work in both Second Life and the wider Metaverse warrants a separate page of its own.

In October 2006, arising from their "Innovation Jam" sessions held earlier in the year, IBM committed to an investment of $100M in immersive 3D environments. Of this huge sum, around $10M has been spent in building a sophisticated presence in Second Life. It is clear from various statements from the company that they view Second Life as an experimental sandpit, in which they can explore various visualisation and communication techniques - but that the real work in IBM is happening behind closed doors, in their own virtual environments.

Links to Internet Articles

• IBM gets a Second Life, an article in Information Week from November, 2006.
• IBM investing $10M in Second Life. This article is also from November, 2006 and contains the following: "IBM announced that it would be investing $10 million into developing its presence in the virtual world of Second Life, and it has already held meetings in the 3D forum with thousands of its employees. Its CEO, Sam Palmisano, recently gave an address to 7,000 Chinese workers through Second Life." IBM have subsequently announced a total investment of $100M in virtual environments.
• IBM brings Sears into SL, and article from Second Life Insider blog.
• Eightbar blog summarises the findings from IBM's Innovation Jam. One of the 10 innovations they want to take forward is 3D Internet. According to an IBM press release, in November 2006,this will entail: "Partnering with others to take the best of virtual worlds and gaming environments to build a seamless, standards-based 3D Internet -- the next platform for global commerce and day-to-day business operations."

• Articles by Irving Wladawsky-Berger, Vice President of Technical Strategy and Innovation, "responsible for identifying emerging technologies and marketplace developments that are critical to the future of the IT industry." Wladawsky-Berger believes online virtual reality environments will provide the next stage of development for internet collaboration. In October, 2006 he told Computing, 'Over the past few years we have seen cutting-edge visualisation and interactivity created in the world of gaming.’
  • Experimenting with Virtual Worlds in the Real Marketplace
  • Transforming Business through Virtual Worlds Capabilities – it's Déjà Vu All Over Again
  • 'Broadband into your brain'; in this interview he talks with CNET about virtual environments. Rather than slowly processing information from e-mail and Web browsers, immersive 3D environments communicate on a deeper level--what Wladawsky-Berger describes as "broadband into our brains." He went on to say ,'I really believe that highly visual and collaborative interfaces will become very important in the way we interact with all IT (information technology) applications in the future. This may be one of the most revolutionary changes in IT because it changes everything and transforms the applications. Second Life is a very good platform for collaboration, but there will be other styles of visual applications as well.'

Blogs, Wikis and Other Sources

• Eightbar is an excellent and informative blog written by "a group of techie/creative people working in and around IBM’s Hursley Park Lab in the UK."
• Images from bbc online news of IBM's virtual islands.
• Team Mascot wrote a page in his blog about the IBM SOA exhibit / building in SL.