IBM, Linden Labs Call For Portable Avatars

destinyland writes "IBM just announced a push for universal avatars with Second Life's creator Linden Labs. Then they joined Google, Cisco, Intel, Sony, Microsoft, and Motorola for the first planning session on how to make it happen. There's already speculation that Google is working on a 3-D social networking environment incorporating Google Earth and Google Maps." Virtual Worlds News has up a copy of the joint press release.

Great.

[EveryNickIsTaken]

At least we'll have open and standardized furry suits and dildo hats, now. Thanks.

Mightyware calls for proprietary Avatars!

[tjstork]

While IBM, the Second Life Guys, Sun, and who knows all else want portable avatars, I from my company, Mightyware (annual sales: $78), thinks that Avatars should be proprietary and incompatible.

"Universal avatars mean an LCD approach to avatars, or a hideously complicated API, and to what end?" says, Stork. "Why not allow all developers, in the name of freedom, to make up their own kinds of Avatars...these things represent your -life-, and so, while an LCD approach might be ok for things like Java, they certainly should not apply to a digital representation of your own psyche."

Let's all agree that the privacy invading portable avatar nonsense is just that, and get back to the business of writing our own propreitary avatars...

So if I understand correctly

[Anonymous Coward]

So if I understand correctly, they want the cartoon avatar that accompanies my email to be used as my U.S. passport photo?

All jokes asside....

[ZipprHead]

Yeah, there are going to be 1000 comments about why not just step outside? But I think it could be a great resource if I could step out my virtual front door and

Look to my left and see my neighbors blog and the books he's published
Look further down to see another slashdot reader living a few doors down
Look to my right and see the restaurant hours and menu posted

Look down the street a block or two and see what movies are playing

and of course... add a pink flag to any and all women living in the area that are my age, and have their social networking profiles set to single.

one persons utopia is another's dystopia of course but I like the concept.

Arson

[Scrameustache]

Look further down to see another slashdot reader living a few doors down

That's sure to make the flamewars more memorable ;-)

Cool. Next, what - fingerprints?

[Ralph Spoilsport]

So we can identify each avatar individually to a specific user?

So we can engage in Avatar Capital Punishment?

It used to be fun until people took it seriously. Now it's just another buzz in the Drug Store of Culture.

RS

Re:Great.

[The Angry Mick]

I suspect that some company mandated "appearance rules" or regions will eventually have to apply.

I can't imagine that an anatomically "enhanced", gimp mask wearing, bondage squirrel is going to be too popular after crossing into the inevitable Disney world. If only everyone looked the same . . . like say, with blond hair and blue eyes . . .

Re:Google-Microsoft Alliance

[c_forq]

Give me a minute and Wikipedia will back me up.

Yup...

[ColdWetDog]

Computers allow humans to make mistakes at the fastest speeds known, with the possible exception of tequila and handguns

zoom to Chicago and see a scale model of the Empire State Building,

Being unnecessarily pedantic I'm sure, but last time I checked, the Empire State Building was in New York City. Now, I haven't been east of Colorado in a couple of decades, but I think I would have heard about the move....

Ahhh.... Portable Avatars!

[Jeremiah Cornelius]

"The comic book guy's" wet dream. [bungie.org]

Re:Just what we need

[Lord Ender]

you got that right. You know how many ppl would be dumb enough to put their real, actual location that they live at

What you are describing is called a "phone book."