Since the very beginning, IBM has been pioneering new technologies and most certainly new web technologies. Ellis Zijlstra from IBM Corporate Communications talks to Pleon about experiences, trends and future plans of IBMs Internet strategy.

Pleon: Web 2.0 is a frequently used buzz word. How does IBM as a company make use of the technology?
Ellis Zijlstra: Web 2.0 is an attitude not a technology. It is about enabling and encouraging participation through open applications and services. Within IBM, Web 2.0 technologies have become part of the way we operate. We use wiki’s, blogs, RSS, podcasts, movie libraries where people can upload and share movies, and we even have a Bluepedia, the IBM internal version of the Wikipedia. Sharing information and working with communities have become essential for the way we do business.

Pleon: IBM has been exploring 3D net technology for a while now. More than 4000 IBM employees for example own an avatar and use Second Life on a regular basis. What are they doing there and what advantages does the virtual world offer here at IBM?
Ellis Zijlstra: People sometimes mistake gaming and virtual worlds for mere child's play. The reality is, with increased realism and immersive technologies, the possibilities are endless for other fields: science; engineering; healthcare; business; financial markets, education, and government.

Within IBM, we have a very active user group of virtual worlds; the Virtual Universe Community. This community is experimenting to get insight into the technical and business possibilities of virtual worlds. Working with a broad community, and bringing to the table IBM's decades of experience in supercomputing, visualization and its work with the three major game platforms (Microsoft's XBOX 360, Nintendo's Wii and Sony's Playstation 3), IBM aims to help drive and develop the 3D next generation Internet.

In addition to helping other companies apply virtual worlds to their business problems, IBM's vision is to allow virtual persona to cross over from one world to another, like moving between pages on the Internet without losing any consistency, enabling all sorts of new applications of this technology.

Pleon: What does IBM consider the most striking advantages of using 3D-worlds as a communication tool?"
Ellis Zijlstra: We see three striking advantages; the visual aspect, the social factor and co-creation.

Visual: The lifelike graphics can be beneficial in so many ways, from diagnosing diseases to analyzing hotspots that occur in server rooms or data centers. We'll be able to use visualization technology to walk on the bottom of the ocean to investigate a broken pipeline, visualize a huge 3D DNA protein structure for collaborative research or even to walk through someone's brain to look at structures.

Social: Within the 3D world, you can see who is in a virtual store, for example. Soon, teenagers will be linking with their friends in a 3D world that more accurately represents real life. Instead of simply text chatting with a friend online, they will be able to meet up in a music store, browse the shelves and meet other people with similar interests. Likewise, you can easily have meetings, conferences and learning sessions in a 3D environment.

Co-creation: The Web 2.0 technique already allows you to design and create things with others. The 3D virtual worlds take co-creation to a higher level. Your virtual persona interacts with other virtual personas, which speeds up the creation process. The techniques related to 3D virtual worlds make it possible to interact realtime and, therefore, design faster and at lower cost.

Pleon: In November 2006, IBM allocated ten million dollars for expanding its own virtual presence as well as for developing its own 3D intranet. How far have these projects proceeded? What advantages does IBM expect?
Ellis Zijlstra: In the summer of 2006, we did the largest on-line brainstorming session ever. InnovationJam brought together more than 150,000 people from 104 countries, including IBM employees, family members, universities, business partners and clients from 67 companies. Over two 72-hour sessions, participants posted more than 46,000 ideas. The result was 10 ideas which we wanted to explore further and invest in, and one of them was the 3D Internet: partnering with others to take the best of virtual worlds and gaming environments to build a seamless, standards-based 3D Internet.  This is the next platform for global commerce and day-to-day business operations.

From that day, IBM has been experimenting on extending virtual worlds for business in three key areas: virtual commerce and working with clients to apply virtual worlds to their business problems; driving new kinds of collaboration and education; and experimentations on pushing the limits with a broad community on what might be possible in virtual worlds. IBM is currently working with dozens of clients, like Sears and Circuit City, to experiment and help them understand and apply virtual worlds to their business.

The other aim of IBM is to collaborate with a community in an open source fashion to develop the 3D Internet; a platform for "serious" business.  This is why we recently announced the intent to develop new technologies and methodologies based on open standards that will help advance the future of 3D virtual worlds together with Linden Labs. You can think of technologies like Universal Avatars, Security-rich Transactions, Platform stability, integration with existing Web and business processes, and open standards for interoperability with the current Web.

Pleon: We have experienced how the Web changed business models with the introduction of e-commerce. What new business opportunities will 3D Internet bring?
Ellis Zijlstra: The early evolution of Virtual Worlds is closely mimicking the evolution of the Web. At first, people just published Web pages with information. Then came commerce, or e-commerce. We see the same with virtual worlds. This goes beyond just holding a meeting or putting up some brand logos, which is the equivalent of putting up an informational Web page. We see opportunities for virtual commerce and virtual business, and applications beyond commerce, such as SIM hospitals, telemedicine, virtual learning, and many, many more. And ideas and innovations that people haven't even thought of yet.

One example is the 3D Avatar helping doctors to visualize patient records and improve care. Providing patients with highly effective treatments often requires the integration of huge amounts of information in the best possible way. These large amounts of information make medical decision support for doctors a top requirement. The Anatomic Symbolic Mapper Engine of IBM Research allows doctors to click on, for example, the spine of a 3D avatar of the human body and instantly see the medical history and all available information. It allows healthcare professionals to navigate through a virtual map of the body.

Pleon: Let’s have a look into the future: What role will 3D environments play in 2015?
Ellis Zijlstra: The popular on-line immersive destinations, such as Second Life and the World of Warcraft, will evolve into the 3D Internet, much like the early work by the likes of Darpa, AOL and Prodigy evolved into the World Wide Web.

Much of the early cutting edge experimentation takes place behind companies’ own firewalls, where confidential and secure business can be conducted. As tools become available, these companies will build 3D Intranets.

In 2015, we will have a 3D Internet and it will have a place in our lives, just like the Internet has nowadays. You will walk the aisles of virtual supermarkets, bookstores and DVD shops, where you'll encounter experts you'd rarely find in your local store. The 3D Internet will enable new kinds of interactive education, remote medicine and consumer experiences. It will transform how we interact with our friends and family, doctors, teachers, and others.

The 3D Internet is one that is open, immersive and makes new classes of applications possible in commerce, government, healthcare, education and others that are yet to be imagined.

Author: Stephanie Altemöller