IBM and Linden Lab, developer of Second Life, are joining forces to develop "universal avatars" that will allow users to move freely between virtual worlds as easily as they surf websites.

Inhabitants of virtual worlds such as Second Life, Entropia and Gaia currently have no way of visiting other worlds, although companies see enormous potential in facilitating such a borderless virtual society.

IBM and Linden plan to develop 3D characters that would be able to travel seamlessly between multiple worlds. Standards for secure transactions to take place would also be a priority, as well as integration with existing web and business processes so that current applications and databases could be accessed in virtual worlds.

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