Five ¢ents

“Entertainment, which accounts for 98 percent of all virtual world users and revenue, was not really represented…” according to Areae’s Raph Koster.

As the nascent virtual world industry is still disparate, and fighting for top-dog status, this form of standardization and inter-communication doesn’t look likely to help the bottom line of developers like Linden Labs (Second Life). Instead, it would provide new opportunities for big tech companies, independent 3D model developers, and 3D clearinghouses.

The upside for anyone using these virtual worlds as a marketing tool is the potential for lower development costs, and the ability to provide a presence across multiple virtual world publishers for potentially lower rates (thanks to increased competition).
It looks unlikely that a virtual worlds-Microsoft (MicroWorlds? WorldSoft?) will emerge, and that the longer-term hopes for a truly interoperable system will be bourne out of a free (IP), standardized system modeled on the Web.