Even spooks need their virtual worlds. Where else, after all, could they rehearse their training missions against the bad guys of the world?
Forterra Systems and IBM said today that they're teaming up to create virtual worlds for U.S. intelligence-gathering agencies. The so-called "Babel Bridge" project will allow spy agencies to use virtual worlds and Web 2.0 technologies to share intelligence information. Last month, Forterra raised a $10 million round (our coverage).
The project will feature a 3-D "unified communications" world which ties together voice, e-mail, text messages and other forms of communication. Users would access intelligence data from computers or mobile phones with secure connections. The two companies have already completed a prototype and will begin development in the second quarter, said Chris Badger, vice president of marketing at Forterra in San Mateo, Calif.
Intelligence agencies could soon use a virtual world to rehearse how they could attack a location that houses a terrorist cell, according to Forterra. The same technology could be used to prepare a hospital's staff on how to react to a natural disaster.
Forterra was founded as part of There.com in 1998. In 2004, Forterra spun out of There, while Makena Technologies focused on its own consumer-oriented virtual world, There.com.
Forterra's backers include the CIA-funded In-Q-Tel venture firm and Jerusalem Venture Partners, Chichen Itza Ventures, and Sutter Hill Ventures.
Badger said the alliance with IBM gives it a stamp of credibility as virtual worlds have gone through their own cycle of hype and despair. Deb Magid, director of software strategy at IBM's venture capital group, said in an interview that business and government applications are now clearly becoming viable as virtual worlds spread beyond entertainment and games.