Internet history was made today, with a new “StarGate” system for linking grids

Internet history was made today, with the rollout of the first practical – and stylish — “StarGate” transport system for the new 3D Internet.

Yesterday, travel between worlds required either signing off from one grid and logging on to another, losing your virtual appearance and belongings in the process, or finding one of the “beta” test gates that, when they worked, allowed for one-way trips between worlds.

Tiffany Maxwell (right) one of the developers on the project, prepares to take me through the gate.
Tiffany Maxwell (right) one of the developers on the project, prepares to take me through the gate.

Not being able to travel between grids is like – well, like being only able to visit the pages of one website, and only being able to go to another by closing the browser and starting over again in a new location.

Each hypergrid in the new 3d Internet is a flat world composed of individual simulated regions. Travel between regions within one grid has long been supported via local teleportation, as well as by virtually walking or flying from one region to another.

With the new StarGates up and running, we have the potential of anybody – any company, even any person – of running their own virtual world, and connecting to the rest of the virtual universe via the StarGates.

For the technically un-savvy, hosting companies will do all the work for you, and all you have to do is build your personal playground — or virtual conference centers, showrooms, training facilities, museium tours, or educational exhibits.

I’ve profiled one such company already (the folks behind Grid4us), and will be writing about more in the future.

Maria Korolov