IBM is making a virtual world for design research for Fashion Research Institute (FRI) using a combo of Second Life and OpenSim:

This first-of-a-kind system will allow fashion and consumer packaging designers to access and use 3-D tools with the Second Life client interface. In addition it will also connect to the OpenSim virtual world platform to create packaging and fashion products, provide efficient workflow queues, and allow groups with an interest in the product to collaborate and modify designs.

So this seems to make sense--use SL as public facing test area and then have an OpenSim enterprise-level collaboration environment. Notice that it is a mulit-million dollar deal which is what it will take to push Opensim forward. Wonder if IBM is going to release that code? Ha! This will be a good enough mix because SL is very cost-effective and has audience, while the enterprise side is fully open to IBM to develop and maintain. IBM has a lot of serious 3D collaboration solutions, so wondering what Dessault is thinking about this (http://www.3dvia.com/software/3dvia-shape/). Net is that IBM needs a cheap software solution to compete with enterprise offerings from Sun in the same space. Also further proof that the Second Life platform is not ready for enterprise-level usage (see our list for some of the SL enterprise service gaps here).

Looks like a lot of pressure on Linden Labs now-- IBM using/developing Opensim seriously for enterprises, Microsoft leveraging Xbox, Sony finally delivering on Home and the Tweeners getting older and tied-in to their communities.