My starting point is that collaborative environments need to promote a
sense of sharing -without this people still think they own the objects
on "their" desk. I'm also going to say that the Web is holding back this
goal as its just a document sharing service and not a task sharing service.
The Web is important in this debate because its drawing developers and
researchers to create Web-based solutions to collaboration problems.
Going back to the underlying technlogies we see people arguing that VR
ranges from text-based MUDS to high-end 3D immersive simulations. Lets
dismiss MUDS first. They are the UNIX of VR with their command line
interfaces and room-based file-system metaphor. They will only ever appeal
to a limited number of users. People have tried to extend their usefulness
by adding Web page front ends - but this just compounds the problem. You are
adding a client of limited interactivity and reducing sharing and
communication rather than enhancing it.
At the high-end not everybody can afford the technology of immersive
systems but prices are falling. The Web is a double-edged sword here. On
the one hand VRML is encouraging people to produce 3D browsers for
lower-end machines. On the other hand its just letting us share 3D
documents with limited interaction - we're not sharing tasks or supporting
user-user interaction. VRML 2.0 offers more promise but is still under
debate.
The 2D versus 3D debate is a red-herring though. People can probably learn
to navigate just as well in information spaces of equal complexity be they
presented in 2D or 3D. The phrase "of equal complexity" is important here -
many people think you can present more complex information in 3D - I'm
becoming less sure of this.
So what I would argue for is the equivalent of desktop VR where all the
action devices (the menus and buttons of the desktop) are readily available
for operating on objects and connecting to other users. I have not seen
anything like this yet (except Doom :-) )
I think we need VR environments that can support this level of interaction
and cooperation before people will start to use them more widely in their
everyday tasks.
Dave
David England PhD, CEng e-mail: David.England@gmd.de
GMD (FIT.CSCW), Schloss Birlinghoven, phone:(+49 2241) 14-2715 fax:14-2084
D-53757 Sankt Augustin, Germany URL:http://orgwis.gmd.de/~de/
GMD - German National Research Centre for Information Technology