Who Am I?

Toney, Alabama, United States
Software Engineer, Systems Analyst, XML/X3D/VRML97 Designer, Consultant, Musician, Composer, Writer

Thursday, January 17, 2008

Keeping Web 3D Open and Unencumbered

See http://vwinterop.wikidot.com/forum:recent-posts

The IP discussions don't seem to be converging on the goals set forth. I'm not sure they will. This is where the Web3D Consortium bit the bullet and did the right thing with their participation agreements. Whatever the opinions world builders have about the many options they have, the Web3D Consortium is the only organization that protects them and the investments in content. For the long-lifecycle or infrastructure markets, X3D and Collada are quickly becoming the only formats worth considering.

In the early days of the web, the openness benefitted it's growth. Now investors who lost in the dot.bomb are swinging just as far in the opposite direction. With VW and 3D being the hot topics of last year (cooling a bit this year), they are determined to capture as much IP as possible to ensure long term returns. This is where consortium participation agreements become the real topic of interest as the enabler for the ethics of free and open source.

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