X3D interoperability and widespread deployment as the goals for 2007
The X3D working group is concluding another great year with lots of accomplishments. We have had a steady stream of specification improvements, and currently a stable X3D Revision 2 Amendment 1 (aka X3D version 3.2) is undergoing international ISO review. Viewing tools, authoring tools and content keep getting better and better. More people and more software are adopting X3D. Importers and exporters are becoming robust. The benefits of XML and ability to use other XML-related Web standards are adding lots of value. Specification comments & bug reports steadily keep coming in, making our standard stronger and better each time. We’re on our way!
However there are some recurring issues that deserve our attention as a working group. Browsers don’t install and operate very consistently, making it difficult for end users to see X3D as a stable standard. User interfaces and navigation also have some troublesome differences. Perhaps most importantly, we have added lots of functionality that browser companies are still working to implement. Much work is in progress, but in the meanwhile there are still several shared impediments that affect all of us.
In order to focus the energy of our group on the problems of greatest importance, we plan to shift gears and focus on interoperability and deployment issues for the next 4 months. It is crucial that we get everything “just working right.” Our graduation milestone will be the Web3D 2007 Symposium in Perugia, Italy next April 15-19.
During this time there will be moratorium on “new nodes.” We already have a lot of functionality in X3D. Certainly there are a lot of good ideas for further functionality in the proposal stage, and we will continue to extend X3D. However we don’t want to get too far ahead of ourselves - stability and capability and interoperability for already-approved nodes needs to be solid first. We will continue to extend X3D, but our working-group conversations need to focus on the deployment and usability issues in existing tools that have resisted consistent success, despite plenty of solitary hard work by each company.
We will also look at further deployment. Getting X3D content on the SIGGRAPH and Wikipedia sites, exploring whether X3D might become part of Open Document Format, collaborating with OpenGIS Consortium through a new X3D Earth working group, and other growth strategies are all worthy of group discussion. The wisdom of the group and coordinated expert efforts often lift us through difficult challenges to new successes.
Conformance progress will be part of this effort. We will also look at how to better mobilize the larger user community and help them engage effectively. There is plenty of important work ahead, and all hands are welcome to help. We look forward to further participation - after all, it is fun! All contributions and comments will be welcome.