3D immersive virtual reality spaces in which people can meet, talk, present, and exchange documents and files have been around for over two years now.

But this virtual reality approach to online collaboration has yet not taken root, nor have the potential marketplaces materialized in front of the still limited offerings that have become available online.

What are then the limitations preventing 3D collaboration spaces from taking off and why no-one in those companies is looking at them?

What do I see as the future of 3D online collaboration?

These and more questions get my answers and opinion in the following paragraphs. Whether you want to know whether this is a bubble that is going to explode or an interesting future too much ahead of its due time, I have some interesting thoughts to share with you.

It is now just about two years since SmartMeeting (which has recently pulled back its original product and converted its underlying engine into a more traditional all web-based conferencing system called Convenos) stroke me as the premier and most innovative collaboration tool allowing effective interaction in a fully recreated 3D space.

The impact SmartMeeting left on me goes unmatched to this day, as even its competitors (namely Tixeo and I-maginer), while having greatly improved and refined their offerings have yet to match some of SmartMeeting original key unique features (e.g.: spatial sound, breakout rooms, ambient design and features, body language, etc.) while needing to improve on their own shortcomings (avatar design, ambience design and customization, better integration of traditional tools in 3D space, interface design, and more).

Much progress has been made in the performance, bandwidth utilization and in the greater usability of the integrated features and applications. For example, Tixeo latest offering (available as a 15-day free trial) includes multi-party videoconferencing that is pretty hard to beat. Unlimited video feeds (only limited by your available bandwidth) with a superlative quality/bandwidth ratio. Within the limits of a slow, crappy ADSL line having only 256 Kbps of download capacity and 128 Kbps up, you can have a pretty high quality video conference with two or more people joining in.

But what was already badly done in the "mainstream" world of web conferencing and collaboration tools has been simply replicated once again, without any critical questioning into this truly innovative new interaction dimension.

To make a more specific example: if today we still have for the greatest part whiteboard and live annotation tools that are truly shameful for the way they have been designed, these highly supposedly "innovative" 3D collaboration tools have taken on those approaches and existing styles and have blindly integrated them into their tools.

It's like having a rocket, taking off on rubber tires.

That shows again how much of the development, engineering and overall design strategy is too much in the hand of skilled engineers and software developers who have no clue to as to what communication, interaction and user needs within their target groups are.

What I am saying is that these 3D tools are more of a show-off of technology prowess than being truly innovative new dimensions of online collaboration where the benefits and practical advantages clearly surpass the frustrations and idiosyncrasies.

But don't misunderstand me.

Such 3D virtual collaboration spaces DO have all of the potential to be truly fantastic and uniquely useful meeting/conferencing and collaboration spaces, but they need to be developed with a greater vision for how to best enable the unique advantages of having people meet in a 3D environment. Without that vision, these 3D virtual collaboration tools are nothing more than superfancy dressed-up versions of traditional web conferencing and collaboration tools. Just a bit harder to use.

So much so that if you look at what these companies are doing you can see that they themselves have realized this without openly admitting it.

SmartMeeting has recycled itself into an interesting new web conferencing tool called Convenos. Convenos is completely 2D and sports some interesting features. Give it a try and share what you think of it (in the comments area at the end of this article).

Tixeo, has done a great job of making it as easy and as fast as possible to switch from 3D to 2D during a session, as it has learned how much more effective is to work in 2D when the functions and tools are those of traditional web conferencing (screen-sharing, whiteboard, co-browsing, etc.).

So when it comes to effective, usable collaboration, 2D is still better than 3D?

The answer is yes and no at the same time.

Yes, if you are replicating in a 3D environment the collaboration and presentation metaphors already developed in the 2D flat spaces of our existing conferencing tools.

No, if you fully exploit virtual reality spaces unique characteristics: Spatial sound, avatar design and body language/expressivity (even to the opposite directions taken so far - who said that an avatar in a virtual space has to look like a physical human being - couldn't I be just a flying fluorescent blue smiling sphere?), ability to manipulate objects, customization of space architecture and more.

But if your stakeholders, investors and financers do not have a true vision for how 3D will play a different collaboration-support role to traditional conferencing and live presentation services, it is indeed best to serve the market immediately with your existing 2D features while using some of possible your revenues and profits to fuel further research and development into making existing 3D solution effectively complementary to 2D solutions.

If the unique traits that make 3D spaces unique and better than traditional 2D ones are not further researched, understood and brainstormed around, 3D virtual worlds for online collaboration spaces may remain more of a circus-like attraction that will enamor marketing executives but which will inevitably turn off business executives, IT managers, education specialists, trainers and many more.