Fortunately, the vendors are providing new ammunition in this case: we can start to talk about integration, and the blending of what we can do with what we’ve always done will be a great way to introduce new users to immersive work.

I tend to think along the lines of: “remember when we only had text email? Then we got hyperlink-enabled email, embedded files and all that stuff. Adding immersive tools is kind of like that: a new and more powerful way to do what we already do. But I still send a lot of text only emails. That won’t go away. I just want to have both options.”

I’ve gotten into a few discussions were people seem to think I’m proposing everyone should get an avatar and that in-person meetings are no longer needed. As you point out, these things are just more tools in the toolbox and I wish more people would present it this way.

The best way to collaborate is highly depended on the situation. I’m sure we all run across situations where a conference call is insufficient and we decide an in-person meeting is worth the extra cost (e.g. travel cost or cost of excluding some people). Its nice to have the intermediate steps that immersive technologies are bringing.

In addition, you can often bring things to a virtual world you can’t bring to a real world. Layouts for homes, buildings, factories, fashion designs, product packaging, product mock ups don’t always show up well in a 2D PowerPoint and are usually costly or impossible to create in the physical world. I think this is kind of your last point in the recommendations.

Mark