Ok if you've lasted this long great! Here's my take on the situation.
It's clear that many potential customers want their content to be "secure".
The problem which is also just as clear is that total security is a myth.
The issue becomes one of degree. While there is no such thing as total security it is possible to
to protect content for all but the "most determined" hackers. Len Bullard's eight levels of security
are a terrific start.
It also seems clear that the separation between people that want to create a security mechanism and those
that say it's no use is a separation between people trying to make money and those just playing around. My view
is simple, VRML has been a miserable failure in the marketplace. We can all cry "no no...VRML is alive" and technically
that's true. But from a market perspective, as Bones would say to Capt. Kirk..."he's dead Jim". One of the contributing factors to the market problems of VRML is a lack of security for protecting content.
This is a fact because potential customers say so.
Perfect security is an illusion but it's not lying to a customer to provide a modicum of security which
would give the paying customer enough warm fuzzies to fork over some money for VRML projects.
The religious arguments in the past have hurt the cause of open 3D for the Web. The issue at the moment
is, is this effort worth it? and can VRML be resurrected? Simply put YES and YES. VRML remains the only
open standard for 3D on the Web.
Open standards offer value significantly beyond proprietary formats. However we live in
a very different market environment then that which existed a few short years ago. The rapid appearance of loads of proprietary
3D formats has created what people are calling a "Darwinian" stage in 3D's evolution. The format that succeeds has yet
to be chosen. If you believe in open formats, as I do, then you must also recognize that we live
in a dog eat dog world and customers matter and their perceptions about security matter. We must
all seek to educate customers not simply tell them "it can't be done perfectly so why bother". Customer
education and a modest effort at achieving useful, not perfect, security should help. In the mean time Darwin's 3D formats
are out there battling for dominance.
Again I'd like to thanks the www-vrml posters for allowing me to republish their writing.
