Annotation authoring in collaborative 3D virtual environments

To be generally useful for collaborative research and learning, immersive virtual 3D spaces must include intuitive content creation and annotation tools. We describe some initial work to enhance one such environment (Croquet) for use in a broad range of collaborative applications. Annotations in virtual spaces may include features such as comments on objects in the environment, guided tours through the virtual space, and a history mechanism so that the evolution of objects or portions of the space can be replayed and examined. In general terms, an annotation is simply a relationship between one object and another and we examine several methods of displaying these relationships. To extend annotations across communities, the system architecture supports naming and packaging object and meta-information and integration of content into a shared digital repository. By distributing to users the power to create, edit, store, and retrieve objects and annotations, we promote development and re-use of meaningful content. Such systems can have great utility for the development of virtual environments for learning and research.