IBM Offers 3D Meeting Service With Lotus Sametime

IBM has announced that a new service, Virtual Collaboration for Lotus Sametime, is now available. The service allows Lotus Sametime users to set up and use virtual meeting spaces securely behind-the-firewall with avatars.

Also known as ‘Sametime 3D’, this service was created by IBM Research and made in its development labs.

Using Sametime 3D, people can select colleagues from their Lotus Sametime contact list, and then invite them to participate in a virtual meeting. Participants can meet in a boardroom, an auditorium or a collaboration space.

Once they enter the virtual meeting, avatars can use text or voice chat, or both, to communicate. They can then share presentations or other materials, and take notes using virtual flip charts. In the collaboration space, they can share ideas and other information on a brainstorm wall. Participants can then store, update, prioritise and vote on this information. Content can be imported and acted upon both in and out of the virtual meeting space.

“Virtual Collaboration for Lotus Sametime is part of IBM’s ongoing work to redefine the nature of on-line meetings,” said John Allessio, vice president, IBM Software Services for Lotus. “Whether through improvements to Web conferencing capabilities or with tools such as VCS, IBM is offering new ways to engage and collaborate, making meetings more effective and productive.”

Additionally, IBM is working with Vivox to provide optional, and integrated voice capabilities using Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP). The voice would be spatial in nature, meaning that as participants in a meeting move closer or further away from each other, the voice gets louder or softer, just like in real life.