Lotus Connections goes 3D !

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While I'm supposed to be officially on vacation today, these news couldn't wait until Monday to be published. I recently ran into a press release detailing how Lotus Connections now works in a 3D virtual environment. Cool, huh? So what's the deal? Well, Forterra has just released OLIVE (On-Line Interactive Virtual Environment) v2.2 and with it come new collaboration features and integration with Lotus Connections and Lotus Sametime. Lotus Connections can serve the user's profile and avatar information to OLIVE. Here's a preview of some of the new features: The key OLIVE capabilities being released this month include:

• A Virtual Meeting Reservation System that allows a meeting organizer to reserve a 3D room type (ex, auditorium, board room, classroom), room equipment (ex, projector screen size, chairs, and podiums), and to invite mandatory and optional attendees.
• Invitations are sent out through the user's native email system (e.g. Lotus Notes), and if accepted display in their native calendaring system.
• Presenting on 3D screens and viewing by all participants a spectrum of media including MS Powerpoint files, streaming videos (Windows Media Player® based), any software application running on a Windows desktop, and collaborative whiteboards.
• A Lotus Sametime plug-in so users can achieve single sign-on to OLIVE from Lotus Sametime, instantly invite colleagues to join a 3D meeting directly from their Lotus Sametime client, or schedule a future meeting through the Virtual Meeting Reservation System.
• Presence awareness of other OLIVE or Sametime users logged in. Users can quickly join a colleague in a virtual environment by teleporting to their location.
• Avatar profiles through integration with any social networking system like LinkedIn, Facebook, Lotus Connections, a Learning Management System or enterprise HR system so users can view the profile of another meeting attendee by right clicking on their avatar.
• Simplified firewall port configuration and compatibility so IT departments can set the communications for OLIVE to work through two firewall ports. OLIVE has always supported being able to deploy entirely behind a firewall.
• Support for 3D model import into OLIVE for Autodesk 3ds Max and Maya, Google Sketchup, Blender, Poser Pro, FaceGen, and Softimage, and other content authoring tools which provide COLLADA file export options.

Here's a demo of the Lotus Sametime and OLIVE integration:

For more information, check out the entire press release here.