A couple of changes to the roster to mention, plus an open question to the community, whoever is reading this. Joshua Smith of Kaon stepped up to the plate for some Q&A, which will appear tomorrow morning as Part 4. Jerry has the flu, so his part may be delayed a bit. And Cory’s Q&A is on hold due to scheduling issues. Vlad’s Q&A is completely done and ready to go, but I’d like that to tie in with the technical discussion next week or the week after. If there’s a clamor, I can post it sooner, even if it’s out of order. It’s all good stuff.

I’m going to keep my next non-Q&A installment somewhat brief, especially compared to my last one. I’d like to split it into three parts: one part will be a visual glossary of terms, one part will be my own experience, and one part I’ll leave open for audience participation. So consider this a call for participation. Consider the question: What is 3D good for?

Please send links to or descriptions of notable examples (use the comments here or email me) of 3D, either on the Web, or used as an interface to something else, that you think show the power of 3D over traditional interfaces. I can think of a number of examples that rely on fancier hardware (CAVEs, HMDs, etc..) but let’s collect a short-list of the best and brightest examples of 3D used in your basic PC/mac/Linux desktop environment. The more we get, the better the next article will be. I’ll do my part with the high-level stuff, so please pitch in if you can.

Also, let me know if anyone wants a version of this series in vanilla HTML, black text on white background, etc.. You can already to that via RSS or by using the “print” profile (e.g., when you print preview). But it’s easy for me to do, if there’s any demand.