[etherealG]

an interesting idea, but is the 3D really necessary? I would think a multi-stream voice / video chat in normal window type interfaces like we're used to online would be better.

Even better would be to integrate with existing voice chat apps, like voice chat in googletalk, but with support for "conference calls" in video and voice.

I just don't see this as a good idea, the implementation looks great though.

[hme]

The whole idea of this is to allow large groups events. Think 20+ participants. Using 3D allows us to spatialize the event, while staying very dynamic. Groups can form, change, recreate just by moving. The sound is spatialized too, so it could scale to hundreds, thousands of persons. Just using regular voice would make an awful noise. 3D splits group very naturally, while staying dynamic and most of all, intuitive because it's very similar to regular networking events. It could obviously be done by creating voice groups on a "flat screen", but we strongly believe in the power of real world analogies, to make it immersive and help people understand how to behave in this.