VRML Founder Mark Pesce Speaks Out on Open Source

Computergram International, March 8, 1999 by Rachel Chalmers

Platinum Technology Inc's source code release and its abrupt departure from the web 3D market was a slap in the face for the community, according to Mark Pesce. Pesce is the chair of the interactive media program at the University of Southern California and a co-author of the original VRML spec. He had harsh words for the company that acquired VRML pioneers Cosmo Software and Intervista Software last year, only to fire most of their staff last week. "Platinum has unceremoniously done a first-quarter-that-we-haven't-made-our-revenue-projections full- scale-freak-out, and has managed to fire a significant percentage of everyone actively involved in VRML development," Pesce wrote to the www-vrml mailing list on Friday March 5. "The gradual coalescence of market forces around a single browser led to a single point of failure, which - as any network engineer knows - is a very dangerous thing. We got caught with our pants down."

Now, Pesce says, Platinum is trying to make the best of a bad situation by giving away the source code to its browser and authoring tools. He argues that the way they have gone about this may not be in anyone's best interests. "Sure, the source code is free," he concedes, "but no business can really use it, for fear of "pollution" of their own intellectual property." Pesce also criticizes the way Platinum and the Web 3D Consortium have made the source release partly conditional on the development of a single standard for X3D, formerly VRML-NG: "Noble sentiment, bad idea," is his verdict. Pesce's central point is that Platinum hasn't really released the source in any meaningful way. Instead, it is bound by caveats and conditions and lawyers and an increasingly anxious Web 3D Consortium. "Open doesn't mean open, and free doesn't mean free," he argues, "here's what I think: Platinum should be giving this stuff away. All of it... No encumbrances. No rules. Just open source, freely available to anyone who wants it, for any reason they choose."