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VRML Architecture Group (VAG)

The VAG was replaced by the VRML Review Board (VRB) when the VRML Consortium was formed in December 1996. This page is here for historical purposes and contains outdated information and broken links.

The VRML Architecture Group, consisting of eight technical experts, endeavored to focus and articulate the sentiments of the VRML community in order to foster the development of a scalable, fully interactive standard for cyberspace.

The VAG, working with the VRML community, created the process for what became VRML 2.0. With the creation of the VRML Consortium, the VAG has handed over its responsibilities to the VRML Review Board (VRB) and the associated working groups.

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VRML 2.0

VRML 1.0

VAG History

The inaugural meeting of the group was held from the 20th to the 23rd of August 1995, in Half Moon Bay. The second meeting was held October 23-24, in Construct's offices in San Francisco. It was at this meeting that the VAG changed its strategic focus from technical design to process guidance. This shift resulted in a Request-For-Proposals (RFP ) for VRML 2.0. The third meeting was held February 5-6 in Intervista's offices in San Francisco, to discuss the process relating to the VRML 2.0 RFP. During this meeting, the VAG proposed a formal process for the selection of a VRML 2.0 specification. The fourth meeting, on March 25th was a return to Half Moon Bay. The VAG reviewed the RFP polling results and unanimously agreed that the Moving Worlds proposal would officially become the working document for VRML 2.0. We agreed on a tentative schedule for finalizing the VRML 2.0 Specification. On August 4, 1996, the official VRML 2.0 Specification was released at Siggraph 96 in New Orleans. The fifth meeting of the VAG was held on August 4 1996 at Siggraph 96. At this meeting the VAG finalized the press release for VRML 2.0, agreed to issue RFPs for the addition of a binary format and an external interface to the VRML 2.0 specification, and planned the formation of the VRML Consortium. On December 12, 1996, the VAG met in Mountain View at Netscape to have its final meeting and hand over all responsibilities to the VRML Consortium.

Our goal is to foster a consensus of the VRML community.

VRML 2.0, the VAG, and ISO

At its July 1996 meeting in Kyoto, Japan, ISO's JTC1/SC24 committee agreed to publish the final (August 4 1996) version of VRML 2.0 as Committee Draft (CD) 14772. The CD ballot is currently underway and will close in November, 1996. After a comment resolution process conducted jointly with the VRML Architecture Group, the DIS (Draft International Standard) text is expected to be ready in December 1996. Following a four month ISO DIS ballot, VRML 2.0 should be forwarded for publication as an ISO standard in May 1997 at the SC24 meeting in Kista, near Stockholm, Sweden. The text will be published electronically as an HTML document and will mark the first time that an ISO standard has been so published. Contact Steve Carson (carson@siggraph.org), chair ISO/IEC HTC1/SC24 or Rikk Carey (rikk@best.com), VRML 2.0 co-author/VAG member if you have questions.

The ISO committee responsible for VRML is:

ISO/IEC JTC1/SC24 (Computer Graphics and Image Processing)
http://www.cwi.nl/JTC1SC24/

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VAG Meetings

Final VAG Meeting - December 1996
VAG V Meeting - August 1996
VAG IV Meeting - March 1996
VAG III Meeting - February 1996
VAG II Meeting - October 1995
VAG I Meeting - August 1995


Note: On 20070513 I moved this note to the bottom of the page, since neither or these links work. More of YON's VRML Archive.

PLEASE NOTE: The URL http://vag.vrml.org will go into archival history on 1 February, 1999. Please update all links to this page to http://www.web3d.org/vag.