Mozilla Labs blogged today a call for people “to get involved and share their ideas and expertise as we collectively explore and design future directions for the Web.” At the link for example, there are three concept videos outlining a few ideas the people at Mozilla Labs have already had. If you can ignore the icky script and lift music, the ideas aren’t as awe-inspiring as the Microsoft Photosynth\Surface\Seadragon demo last year, but they are interesting nevertheless. Realistic certainly. In particular, the Aurora demo video from Jesse James Garrett (father of AJAX) seems perhaps the most far-fetched - like, didn’t we see that a few years ago, dude? - but when you come to think of it, what the demo shows is perhaps only a few steps beyond the existing live meeting spaces and whiteboards we use today.

On a side note, why is it that 3D desktop environments always seem to be the answer? Am I alone in thinking they’re a tad cliche? Or is that just inherited bad feeling from watching Lawnmower Man, Johnny Mnemonic, Minority Report and the like?