XR Collaboration

When the pandemic hit in 2020, all in-person events got cancelled and everyone began working remotely. This created an opportunity for XR technology to facilitate a new kind of interaction to bring together collaborators of all kinds. Educating people about this technology became a priority, and a team of contributors came together, led by Terry xR. Schussler, Julie Smithson, and Ben Erwin to create a resource guide called XR Collaboration. This effort began an ongoing collaboration which includes The Polys - WebXR Awards, the WebXR Summit Series, XR Women, and the XR Hall of Fame.

For two years, and five editions, XR Collaboration served the industry helping to onboard countless people interested in embracing Virtual and Augmented Reality technologies to understand this paradigm shift in how we work. Numerous experts contributed to this comprehensive shapshot of the state of XR in 2020 and 2021. This page is an archive of this effort to preserve a snapshot of this moment in the history of XR. Though technology evolves rapidly, much of this information is still relevant and timeless. Download the PDF to browse this information that can help you better understand XR.

XR Collaboration was sponsored by Deutche Telekom, Qualcomm, Cleanbox, MetaVRse, Accenture, Powersimple, AWE, Open AR Cloud, CyberXR Coalition, XR Access, XR Bootcamp, XR Women, Immersive Learning Research Network (iLRN), AREA (Augmented Reality Enterprise Alliance, Mindwise, and the VR/AR Association.

We produced an Industry Landcape graphic which captured the most prominent companies building the Metaverse in 2020 and 2021.

Thank you to Alex Colgan, Karen Alexander, Alan Smithson, Alice Bonasio, Caitlyn Krause, Raffaela Camera, Mark Sage, Ferhan Ozkan, David Woodruff, Kristin Wyman, Louisa Spring, Dylan Fox, April Boyd-Noronha, Rob Theriault, Ren Rolleman, Richard Stone, Jan Erik Vinje and Caroline Dennis for your invaluable contributions to this publication.