The OOBE project team was made up of more than 70 members from animators to architects, programmers to production assistants, and writers to whip-crackers telecommuting across the US. The intrinsic logistical challenge of such a large team lay in how to integrate each member's efforts seamlessly and efficiently. We found the solution to this communication conundrum in the liberal use of email and the OOBE intranet, where documents and media of all types, such as jpeg images, mpeg videos, VRML files, HTML scripts, schedules, and spreadsheets were posted for review by team members. This information infrastructure enabled the constant exchange of ideas and works-in-progress which was critical for the team to keep up with an intense production schedule and accommodate 11th-hour changes, additions, and strokes of genius. By communicating via the Internet and the OOBE intranet, the team was able to overcome the inherent spatio-temporal limitations that encumber most collaborative communication. We have experienced the future of professional partnership, and it is powerful!
Furthermore, the entire Out-Of-Box-Experience was constructed on Silicon Graphics® workstations. Even the writers, who did not have the luxury of word-smithing on a Silicon Graphics machine, were able to access and upload all their relevant material to the OS-oblivious OOBE intranet which lived on an SGI Web server.
Though the communication infrastructure seemed initially daunting to those unfamiliar with it, everyone quickly came to rely on this one-stop source for data, deadlines, and updates. The real challenges were revealed when the human elements actually got together in the same room.
Knee-deep in OOBE, the entire team gathered each week in the War Room to present ideas, treatments, scripts, storyboards, VRML spaces, and software solutions. In these intense weekly review meetings, punctuated by the occasional flare of an artistic temperament, or two or three, the OOBE project producer would do her best to control the chaos and drive the project forward to completion on time and within budget. Considering not only visual aesthetics, but interface design, performance feasibility, end-user perceptions, and the dreaded polygon count, the OOBE team shaped a complex and engaging digital space.