World Wide Labor

Excellent article over on BusinessWeek online discussing product life-cycle management (PLM) software leader UGS. From the article:

Click an icon on any PC loaded with UGS software, and you’re ushered into a digital forum, with a three-dimensional workspace and folders of information along one side. Marketers can post ideas for new products. Engineers can design 3D prototypes. And manufacturers can lay out a new assembly line, complete with every piece of equipment necessary. Tens of thousands of people can participate on a single project from anywhere there’s a Web connection.

I noticed mention of Dassault (read more about their acquisition of ABAQUS here), but didn’t see mention of PTC which I’m aware has been into VR for a number of years and has apparently done well with their Windchill application. Have to wonder where something like Croquet fits into this secretive and proprietary world. Might it eventually be the Linux of PLM?