Presently I'm investigating the potential effects on mathematical science communication of this approach. The biggest potential in Java is the ability to dynamically respond to situations. A second way is in direct communication.
Work is now in progress on an advanced usage of the web.
This is more of a demonstration of what the network is capable of, and it should be assumed that there will be many solutions to the problems that this approach addresses. A remote scientist can simply click on a link, and the browser would download the software needed to let him walk into the virtual seminar room. Of course, more sophisticated display applications, like ghostview, Xdvi, and Geomview, will still be important, and it will not be desirable to do everything as Java, but Java will allow far closer communication amongst scientists. To see what can be done, I suggest looking at the archive of Cool Applets at the Sun Java site.