Will The Metaverse Standards Forum Succeed in Defining the Metaverse
A precise definition of the term "Metaverse" stays aloof. We defined it as an amalgamation of several emerging technologies that will take sometime to materialize. It seems, this ambiguity has gotten a broader attention and now companies like Meta (Facebook), Nvidia, Epic, Microsoft and others have signed up to The Metaverse Standards Forum, which wants to establish some consistency on open standards and terminology surrounding the metaverse.
The Metaverse Standards Forum is ‘hosted’ by the Khronos Group, albeit we are not sure what implies. Neil Trevett, Khronos president, said: “The metaverse will bring together diverse technologies, requiring a constellation of interoperability standards, created and maintained by many standards organizations. The Metaverse Standards Forum is a unique venue for coordination between standards organizations and industry, with a mission to foster the pragmatic and timely standardization that will be essential to an open and inclusive metaverse.” This definition is pretty much what we have stated as well, though with some leading companies now part of the standards, they may come up with a definition and standards that don't necessarily give one firm a leg up on the other.
“Building a metaverse for everyone will require an industry-wide focus on common standards,” said Vishal Shah, vice president of Metaverse at Meta. “The Metaverse Standards Forum can drive the collaboration that’s needed to make this possible, and Meta is committed to this work. Creators, developers and companies will all benefit from the technologies and experiences that will be made possible by common protocols.”
Rev Lebaredian, vice president, Omniverse & Simulation Technology at Nvidia added: “Nvidia understands the metaverse as an evolution of the Internet — from today’s 2D view of the web to an immersive 3D spatial overlay. For the metaverse to be successful and ubiquitous, it must be built on open standards, just like today’s 2D web — and our joining the Metaverse Standards Forum will help the community usher in a new era of collaborative and open 3D standards that will form the foundation of the metaverse.”
A list of of who's who is currently floking to the The Metaverse Standards Forum. Currently, the list of members includes 0xSenses, Academy Software Foundation, Adobe, Alibaba, Autodesk, Avataar, Blackshark.ai, CalConnect, Cesium, Daly Realism, Disguise, the Enosema Foundation, Epic Games, the Express Language Foundation, Huawei, IKEA, John Peddie Research, Khronos, Lamina1, Maxon, Meta, Microsoft, NVIDIA, OpenAR Cloud, the Open Geospatial Consortium, Otoy, Perey Research and Consulting, Qualcomm Technologies, Ribose, Sony Interactive Entertainment, Spatial Web Foundation, Unity, VerseMaker, Wayfair, the Web3D Consortium, the World Wide Web Consortium, and the XR Association.
The question still remains, what is expected outcome of this standards body. We propose that standards should start by understanding the value that Metaverse will create for consumers and enterprises, and then work from there to define the standards as enablers to the said value. With the current members, so long as their is a common vision, good things could be expected.
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