The Metaverse Standards Forum

Where Leading Standards Organizations and Companies Cooperate to Foster Interoperability Standards for an Open Metaverse

Metaverse Standards Forum is now incorporated as an independent non-profit consortium!

Building an Open Metaverse

 

Interoperability is the bedrock of the metaverse, to enable multiple disruptive technologies to work together, to build bridges between applications to scale beyond a series of disconnected silos, and to evolve a platform that is open and inclusive for all.

Open to any organization, the Metaverse Standards Forum provides a venue for cooperation between standards organizations and companies to foster the development of interoperability standards for an open and inclusive metaverse, and accelerate their development and deployment through pragmatic, action-based projects.

Forum Establishes Pipeline of Exploratory and Domain Working Groups  –  The Forum has initiated a pipeline of member-driven Exploratory and Working Groups that are meeting regularly to create Charters and execute the projects they define. The Working Groups currently include ‘3D Asset Interoperability using USD and glTF’, ‘3D Web Interoperability‘, ‘Digital Asset Management’, ‘Digital Fashion Wearables for Avatars’, ‘Interoperable Characters/Avatars’, Metaverse Standards Register’, ‘Network Requirements and Capabilities’, ‘Privacy, Cybersecurity & Identity’,Real/Virtual World Integration‘ and ‘Technical Interoperability and End-User Troubleshooting.’  The exploratory groups currently include ‘Industrial Metaverse Interoperability’, ‘Metaverse Educational Register’, ‘Volumetric Media Interoperability.’ 

Read the Active Domain Groups overview for further information.

A Constellation of Standards

Building a pervasive, open and inclusive metaverse at a global scale will require cooperation and coordination between a constellation of international standards organizations, including the Khronos Group, World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), Open Geospatial Consortium, OpenAR Cloud, Spatial Web Foundation, and many others.

The Forum does not create standards itself but coordinates requirements and resources to foster the creation and evolution of standards within standards organizations working in relevant domains.

Pragmatic and Action-Based

The Forum focuses on pragmatic, action-based projects to create a wavefront of commercial opportunities through generating domain and technical reports, use case and requirements recommendations, pilots, testbeds and plugfests, open source tooling, best practices and guidelines, and other data, insights, and visibility to enable standards organizations to accelerate the development and evolution of standards that will be essential to building the metaverse.

Member Driven Activities and Projects

The activities of the Forum will be directed by the needs and interests of its members and may involve diverse technology domains, including but not limited to:

  • Interactive 3D assets and photorealistic rendering
  • Human interface and interaction paradigms including AR, VR and XR
  • User created content
  • Avatars, identity management and privacy
  • Financial transactions
  • IOT and digital twins
  • Geospatial systems

Rapidly Growing Membership

Join the vibrant community of standards organizations, companies and institutions that are cooperating for an open and inclusive metaverse. Since launching in June 2022 with 35 originating members, over 2500 organizations have now joined the forum, and more are joining every day.

Supporting quotes from our Originating Members

Learn more about our Originating Members here.

Khronos Group
0xSenses
Academy Software Foundation
Adobe
DAMO Academy
Autodesk
Avataar
Blackshark.ai
CalConnect
Cesium
disguise
Enosema Foundation
Epic
EXPRESS Language Foundation
Huawei
Jon Peddie Research
IKEA Marketing & Communication AB
Lamina1
Maxon
Meta
NVIDIA
Open AR Cloud Association
Open Geospatial Consortium
OTOY
Qualcomm
Ribose
Spatial Web Foundation
Unity
Versemaker
Wayfair
Web3D Consortium
World Wide Web Consortium
XR Association

“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.”

“Technology and standards are the bricks and cement of the metaverse. Safe, reliable, and ethical interoperability is especially important as humans become part of the metaverse. 0xSenses is thrilled to join the Metaverse Standards Forum as a founding ​​principal to help make the metaverse dreams come true faster and better.”

“The Academy Software Foundation is pleased to join the Metaverse Standard Forum as a Founding member, because open source software developed by motion picture industry engineers can contribute building blocks for the Metaverse. When it comes to building strange new worlds and boldly go where no one has gone before, count us in.”

“Adobe is excited to join the Metaverse Standards Forum. It is in our history to contribute to the industry by defining foundational standards for digital experiences, as we did with PDF and DNG. Establishing standards is essential to foster collaboration in the Metaverse, and to allow this new ecosystem to truly flourish.”

“Alibaba is pleased to join The Metaverse Standards Forum which encourages collaboration on interoperability standards of the open metaverse,” said . “We look forward to sharing our technology knowhow and joining global industry leaders to accelerate constructive dialogues to advance new initiatives in the metaverse space.”

“We are thrilled to be a founding member of the Metaverse Standards Forum as it fosters open standards and collaboration that will unlock the full potential of metaverse experiences. The future of design and make is the industrial metaverse where designers, builders, manufacturers and content creators can make better, more informed decisions quickly.”

“Avataar is extremely excited and proud to be taking part in The Metaverse Standards forum to bring about interoperability standards across metaverse ecosystems. We believe there is a need for technical products to solve the challenges we face in making the end user experience seamless & scalable and our deep-tech platform is on that path. We look forward to collaborating with the esteemed partners in the forum to build these standards.”

“The metaverse will ultimately encompass all our activities and support them with applications. Just like standardization has been an important foundation for open knowledge sharing and rapid development in the Web age, the same is true for the Metaverse. Blackshark is pleased to contribute to this success by participating in the Metaverse Standards Forum.”

“CalConnect focuses on creating standards that enable interoperable collaboration, with some of our key standards like vCard and iCalendar in use across billions of devices today. CalConnect is delighted to join fellow standards organizations in ensuring the interoperability of the Metaverse.”

“The Internet is built on open standards and interoperability for the benefit of all participants. As we move into the era of 3D-centric computing, we must build the metaverse in the same manner. I can’t think of a better home than Khronos to host the Metaverse Standards Forum to facilitate pragmatic collaboration among the community for open standards for the metaverse, especially for 3D assets, which will become as pervasive as image and video media types on the web today. Cesium is thrilled to join as a Founding ​​Principal as we lay the foundations for the metaverse for decades to come.”

Patrick Cozzi
CEO at Cesium

“disguise is excited to join the Metaverse Standardization Forum. disguise believes that the Metaverse should be open, inclusive and collaborative and that can only be achieved if we get together and focus on standards, connectivity and interoperability.”

Ed Plowman
CTO of disguise

“Semantic insights from terminologies and vocabularies serve as the basis for any new initiative. The Enosema Foundation is excited to join the Metaverse Standards Forum and standardize core vocabularies based on best practices that enable disruptive opportunities in the metaverse.”

“We are thrilled to help launch the Metaverse Standards Forum, a collaborative industry-led effort founded to accelerate the development and adoption of interoperability standards,” said . “Our goal is to build an open metaverse that enriches humanity and is home to a thriving, fair ecosystem with millions of creators.”

“The Metaverse is the new frontier for the expression of information. As an organization supporting the EXPRESS language used to great success in the aerospace, automotive and construction industries, we are excited to work with like-minded standardization and commercial organizations in setting standards to bridge the physical and the virtual worlds.”

“Huawei is very glad to join the Metaverse Standards Forum as we believe that the metaverse industry and ecosystem will benefit from the collaborative actions and open standards. We look forward to cooperating with the leading SDO’s and industry partners to accelerate the open interoperability standards for metaverse and contribute our experiences.”

“We are proud to be a founding member of this vitally important new forum for ideas, clarifications, direction and definition of what the Metaverse will be and can be. The foundational elements have been in development for some time and now the interoperability and interconnectivity is possible. Khronos will help ensure it is open, smoothly implemented, and takes advantage of the collective minds of the industry just as they have in other areas.”

“IKEA is looking forward to this Metaverse Standards Forum as we believe that the way to democratize metaverse and spatial computing is to have many open standards that work well together. This forum we hope will be a place where that coordination could happen between SDO’s, industry, and where IKEA can contribute with the use cases and experiences from our industry.”

“Lamina1 is committed to an open Metaverse for all—controlled by no one, with no barriers to entry, and where creators from all walks of life can succeed and thrive. We are excited to work in collaboration with industry leaders to define the interoperable standards and infrastructure that empower real-time 3D for community, communication and commerce on a global scale.”

“Maxon is pleased to be an initial member of the Metaverse Standards Forum. We believe strongly in cultivating a collaborative, artist-driven, inclusive foundation to bolster the implementation and adoption of interoperability standards,. We see standardization as a catalyst for creativity, growth, innovation and unlimited possibility for this inspiring new ecosystem.”

David McGavran
CEO of Maxon

“Building a metaverse for everyone will require an industry-wide focus on common standards. 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.”

“NVIDIA understands the Metaverse as an evolution of the Internet—from today’s 2D view of the web today 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. We are thrilled to join the Metaverse Standards Forum to help the community usher in a new era of collaborative and open 3D standards that will form the foundation of the metaverse.”

“The Open AR Cloud Association (OARC) sees the Metaverse Standards Forum as a much needed practical approach to accelerate coordination across industries and initiatives. We believe technologies which promote open standards, interoperability, privacy, and security are needed for a real-world Metaverse or Spatial Web. Since 2018 OARC’s mission has been to advocate for, build consensus for, and contribute to such efforts. We are happy to offer our full support for the Metaverse Standards Forum!”

“OGC is very pleased to join the Metaverse Standards Forum with our partner organizations. We look forward to providing our consortium’s collective expertise in the geospatial and location fields as part of these partnerships across Standards Development Organizations, industry, and more to ensure the emerging metaverse is as relevant and as open as possible.”

“As we enter a new era of spatial computing and holographic mixed reality, OTOY is thrilled to contribute to the Metaverse Standards Forum. Open standards developed in collaboration with the leading SDO will provide a framework for building an open metaverse that has the potential to reshape how we communicate, transform our creative economy, and power new industries built on advanced 3D visualization. We are looking forward to collaborating with industry leaders in the Metaverse Standards Forum, contributing our experiences at the forefront of 3D graphics and blockchain cloud computing.”

“As a metaverse enabler and provider of key technology to the ecosystem, Qualcomm Technologies believes in taking an open platform approach and interoperable metaverse. We are thrilled to join the Metaverse Standards Forum to help define standards for the metaverse to flourish with a healthy ecosystem, and help creators pioneer innovative experiences that will lead the next generation of immersive technology.”

“An open and interoperable Metaverse benefits all without discrimination. As a pioneer of SMART standards, Ribose has been a trusted partner of international, national and industry standardization bodies in their development and deployment of machine-readable standards: from ISO to ITU, BSI to NIST, CalConnect to OGC. We are excited to join fellow standards bodies and makers in creating standards and technologies critical to interoperability across the Metaverse.””

“The Spatial Web Foundation is excited to join the Metaverse Standards Forum to collaborate with the world’s leading standards organizations to accelerate the critical interoperability standards needed for metaverse applications and across the broader Spatial Web.”

“Unity is committed to helping solve challenges customers face today for creating and sharing the rich content needed for film, gaming, advertising and digital twin experiences. We look forward to partnering with the Metaverse Standards Forum to extend USD as the future for rich interoperability across tools and workflows in the industry.”

“VerseMaker is committed to becoming a bridge and catalyst for China’s research and development, education and training, large enterprises, start-up companies, and investment institutions to participate in the global metaverse innovation and cooperation ecosystem. Standardization is the underlying driving force for the development of the global metaverse industry. An open and cooperative ecosystem based on standards is the common vision of the global metaverse industry. We are thrilled to be a founding ​​principal of the Metaverse Standards Forum and jointly create the future of the global metaverse industry.”

“Wayfair, with our mission to help people create their feeling of home, whether in physical or virtual spaces, is proud to be a founding member of the Metaverse Standards Forum. Together with the other participating members we are excited to take on a leadership role in the creation of these new standards and help chart the path forward to a truly open metaverse.”

“The Metaverse Standards Forum provides a unique opportunity to achieve secure, collaborative (interoperable), durable, and pervasive Mixed-Reality content,. The Web3D Consortium members bring decades of prior research into 3D graphics interoperability and WWW ecosystem standardizations; integration with ISO-IEC Extensible 3D (X3D) Version 4 will bring quick wins that catalyze new value and provide crucial assurances for Metaverse creators and participants.”

“The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is joining the Metaverse Standards Forum to accelerate the coordination with other standards organizations and metaverse stakeholders in building an interoperable platform for the metaverse, in which W3C’s Immersive Web vision is set to play a critical role.”

Dominique Hazaël-Massieux
W3C immersive Web Strategist

“XR Association is pleased to be part of this prestigious collaborative effort to design the XR standards framework. Our mission is the responsible development and advancement of XR. Through the Metaverse Standards Forum we will contribute to common protocols, interoperability and shared understanding, thereby responsibly improving technological efficiencies and advancing XR technology to new levels of delight.”

A Typical Project

3D Asset Interoperability

An example of the type of potential projects the Forum will host is to exercize the 3D asset workflow from authoring to runtime rendering in multiple engines:

  • Confirm asset behaviors and attributes satisfy use cases.
  • Test the publishing and transmission pipeline.
  • Exercise interoperable behaviors and attributes in multiple runtime applications.

An Introduction to the Metaverse Standards Forum

Building the Open Metaverse

Neil Trevett, Chair of the Metaverse Standards Forum returns to join Patrick Cozzi (Cesium) and Marc Petit (Epic Games) for a discussion about the recently created Metaverse Standards Forum.

Join Us and Help Build the Open Metaverse

The Forum is open to any organization that wishes to join.

There are two tiers of Forum membership. Participants join the Forum for free and have access to all Forum member plenary meetings and Domain Group activities. Principals play a key role in Forum oversight with voting rights in member plenary meetings, participation on the Oversight Committee that manages the Domain Group Pipeline, and the right to stand for election to the Board of Directors. Principals pay annual membership dues to support Forum operations and projects. The Forum has fee waivers and other accommodations to encourage and enable Principal membership by diverse standards-related organizations.

If your organization is already a Forum member, and you wish to create your own individual account to the Membership Portal you do not need to execute an additional agreement, you can immediately create an account on the Forum Portal using the email address issued to you by your organization.

The Forum is not currently able to accommodate individual members. If you are not affiliated with an organization that wishes to join, we welcome keeping you apprised of the latest Forum updates through you signing up to our newsletter.

For additional information on joining the Forum view the Forum FAQ or Contact Us.

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Contact Us

We want to hear from you! If you have questions not answered in the Forum FAQ, please reach out and we will be glad to help.

Thank you for your interest in the Metaverse Standards Forum! We have had quite a large number of inquiries. We will be responding to them all as quickly as we can. Thank you for your patience.