What
What is the mission of the Metaverse Standards Forum?
The Forum aims to encourage and enable the timely development of open interoperability standards essential to an open and inclusive Metaverse.
How will the Forum pursue that mission?
The Forum is a venue for discussion and coordination between standards organizations and companies building metaverse-related products, so that critical requirements for metaverse standards can be identified, and real-world interoperability can be exercised with ‘plugfest’ projects.
So, is the Forum a new standards organization?
No, the Forum will simply coordinate requirements and support for existing standards organizations developing standards relevant to the metaverse under their existing governance models and intellectual property frameworks.
Many industry groups are discussing the metaverse – why is the Metaverse Standards Forum unique?
The Forum is the only venue where multiple standards organizations have gathered to coordinate with industry with the goal of accelerating the availability of metaverse interoperability standards.
Is the Forum going to try to ‘define and solve’ the whole metaverse?
No! The Forum will build consensus on which metaverse-relevant interoperability problems can be improved today through standardization work and actionable projects. We are ‘baking the open standard bricks’ for the metaverse, not ‘trying to design the metaverse cathedral.’
Is the Forum trying to dictate technologies or business models to the industry?
No, the reverse! The standards organizations in the Forum are seeking industry input on requirements to help steer their standardization activities. And of course, the Forum cannot force any company to use any standard – companies will choose to use standards that add value to their business.
Is the Forum going to be solely focused on 3D graphics?
No, the domains to be addressed will be driven by the Forum membership and may address any relevant metaverse domain e.g., avatars, privacy, geospatial, networking, VPS, XR, UX…
Why
Why are standards important to the metaverse?
The metaverse will combine the connectivity of the web with the immersiveness of spatial computing, and diverse technologies will need to interoperate in novel ways. Standardized access to proven technologies in the metaverse stack creates market opportunities by removing market friction and helps ensure the metaverse is open and accessible to all.
Are open standards the same as open source?
No. Open-source projects enable multiple organizations to cooperate on the development of a single implementation. Open standards enable consistent implementations of a technology by many companies to address diverse market segments, use cases, and price points – enabling healthy competition and making that technology pervasively available. Both open source and open standards are important, and they often leverage each other – it’s important to use the right tool to achieve desired goals.
Why hasn’t the industry created a standards forum like this before?
The metaverse has raised industry interest in bringing together many domains including the web, XR, spatial computing, rendering, and machine learning. Interoperability between this diversity of technologies will require a constellation of standards, created and maintained by many standards organizations. The metaverse has created the need and opportunity for wider industry standardization coordination and cooperation.
Who
Can my organization join the Forum?
Yes! The Forum is open to any organization that wishes to join, including companies, standards organizations, associations, and universities. Information on joining is at Help Us Build the Open Metaverse.
How much does it cost to become a member?
Membership of the Metaverse Standards Forum is free, there is no NDA and no patent licensing obligations as the standards will be created at member standards organizations, not the Forum.
What organizations have joined the Forum?
Current Forum membership can always be found at the Forum website. It includes leading platform, hardware, engine, and tool vendors as well as multiple standards organizations working in diverse standardization domains.
If my organization joins the Forum, are we committing to a minimum level of effort or attendance?
No, every member can participate to the extent that adds value to their business and activities.
How
How are the Forum meetings organized?
Forum meetings will primarily be on Zoom, with agendas and frequency determined by the membership, including general Plenary meetings and project-specific meetings that are open to all Forum members.
What is the difference between Participant and Principal Memberships?
Any member can choose to become a Principal if they wish to contribute effort to Forum oversight by joining Oversight Meetings and may wish to consider voluntarily funding Forum projects.
Are there online resources to enable effective Forum discussions?
Yes, there is a Forum member portal, hosted by Khronos, with shared email lists, document repositories and chat. Any member representative with an email address using a member’s domain may create a login to access the portal and participate in Forum meetings and activities.
Why is Khronos helping to bootstrap the Forum?
Promoting industry cooperation is part of Khronos’ mission, our membership has requested we help bootstrap the Forum as an open, neutral forum for the benefit of all. Khronos is paying for Forum operations but is not seeking any special Forum privileges.
When
When will Forum meetings start?
Forum meetings are expected to start in July 2022, and all meetings and agendas will be announced on the Forum member portal.