Leading Standards Organizations and Companies Unite to Drive Open Metaverse Interoperability

Metaverse Standards Forum to foster the development of open standards for the metaverse; Membership is free and open to any organization. Founding members include: 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 (XRA)

June 21st, 2022 – Announced today, The Metaverse Standards Forum brings together leading standards organizations and companies for industry-wide cooperation on interoperability standards needed to build the open metaverse. The Forum will explore where the lack of interoperability is holding back metaverse deployment and how the work of Standards Developing Organizations (SDOs) defining and evolving needed standards may be coordinated and accelerated. Open to any organization at no cost, the Forum will focus on pragmatic, action-based projects such as implementation prototyping, hackathons, plugfests, and open-source tooling to accelerate the testing and adoption of metaverse standards, while also developing consistent terminology and deployment guidelines.

The metaverse is motivating the novel integration and deployment of diverse technologies for collaborative spatial computing, such as interactive 3D graphics, augmented and virtual reality, photorealistic content authoring, geospatial systems, end-user content tooling, digital twins, real-time collaboration, physical simulation, online economies, multi-user gaming, and more – at new levels of scale and immersiveness. 

Multiple industry leaders have stated that the potential of the metaverse will be best realized if it is built on a foundation of open standards. Building an open and inclusive metaverse at pervasive scale will demand a constellation of open interoperability standards created by SDOs such as The Khronos Group, the World Wide Web Consortium, the Open Geospatial Consortium, the Open AR Cloud, the Spatial Web Foundation, and many others. The Metaverse Standards Forum aims to foster consensus-based cooperation between diverse SDOs and companies to define and align requirements and priorities for metaverse standards—accelerating their availability and reducing duplication of effort across the industry.

“The metaverse will bring together diverse technologies, requiring a constellation of interoperability standards, created and maintained by many standards organizations,” said Neil Trevett, Khronos president. “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.”

Hosted by the Khronos Group, the Forum is open to any company, standards organization, or university at no charge through a simple click-through Participant Agreement. Companies that wish to provide Forum oversight, and may wish to fund Forum projects, can choose to become a Principal member. 

The activities of the Forum will be directed by the needs and interests of its members and may involve diverse technology domains such as 3D assets and rendering, human interface and interaction paradigms such as AR and VR, user created content, avatars, identity management, privacy, and financial transactions. Forum meetings are expected to start in July 2022. More information on joining can be found at metaverse-standards.org.

Forum Founding Members Statements of Support 

“Technology and standards are the bricks and cement of the metaverse,” said Qi Wang, assistant president and head of healthcare and cognitive psychology lab at 0xSenses. “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,” said David Morin, executive director of Academy Software Foundation (ASWF). 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,” said Stefano Corazza, vice president and fellow of AR at Adobe. “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 Dr Tan Ping, head of XR Lab, Alibaba DAMO Academy. “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,” said Eric Bourque, VP of Engineering, Media & Entertainment, Autodesk. “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 alongside such highly esteemed company,” said Daniel Frith, VP of 3D, Avataar. “There is going to be a huge need for technical products as well as content in the Metaverse and standards will need to play a pivotal role to ensure all users have a consistent and enjoyable experience no matter where and how they connect.”

“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,” said Arno Hollosi, CTO at Blackshark.ai.

“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”, said Gershon Janssen, President of CalConnect. “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,” said Patrick Cozzi, CEO at Cesium.

“disguise is excited to join the Metaverse Standardization Forum,” said Ed Plowman, CTO of disguise. “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.”

“Semantic insights from terminologies and vocabularies serve as the basis for any new initiative,” said Reese Plews, President of the Enosema Foundation. “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 Marc Petit, VP of Unreal Engine ecosystem at Epic Games. “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,” said Thomas Thurman, president of the EXPRESS Language Foundation.

“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,” said Xiao Ran, vice president of Huawei’s Corporate Strategy and Industry Development. “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.”

“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,” says Martin Enthed, innovation manager at IKEA Marketing & Communication AB. “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,” said Tony Parisi, Chief Strategy Officer at Lamina1. “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,” said David McGavran, CEO of Maxon. “We see standardization as a catalyst for creativity, growth, innovation and unlimited possibility for this inspiring new ecosystem.”

“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.” said Vishal Shah, vice president of Metaverse at Meta.

“NVIDIA understands the metaverse as an evolution of the Internet — from today’s 2D view of the web to an immersive 3D spatial overlay,” said Rev Lebaredian, vice president, Omniverse & Simulation Technology at NVIDIA. “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.”

“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!” said Jan-Erik Vinje, managing director of OARC.

“OGC is very pleased to join the Metaverse Standards Forum with our partner organizations,” said Nadine Almeh, Open Geospatial Consortium president. “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,” said Jules Urbach, CEO and founder of OTOY Inc. “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,” said Hugo Swart, vice president and general manager of XR, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. “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,”, says Ronald Tse, Founder of Ribose. “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,” said Gabriel Rene, Spatial Web Foundation executive director.

“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,” said Allan Poore, SVP of professional artistry at Unity, “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,” said Dr. Yu Yuan, co-founder of VerseMaker. “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,” said Shrenik Sadalgi, director of research and development at Wayfair & founding chair of the Khronos 3D Commerce Working Group. “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,” said Nicholas Polys Ph.D., president of the Web3D Consortium. 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,” said 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,” said Stephanie Montgomery, VP of Research and Best Practices at XRA. “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.”

About the Metaverse Standards Forum

The Metaverse Standards Forum brings together companies and standards organizations to foster alignment on requirements and priorities for metaverse interoperability standards, and accelerate their development and deployment through pragmatic, action-based projects. Open to any organization at no cost, founding members include 0xSenses, Academy Software Foundation, Adobe, Alibaba, Autodesk, Blackshark.ai, CalConnect, Cesium, Daly Realism, Disguise, the Enosema Foundation, Epic Games, the Express Language Foundation, Google, Huawei, IKEA, Jon Peddie Research, Khronos, Lamina1, Maxon, Meta, Microsoft, NVIDIA, OpenAR Cloud, the Open Geospatial Consortium, Otoy, Perey Consulting, Qualcomm, Ribose, Sony Interactive Entertainment, The Spatial Web Foundation (IEEE P2874), Unity, VerseMaker, Wayfair, the Web3D Consortium, and the World Wide Web Consortium. Learn more at metaverse-standards.org, and follow the Metaverse Standards Forum on Twitter @metaverse_forum.

Metaverse Standards Forum and the Metaverse Standards Forum logos are the trademark of The Khronos Group, for the benefit of The Metaverse Standards Forum.