The open Metaverse is Stephenson’s response to Facebook, now Meta’s attempt to dominate and centralise the metaverse. The reaction began an alliance known as the Open Metaverse Alliance (OMA3). This lead to the development of Lamina1 which launched in May of 2024 however much of it is still to be revealed with Stephenson’s saying “a richly-imagined, interactive virtual world with an unforgettable origin story”.
When we talk about the Open Metaverse there are two potential possibilities. One is a metaverse created using open-source software, likened to how linux allows many programmes to operate today.
The other potential outcome is where a set of rules that manage an open environment allowing interoperability to occurs. This is known as open standards.
The later is currently the more likely outcome as many large companies have already begun to agree on a standard known as OpenXR that Adobe, Meta and Google agree on how 3D models should be presented.
The Open Metaverse Alliance allows anyone to join and has partnered with
Metaverse Standards Forum
This forum has nearly 2,000 members as of February 2024 with members including Google, Meta, Microsoft and Nividia and web 3D consortium participants; adobe, Autodesk and Epic. The chair is currently Neil Trevett. Controversially he is also president of developer of ecosystems at Nvidia. Nvidia have developed their own metaverse which is driven to be an omniverse.
A 2022 MSF poll prioritized the following areas that were expected to have the most industry impact:
- interoperable 3D assets
- privacy, safety, security, inclusion
- user identity
- avatars and apparel
- real/virtual world integration and geospatial
- teaching and education
- payments and economy
- extended reality and UI
The Blockchain Game Alliance
- Blockchain game alliance mission is to prmote blockchain usage in the gaming community. In doing so they want to accelerate adoption, share best practices producing and open and inclusive platform.
- They have also revealed that one of the top 3 biggest challenges facing the industry 34% respondents said they did not fully understand the concept.
- The co-founder and owner of the Sandbox, Sebastien Borget. The Sandbox is a virtual world where players can build, own, and monetize their own voxel gaming experiences on the Ethereum blockchain which appears to fit the decentralised vision of the Metaverse
- Their latest report expects 20% of the gaming industry to adopt blockchain within 12 months
Metaverse Japan
- The Metaverse Japan is an open forum where people debate and challenge the Metaverse Operations. They have monthly meetings and annual events
The Open Metaverse Alliance Goals
- Community run, decentralized and indexable.
- Where users will be able to own and use their digital assets (e.g. NFTs), identity, and personal data in a frictionless way across multiple platforms.
- Where users are in control of their assets, not platform owners.
- Where ideas and services are based on the foundation of decentralization and interoperability to optimize for individual freedom, social, economic and other sustainable outcomes
Their principles include Interoperability, Standardisation and Ownership
https://www.techtarget.com/searchcio/feature/The-Metaverse-Standards-Forum-What-you-need-to-know
