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Tech giants launch metaverse forum to address expected ‘constellation of standards’

The free-to-join forum is open to all companies, standards groups and universities, standards groups and universities

The Metaverse Standards Forum, launched jointly by technology and telecoms giants yesterday, aims to foster industry-wide cooperation on interoperability standards needed to build the open metaverse.

Neil Trevett, president of Khronos — one of the forum’s members — said that the metaverse will bring together diverse technologies and in doing so will require a “constellation of interoperability standards.”

“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,” he continued.

While additional members include a range of companies including Huawei, Qualcomm, the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and of course Meta Platforms, there was one notable absence: Apple. According to a Bloomberg, Apple is working on mixed-reality headset, which might spell future market competition with Meta Platforms.

“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.”

The need for collaboration on the metaverse was a key theme in Meta Director of Engineering Dan Rampton’s talk at the most recent Connect EXPO in Denver. He explained that the latency necessary for these virtual experiences will require more infrastructure and advanced technologies.

“The truth is that we will have many companies developing for the metaverse. There won’t just be one metaverse; this will be a collaboration across companies and experiences […] that will make this happen,” he said.

The free-to-join forum is open to all companies, standards groups and universities, standards groups and universities and meetings are scheduled to begin next month.

ABOUT AUTHOR

Catherine Sbeglia Nin
Catherine Sbeglia Nin
Catherine is the Managing Editor for RCR Wireless News, where she covers topics such as Wi-Fi, network infrastructure, AI and edge computing. She also produced and hosted Arden Media's podcast Well, technically... After studying English and Film & Media Studies at The University of Rochester, she moved to Madison, WI. Having already lived on both coasts, she thought she’d give the middle a try. So far, she likes it very much.