Thread by @kentbye

1/ I agree with @washingtonpost tech journalist @WillOremus that we haven't achieved an interoperable Metaverse yet, but I disagree with his assessment that we won't anytime soon as it depends on how you define a minimal viable Metaverse.

TREAD comparing Metaverse frameworks 👇

https://twitter.com/WillOremus/status/1476573009838329860

2/ Probably the most widely cited series of essays on the Metaverse are from @ballmatthew.
matthewball.vc/all/forwardtot…

It's one of the more comprehensive mappings, although it lacks a comprehensive ethical framework as a part of the Design Guidelines or human rights in the Law.

3/ @Meta's approach to the metaverse emphasizes Interoperability, & they do actually have OpenXR + WebXR implementations, which @WillOremus ignores.
They also claim to be prioritizing Privacy, but only according to their narrow definition of consent-based control of information.

4/ I'm a big fan of @auradeluxe's Seven Rules of the Metaverse essay, which I interviewed him about here:
voicesofvr.com/parisis-metave…

@MozillaHubs' WebXR implementations already starts to meet some of these baseline definitions of a Metaverse that @WillOremus doesn't mention at all.

5/ Here's @roblox's 8 Tenets of the Metaverse captured by @Bloxy_News at their 2021 investor day.

Their vision of the Metaverse is a closed walled garden, but it's also probably the most robust set of user generated virtual worlds + in-game economy.

https://twitter.com/Bloxy_News/status/1365333010740965382

6/ @Microsoft's vision of the Metaverse points back to their Azure products at the Network Architecture layer, but is also much more in the enterprise context rather than consumer context.
Curiously they don't mention @AltspaceVR, which is their most mature virtual world product.

7/ @Niantic's is a skeptic of a VR-based Metaverse, & the launching of their Lightship APIs is going to catalyze an incredible amount of AR applications in 2022 that is worth pointing out in the context of these discussions as they emphasize the Earth more than other companies.

8/ @XRSIdotorg's mapping of the Metaverse is one of the more comprehensive approaches, although I differ slightly in how they organize & order of the stack.
But they do integrate more of the ethical frameworks, human rights, tech policy, governance, & cultural perspectives.

9/ @avibarzeev's Seven Verses framework does the most comprehensive job of mapping the progression from our existing 2D web/apps into 3D, spatial, immersive experiences.
medium.com/predict/beyond…
I was able to translate his approach into all of the major qualities of presence.

10/ HTC's @AGraylin has been talking about the Metaverse in recent talks, & here's some comparisons he made between the 2D vs immersive 3D metaverse as well as some opportunities & predictions.
@htcvive's trackers enable full-body tracking pushing the limits of embodied presence.

11/ My episode #1000 of the Voices of VR podcast features 120 quotes in a 3-hour hour exploration of the future of immersive technologies, spatial computing, & the #Metaverse across a wide range of industry verticals, contexts, experiences, & applications.

https://twitter.com/kentbye/status/1431710961136648195

12/ Biggest open question on the Metaverse is the dialectic between closed vs open approaches & whether walled gardens will dominate or if it'll be truly interoperable.
Probably some combo.
See @neilt3d's talk on this dialectic + @thekhronosgroup standards

https://twitter.com/kentbye/status/1441089898329481224

14/ The biggest factual error in @WillOremus' article is his claim that @Meta hasn't shown support for interoperable standards.
They've been a key driver for @OpenXR @thekhronosgroup standard & have the most robust WebXR implementation in Oculus Browser.
developer.oculus.com/blog/openxr-fo…

15/ OpenXR enables interoperability at the API/SDK layer to be able to write an XR app once & (ideally) have it be device agnostic.
This is a HUGE amount of interoperability that will decouple XR apps from XR hardware.
Interoperable worlds is a diff issue.
khronos.org/openxr/

16/ @EpicGames probably has one of the more comprehensive strategies for the Metaverse.
I'd point to @TimSweeneyEpic's SIGGRAPH 2019 lecture as a pretty robust articulation of their Metaverse vision & what needs to happen.
Audio: blog.siggraph.org/2019/10/siggra…

https://twitter.com/kentbye/status/1156261789228650496

17/ Another key player of the future of the Metaverse is @qualcomm, who is making the chips that powering nearly all of the mobile XR devices (except for Apple & maybe @Meta in the future).
Their new Snapdragon Spaces implements new features with OpenXR:

https://twitter.com/kentbye/status/1460745576086052872

18/ This mapping of the Metaverse by @swati1606 does a pretty comprehensive job, although I organize things down differently in my stack by putting the economic aspects lower.
(h/t @amoration & @open_metaverse)
levelup.gitconnected.com/the-metaverse-…

https://twitter.com/swati1606/status/1460701483653943296

19/ Here's @coinbase's @brian_armstrong & @areeve's Metaverse Stack emphasizing a more decentralized, web3 infrastructure + my translation of their framework.
They're focusing on how a crypto wallet could facilitate aspects of identity & economic exchange.
blog.coinbase.com/how-coinbase-t…

20/ One of my main focus' over the last 5+ years has been looking at the threats to XR privacy in the Metaverse.
My mereological framework extends Lessig's approach as nested contexts.
Here's a talk that explains the need for #NeuroRights protections.

21/ Another big open question about the Metaverse is integrating an ethical design & human rights framework.
Context ends up being a really powerful framework for mapping out the landscape of ethical & moral dilemmas.
See my Oct 2019 XR Ethics Manifesto:

22/ My latest @ARealityEvent talk on XR Ethics emphasizes the need to integrate Responsible Innovation Frameworks into the Metaverse.
We still need to figure out how to integrate #NeuroRights to protect our rights to mental privacy, agency, & identity.

23/ Another theme of my work over the past 7+ years has been developing an experiential design sensemaking framework describing the new affordances of XR including the context, quality, character, & story of immersive experiences.
Here's a 20-min keynote:

24/ When thinking about the User Experience of XR & the Metaverse, the sense of Presence will be one of the more significant new affordances.

I map it out as:
Active Presence
Mental & Social Presence
Embodied & Environmental Presence
& Emotional Presence.

25/ @MelSlater's Place Illusion & Plausibility Illusion is a great foundation for thinking about Presence in VR:
voicesofvr.com/183-mel-slater…

My approach is more closely aligned with @dbchertoff's Active, Cognitive & Relational, Sensory, & Affective Presence:
voicesofvr.com/557-using-expe…

26/ Here's VR presence researcher @RickSkarbez's survey of Presence Theory:
dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/31…

There's lots of approaches, but my approach still resonates the most with Chertoff's.

Here's my 2 previous interviews with Skarbez
voicesofvr.com/130-richard-sk…
voicesofvr.com/555-vr-researc…

27/ In my Nested Contexts Metaverse Stack, "Apps, Experiences, & Context" represent the wide range of industry verticals & different types of apps, & the "User Experience" includes "Qualities of Presence, Character, Story, etc." covering a broad range of new immersive affordances

28/ @WillOremus says "the best microcosm of what a metaverse might look like is Roblox."
It's arguable that @VRChat is a better representation.
Or even @RecRoom.
Yes, both are still closed walled gardens, but probably closer in terms of VR implementation, UI/UX, embodiment, etc.

29/ @MozillaHubs or @cryptovoxels or @webaverse are maybe closer to the Metaverse in terms of having a more decentralized, social VR implementations of WebXR, but these all have been taking inspiration from what's been happening in @VRChat or @RecRoom much more so than @Roblox.

30/ I understand @WillOremus' argument of "The metaverse doesn't exist yet, & it probably won’t anytime soon."
When is an open question.
OpenXR, WebXR, & WebGPU will accelerate interoperability.
The User Experience of VR is necessarily happening in closed walled gardens for now.

END/ The Metaverse will be shaped by larger dialectics between centralization vs decentralization & monopoly control vs community ownership w/ some sort of combo as it is today.
It's an unfolding process.

See my latest talk on Process Philosophy for more: