The ‘Metaverse’ and the challenge of responsible standards development

ABSTRACT

On June 21, 2022, the Metaverse Standards Forum (or ‘Forum') was announced with 35 founding members, including Meta, Microsoft, NVIDIA, Sony Interactive Entertainment, Cesium, the Web3D Consortium, and the Web 3d Consortium. The Forum, a unique coordinating structure designed to develop agreement on fundamental technical, interoperability protocols for the metaverse, may provide the technical foundation for later established open (and inclusive) standards (from emergent dominant designs) in relevant technology domain standards development organizations. If implemented with a diverse array of metaverse relevant stakeholders, this exercise in pluralistic inclusion will allow for a socially and ethically responsible consensus to be embedded in the foundational outcomes, i.e., protocols, developed by the Forum. Moreover, it will have the key benefit of a ‘legitimacy’ that the industry will be able to utilize in the social and public policy arenas moving forward with formal standards-setting, and eventual commercial implementation, of this potentially revolutionary, disruptive technology.

KEYWORDS:

• Metaverse
• Metaverse Standards Forum
• responsible standards development
• stakeholders

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 There are two levels of Forum membership: ‘participant’ organizations can engage in forum discussions and projects, while ‘principal’ organizations are those who wish to assist in Forum oversight and may desire to fund Forum projects (Metaverse Standards Forum 2022b).

2 The Metaverse Standards Forum can be considered a ‘consortium’ dedicated to developing technology standards for the emerging metaverse. Hawkins (1999, 161) defines a ‘consortium’ as …  an informal alliance of firms, organizations, and (sometimes) individuals that is financed by membership fees for the purpose of co-ordinating technological and market development activities. Informality is key characteristic as most conventional industrial networks operate through formal sub-contracting arrangements, or through partnerships and joint ventures. Typically, consortia set out very explicit objectives and agendas, but pursue them through very ‘informal’ working procedures.

3 A technical standard includes ‘the definition of terms; classification of components; delineation of procedures; specification of dimensions, materials, performance, designs, or operations; measurement of quality and quantity in describing materials, processes, products, systems, services, or practices; test methods and sampling procedures; or descriptions of fit and measurements of size or strength’ (The White House 2017).

4 ‘Voluntary consensus standards’ are standards developed or adopted by voluntary consensus standards bodies, both domestic and international (The White House 2017).

5 A ‘standards developing organization’ – or SDO – is ‘an organization whose primary function is developing, coordinating, promulgating, revising, amending, reissuing, interpreting, or otherwise contributing to the usefulness of technical standards’ (Ping 2011). In 2004, the Standards Development Organization Advancement Act was enacted by the U.S. Congress (Federal Trade Commission 2004). The Act provides SDOs with the opportunity to limit their antitrust liability for standards development activities to actual, as opposed to treble, damages if found guilty of an antitrust violation (Federal Trade Commission 2004).

6 This idea/concept of ‘pluralistic inclusion’ was developed by the author through the inspiration of Walji and Shah (2020).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Thomas A. Hemphill

Thomas A. Hemphill, David M. French Distinguished professor of strategy, innovation and public policy, School of Management, University of Michigan-Flint, received his Ph.D. in Business Administration with a primary field in Strategic Management and Public Policy and secondary field in Technology and Innovation Policy from The George Washington University. His technology and innovation management publications can be found in the Bulletin of Science, Technology & Society; Innovation: Management, Policy & Practice; International Journal of Innovation Management; International Journal of Innovation and Technology Management, Journal of Responsible Innovation, Knowledge, Technology & Policy; Research-Technology Management; Science and Public Policy; Technology Analysis & Strategic Management; Technology In Society: An International Journal, and Technological Sustainability.