Metaverse focus group calls for contributions

ITU News

The metaverse focus group recently formed by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) aims to lay the groundwork for technical standards to help everyone benefit from metaverse services.

The group offers a venue to work towards standards that could help shape the underlying technology and business ecosystem to encourage market entry, innovation, and cost efficiency.

The metaverse focus group, having outlined its ambitions through an agreed structure for its work, invites contributions from all experts interested in the drive towards an open, inclusive metaverse.

“Participation is open to anyone willing to contribute, and I look forward to working with you to ensure the metaverse is interoperable, inclusive, and secure for the benefit of all,” highlights the group’s Chairman Shin-Gak Kang from the Republic of Korea’s Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute.

The metaverse focus group first met in Riyadh in early March, with Saudi Arabia’s National Cybersecurity Authority hosting an open forum followed by the focus group’s first official meeting. Revisit recorded forum discussions.

“I invite you to make your voice heard and contribute to our preliminary metaverse standardization work by joining us at our second focus group meeting in China later this year, either in person or remotely,” adds Shin-Gak Kang.

Experts are also encouraged to participate in meetings of the focus group’s working groups and task groups ahead of its second meeting in China in the first week of July.

Play the Focus Group Chair’s video message.

Tackling technology, business, and policy

ITU focus groups, open to all interested experts, accelerate standardization by leading intensive studies in areas of rapidly evolving strategic importance. The metaverse focus group will conduct “pre-standardization” work as a basis for developing new ITU standards.

The metaverse focus group initially comprises eight working groups.

 The “general” Working Group 1 will analyse the metaverse’s underlying business ecosystem and build clarity around key metaverse concepts, service models, and enabling technologies for metaverse platforms and services.

Working Group 1 will also lead the elaboration of metaverse terms and definitions, an essential foundation for cohesive standards development.

Metaverse “applications and services” across industry sectors are the focus of Working Group 2, where experts will document envisaged use cases of metaverse applications and their technical requirements.

Working Group 3 on “architecture and infrastructure” will study metaverse demands on network architectures and networking and computing infrastructure.

Technical requirements for “virtual/real world integration” in areas such as structured data models and application and service integration between virtual and real worlds are the focus of Working Group 4.

Working Group 5 on “interoperability” will detail the use cases and technical requirements for interoperability across metaverse platforms, applications, and services.

Working Group 6 will determine the necessary building blocks for “security, data & PII [personally identifiable information] protection”, including with respect to data and digital asset ownership and their security dimensions.

“Economic, regulatory & competition aspects” are the focus of Working Group 7, where studies will analyse metaverse value chains and identify questions for the consideration of regulatory authorities.

Working Group 8 on “sustainability, accessibility & inclusion” will explore social and environmental dimensions of metaverse sustainability, promoting diversity and inclusion and specific consideration of the needs of persons with disabilities.

Header image: Seizo Onoe, Director of the ITU Telecommunication Standardization Bureau, addresses the 1st ITU Forum on Embracing the Metaverse

Image credit: ITU/R. Kfoury