OMI is growing up!
OMI has a new Discord server
The time has come for OMI to leave the incubator AngellXR. Since it's formation in 2021, OMI has been hosted by AngellXR, who has provided server space, infrastructure and financial resources to grow OMI. We will always be most grateful for that, and hope to maintain a friendship for ever. At two years old now, and preparing to pro-actively grow the membership, it's time for OMI to spread its wings.
This also means OMI is moving to its own Discord server, and while this is understandably disruptive, it is also a good time to review our communication, clean up and update our websites, coordinate groups better and revisit what we stand for and what we do. Join the new server, called "OMI: Open Metaverse Interoperability Group" here: https://discord.gg/2QXdAhkFCn
What does OMI stand for?
Apart from the Open Metaverse Interoperability Group, which is literally what OMI stands for, OMI also stands for grassroots participation. We are a loose collective of people with a shared interest in the Metaverse, and shared goals of creating assets, standards, protocols, knowledge and energy for the Metaverse. We represent a social connection between different metaverse groups.
What does OMI do?
In a way, whatever you want. OMI members are a global group of developers, designers, researchers, artists, and media makers working on standards, protocols, and open-source software for interoperability between 3D worlds, as well as those interested in governance and organizing communities in the open Metaverse. While there are a few more formal working groups, OMI is designed for participation that includes everyday people - or "normies", university groups, students, hobbyists, anyone. While we do prefer open source, we are more concerned about building an open ecosystem.
OMI hosts weekly community meetings in our Discord voice channel, development working groups, member-led metaverse/virtual world tours and show-and-tell gatherings, and opportunities to show and tell what members are currently working on. Being part of OMI also offers opportunities to participate in Metaverse standards groups and exhibit at professional events. If you wish to create a focus group, start in the #omi-experiments channel on our Discord and get in touch at our community meetings (calendar).
An example of an active working group is the glTF group, which develops standards and protocols for interoperability between open 3D worlds. This includes interoperability between games, game platforms, game engines, and non-game 3D content. This kind of scope is what the M in OMI stands for, Metaverse, meaning a universe of interoperable 3D content with no central point of control. This is in the same vain as how we have standards for HTML/CSS/JS that allow the world wide web to provide a universe of interoperable 2D content that is compatible with many websites, web browsers, operating systems, etc.
OK but what is the Metaverse, anyway?
You know what, whatever. While we feel rather strongly that one virtual world is not the Metaverse (not even if it's Facebook, er, Meta) and not even a collection of virtual worlds, we're OK with however you describe the Metaverse. We're about building whatever bits of this Metaverse thing interests you, together. We have some members passionate about virtual worlds, some about integrating data, some about open protocols, some about the social aspects, some about integrating physical world assets ... whatever rocks your boat.
Get in touch!
Join our new Discord server: https://discord.gg/2QXdAhkFCn
We are also reviving our W3C mailing list: https://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-metaverse-interop/
If you have a strong preference for a different way to communicate, e.g. Matrix, please let us know.
In following blogposts, we will share our thinking behind our logo, introduce our new chairs, and share some ideas of what type of engagement we are pursuing, and how we plan to implement that.
I am so proud of this group. I am grateful we can continue to build, share, and grow together.