The International
Telecommunications Union (ITU) Metaverse focus group has invited contributions
from experts interest in the drive toward an open, inclusive metaverse.
Aimed at laying
the groundwork for technical standards to help everyone benefit from metaverse
services the recently formed ITU group offers an avenue to work towards
standards that could help shape the underlying technology and business
ecosystem to encourage market entry, innovation, and cost efficiency.
“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.
“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.
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.
