Today is our first backlog refinement meetup. We will continue these on the 4th Tuesday of each month. We worked through some kinks, and recorded the session using google meet.

The meeting was quite engaging, and we learned a lot about how to run the next meeting better. Notes can be found on hackmd

meeting recording available in this google drive

On this page:

https://github.com/omigroup/omigroup

You have the following content:

Click on any of these links to contribute to their associated Github Discussions / Issues:

• Define key results for each of our objectives ✔️
• Appoint one or more chairs for our W3C Community Group ✔️
• Define our scope of work
• Determine what OMI's responsibilities are outside of standards/protocols
• Write up our community group charter
• Explore incentives for participation in OMI

All the links are broken and result in 404s.

For example, "Define key results" points to:

#10

But that discussions is missing from the list. The list skips from #8 to #11. So perhaps some content got deleted?

In any regard, you need to point to the right location.

[Update: Huhn. Linking to https://github.com//discussions/10 from here works. Wonder why it's broken on the other page.]

This group needs a group to meet separately from our Wednesday sessions.

Who can lead this effort and organize the exploration of what a partner program may look like?

Originally posted by @mrmetaverse in #121 (comment)

We are seeking help cutting recordings of our upcoming OMI Demo Night event on 9/16/21

"Video editing, create chunks of content for sharing on social @Open_Metaverse channels. Strategy for uploading, collaboration, and pipeline."

• Coordinate with Evo, .mp4 from upcoming event

We have an opportunity to hose an OMI booth at the next VR Chat Virtual Market VKet event. A channel has been created in discord and our group is seeking volunteers for this effort.

To decide now (by September 12):
 - who owns this project (will be responsible for uploading & should be an active "New User" level or higher VrChat player) others can collab via git. (There is a lottery & either I or Saracen will also apply as a backup.)
- we need to pick the top 3 venues to exhibit at. We can make a survey where we can choose or just pick a few (if anyone wants to review the concept art above and nominate a few of their favorites in chat, that would be awesome!)
[note that different styles of venues: being a booth in a bigger space; or being in a 10x10x10 mini-world that you "pop" into one at a time]
- the person (google account) who submits will need to be responsible to pay JPY 3300 next week or later. I will be happy to cover the costs.

- lyuma

It looks like our deadline for this it today Sunday 9/12/21 could we confirm?

Let's also discuss the Privacy aspects: like how do we keep that from being used maliciously?

Is this a project worth pursuing?

https://www.exif.org/Exif2-2.PDF

I think we should consider creating a new repo, omigroup/feedback. The purpose of this repo would be solely for making suggestions, giving feedback, and discussing integration blockers/needs/successes. Github actually has their own github/feedback repo, which can be searched, tagged, etc.

We already leverage the holistic backlog, which lets us syndicate tickets from all of our active repos. This means, we could have a feedback channel, and the group can select to pull in, or defer, items of feedback into our holistic backlog. Effectively "activating" that piece of work.

I think this could help newcomers find answers to common questions, and provide a new inlet for the most important element of iteration - feedback!

The repo would look like this:

OMI Community Development Working Group

The Community Development Working Group will meet on a regular basis and discuss strategy for OMI partnerships, outreach, and co-development.

OMI Partner Program

Contributors

• Nick, Futurist Foundation

Summary

The partner program is used to work with organizations interested in an open, interoperable metaverse.
Through a dynamic relationship, orgs would be able to market OMI and be a part of the process through non-developmental means.

Example Use Cases

I run a nonprofit and have been trying to get involved in a non-developmental role in OMI for a while with no luck.
My nonprofit has a reach of over 50,000 people. I want them to know we are dedicated to the metaverse,
and to know that I am doing my part.

Implementation

An example of what the page would look like on OMI - http://nickg38.sg-host.com/
Also, have general badge mockups/designs - https://i.gyazo.com/0680c2ae25ea754fd52f01ac30d272a0.png

What is needed?

• Core to be on board
• Website implementation
• Final badge design
• Long-term program plan (ie. what does OMI require from partners and how can the relationship be beneficial long term)

Robert has been gathering feedback in a survey to identify the best time for our group to meet every week. We have been meeting on Wednesdays at 9aPDT/12pEDT thus far due to the survey we sent out in the beginning of OMI's formation.

To ensure we are still meeting at the best time a new survey was created: OMI Meeting Survey

We previously created This OMI Github Stratetgy Outline (which may need some refinement in the future) and should ensure that it is available on the main readme of omigroup/omigroup

How might we share our recent findings with each other in an engaging way?

Organize and Implement process for show + tell by contributors of OMI, their respective orgs and affiliated working groups to discuss potential use cases, lessons learned, and blockers to solve for. (this is separate from lightning talks official public event Demo Nights) Essentially we can expect to have ongoing demos to discuss technical details and discoveries, which we hope will promote ad-hoc meetings for cross-pollination (as needed) empowering collaboration. We hope this will boost our community. This is a part of working groups establishing their own meeting cadences. Some groups may want to demo their work every month, some may want to do more or less frequent.

💡This ticket is about identifying an initial process, not about planning any one specific event. If you are interested in speaking at a Demo day, feel free to leave a comment here, and we will provide you with the decided method sign-up.

Acceptance Criteria:

• Assemble an ad hoc team to explore and plan the process.
• Identify a method for volunteering to share at demo day (do we want a sign up form? Do we create github discussion pages for signing up and reflecting on the meeting like we do with our weekly meetings? or do we want to be more informal and on the spot)
• How might we document these lessons learned on our github / omigroup website.
• Set a date for the first demo day
• Establish alternating time zones

Keep in mind the process is flexible and can change. We should look to start simple.

Make roles that match up with working groups

Originally posted by @mrmetaverse in #132 (comment)

As part of our Future Structure of OMI Milestone, we should define potential future roles related to the list of known responsibilities that we put together so far.

Robert started this discussion #165 to begin codifying some of these roles.

AC: Define new potential roles, and assign representatives who volunteer to fulfill these new roles. Review in retro in at least 3 months to make any changes that are necessary.

Working Agreements / Playbooks are another word for agile team working agreement which we co-create to define how we will work together and respect each other. Note: For those unfamiliar with working agreements, this is not a legal document.

• howto: team Canvas workshop
• example 1
• example 2 Tezos Agora

This is an example of a slightly more complex working agreement template:

OMI glTF Extensions

Contributors

• Robert Long
• @fire

Summary

glTF has wide adoption in metaverse platforms. It is used for props, environments, and avatars. However, each platform currently specifies common behaviors such as audio emitters, animation playback, colliders, and more in different ways. In order to make glTF content richer for metaverse applications we propose creating a repository for designing and specifying a set of common glTF extensions.

Prior Work

In Mozilla Hubs glTF files contain all of the data needed to specify a scene, object, or avatar. These include components for audio, physics, animations, interactable objects, spawn points, embedded media, and much more.

Hubs based apps such as Immers Space and others have implemented their own custom glTF extensions for their apps as well.

Mozilla has tooling such as the Spoke editor and Hubs Blender Exporter that can be used to add this custom extension data to glTF scenes.

Technical Overview

Currently the Hubs glTF extensions are not formally specified. Ideally, a subset of these extensions can be identified that are portable to a wide variety of applications. We will create formal specifications in a separate OMI repository following the same OMI specification process. We can also include conformance tests, links to implementations of each specification, and tooling to generate assets with the extension data.

I would like to work on a Three.js implementation of GLTFLoader plugins for these extensions as well as a new Blender addon that can be used to author glTF assets with this extension data.

The next steps for this effort after approval would be to create a GitHub repository where we can author these specifications. It should follow the same process as the Khronos glTF extension process. Ideally we can work closely with the Khronos 3D Formats Working Group to identify multi-vendor or KHR extensions to propose to the group. In the interim, I'd like to propose registering a OMI vendor prefix for us to use for our draft extensions.

Specifications will be authored in JSON Schema which will define JSON structure and a Markdown document will describe the implementation and properties in detail. Each extension should have multiple implementations before it is approved as an OMI vendor extension. At any point we can determine if there is a broader need for this extension in the glTF community and propose it as an EXT or KHR extension in the Khronos 3D Formats Working Group.

Getting to the core of why we are here

Today an important question was asked during our weekly meeting. What is our Vision?

We often talk about it, but we could benefit from writing it down together.

I propose that next working session we take 10-15 minutes to review these two draft vision and mission statements, and make any changes or tweaks as necessary, and let's put it in our readme.

A Vision statement is critical to inspiring change

It tells you where we are heading. What our future state looks like, and why all of this work matters.

A Mission statement is tactical to create real change

It speaks of our purpose, and the work we do to make change.

Drafts

One (draft) vision is to bolster an open, user-centered, interoperable metaverse for everyone.

One draft mission is to research, discover, and deliver protocol for an open, user-centered interoperable metaverse.

What's one thing you would tweak or improve?

Multibrush and collaborative art jams

stonedrew

• Drew
• Kolala

Getting together to create Art, and export or share media from VR creation platforms

Collab on envisioning, story weaving, and creative spatial designs for use to support/share OMI community development

As promised, I will create a recurring backlog refinement session. The outcome of these sessions will help inform at least one weekly meeting per month, where we can report out critical blockers, new additions, etc.

The point of backlog refinement is to sync tickets from the other working groups' backlogs on the holistic board.

WASM UGC Scripting Working Group (Final name TBD)

Back in September I started a GitHub discussion in the Third Room repository for a Web Assembly Entity Component System API that could be used for sandboxing scripts. I think that there may be enough people interested in this idea at OMI that it may warrant a working group for designing it.

I'd like to propose starting a working group for the development of standard WASM APIs for performant sandboxing of user generated content scripts. This API would be designed to run in any compatible WASM runtime and would not be constrained to the web.

Implementations will likely be platform specific. There also will likely be vendor specific APIs as we propose new additions. This group would not cover implementation, however parties are encouraged to work together on common implementations for various engines.

Creating an OMI base to meet, work, and play.

Contributors

• SEEKING ASSISTANCE FROM OUR COMMUNITY

Summary

We are looking for help from the OMI community, creating a home base for OMI. When we meet as a group, it would be great to have one or several OMI meeting spaces. Spaces like this would be used for general discussions, working sessions, testing future implementations, hosting guests, and hanging out. We believe a fun project could help us break the ice and create something fun together. This can take many forms, so we encourage you to be creative.

Example Use Cases

This (These) space(s) would be used for general discussions, working sessions, testing future implementations, hosting guests, and hanging out.

Some examples, or potential foundations can be found here:

• SIMULACRA often shared as their Virtual Headquarters, Simulacra is a unique space with artwork, fantastic scenery, spatial audio, and multiple rooms for meeting up.
• Meeting Space Fashioned like an outdoor amphitheater, this was created by Anth0ny from AngellXR as a space for getting together. It was a rapid turnaround for an event, and served (and still serves) it's purpose for OMI and AngellXR meetings. We made this to solve a problem quickly, and it can be used as a reference or baseline as needed.
• WebXR Events this space has a short and sweet URL, references to past meetings, a large space for moving around, and useful links to get involved can be viewed in the HUD.

Implementation

It should be cross-platform, and accessible, capable of being accessed by a variety of devices (like web/mobile). Multiplayer is critical, and the repo should be openly accessible for the group to make, and source improvements. Elegance and simplicity goes a long way as a foundation, so share drafts as you go! 😄

• Ideate
• Experiment
• Create a repo like OMI/mothership
• Submit drafts for review in this thread
• ask for help! Call others in to get involved.
• Review options as a group
• Vote (if needed) and label World(s)
• Create a short URL for easy access (can add to xrshowcase.xyz as well)

We can submit experiences in a thread here, and hopefully we can identify some options, and circle in on a great home for the OMI group.

Organize and Implement process for monthly lightning talk community demo night sessions where members and guests of our community share their knowledge. These sessions will occur in different venues each month hosted by member-orgs and creators of worlds like field trips.

• Organize method of signing up to be a "host"
• Organize event sign up to attend (tickets)
• Coordinate speakers
• Publicize / promote events
• Event ops

Key questions:

HMW make this process sustainable?
HMW reward contributions?
HMW incentivize attendance
HMW avoid burnout or one-hit-wonder?

Relevant links:
https://github.com/m3-org/logistics
archive of events M3 did: https://github.com/M3-org/research

Converting this to an issue to track this work. Evo brought up the importance of OMI to have a Communications team. Before we can plan the details, we should highlight the expected scope of this work, and see if anyone shows up to support this team.

Metaverse Association - A new non profit grant source for the open metaverse

We would like the help of the OMI community to ensure the github and discord are conducive of a collaborative environment.

Press release slated for tomorrow Dec 2nd, 2021:

The Metaverse Association is establishing a non-profit foundation to support those who are building the open and interoperable Metaverse. The fund aims to bring together both traditional and crypto native capital to support critical infrastructure and open source initiatives. We believe the entire ecosystem benefits from these efforts and we aim to accelerate its development by removing capital as a constraint.

Important inflection points in enabling technology and public belief have set the stage for the Metaverse to emerge after many prior attempts by industry pioneers. In order for this initiative to be a success it requires broad collaboration and access to opportunity. While we recognise that blockchain has the potential to be an important component of the Metaverse, it must be emphasised that it is not the entire solution. DAOs are an innovative structure, but these funding sources can exclude non-crypto-native participations, which is a barrier to achieving a well balanced metaverse.

We strive to be a diverse collective immediately. Our efforts must be collaborative and representative of all who contribute to, or are affected by our work together. Therefore, the Metaverse Association’s structure and governance should be shaped collectively by our community, rather than crafted from a single perspective.

We ask for all those who share this vision, to unite in working together. Please join us on Github and Discord, and help make the Metaverse open, and interoperable for all.

OMI Homepage / Documentation Site

Contributors

• Robert Long

Summary

OMI has a wide reaching community, particularly within the metaverse creator community. We should create a documentation site for the creation of metaverse media, educating others about the open metaverse, and showcasing projects within the community.

Example Use Cases

• VRM Avatar Creation Resources
• A directory of current and historical metaverse projects and standards
• Articles about privacy, freedom of expression in the metaverse, and more

Implementation

I'd like to create a Docusaurus site on https://omigroup.org. Anyone will be able to contribute content to the site via a GitHub repository. We can also ensure that it is searchable and localized. I can do the work of setting it up and automating the publishing process. I need help brainstorming what content should be included on the site. We then need to write and organize it.

I'd like to schedule a separate meeting to brainstorm content for the documentation site. If you're interested in coming to that meeting or would like to participate in some other way, please comment below.

Update: As of 08/22/21

To add this to your calendar click here 👈

Nova has been working on the omi-chan avatar effort, and would like to ask that others get involved with the creation/design. Especially to ensure that OMI-chan can represent a diverse group and not the thoughts of just one person.

OMI-Chan Avatar effort

Originally posted by @mrmetaverse in #132 (comment)

Right now there's only one template "Suggestion Box" for Github Issues. We should probably have a few templates for OMI meta tasks. I'm not exactly sure what they should be yet. Anyone have any suggestions? This issue itself is an example of what we can expect to be submitted and tracked in Github Projects.

The translation of integrating two systems can be done directly in one of the two systems. Using IPSME translations can be made external to the systems being integrated offering the advantage of dynamic evolution.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WvoeUydcInA

This CfP is for individuals who are interested in integrating two systems via IPSME -OR- have two systems integrated, that wish to make the integration dynamic via IPSME. Integrations can be of arbitrary purpose: asset sharing, teleportation, social, stats, etc. Participants will create a dynamic translation component integrating two systems. The end goal is to make individual translations reusable by other members of the group, forming a greater whole i.e., a mini part of the Metaverse, if you will. Translations are not required to be open source and remain the property of each participant.

Participants in this CfP are individuals who have already integrated two different systems -OR- have knowledge of at least two APIs, of two different systems, that they wish to integrate. Each participant should have adequate knowledge on how to integrate the two chosen systems, but lack the knowledge on how to make those integrations dynamic via IPSME. Participants should want to work together with other members of the group to form a greater whole. Note, we shall not be forming standards for communication within this group.

Each participant will choose the two systems they would like to integrate and on which OS to do the integration. Web-only is considered a different OS similar to Chrome OS. Individuals who already have two systems integrated can join the group to make their integration dynamic via IPSME. Each participant must be able to code the integrations themselves; the point of the group to help with an evolutionary architecture via IPSME, not coding help.

The worst-case scenario is that: even if an individual finds IPSME obtuse, they have created a translation between two systems that is reusable, even without IPSME; the code is not lost.

Motion approved to form the OMI-Chan group @technobaboo

Originally posted by @mrmetaverse in #137 (comment)

Who will lead? When will you meet? Create a repo.

@madjin noted that HackMD can sync to a github repo which would really improve the visibility of our meeting notes. I'll try to set that up before next week's meeting.

Fiscal Development

In today's OMI weekly meeting 11 Evo proposed forming a small group for discussing and planning fiscal development for OMI. We have a lot of work to do to establish documentation tactics, potential grants and funders, opportunities for establish best practices with OMI fiscal development.

If you would like to join this working group please sign up by commenting below 👇

(note to admins: Feel free to re-write my spec here, just getting something out there to collect sign ups from those who expressed interest in participating)

It was suggested that we draft out a list of the tasks and responsibilities of current and future Chairs and leaders in OMI to help inform a potentially "better" structure.

Originally posted by @mrmetaverse in #157 (comment)

OMI-chan working group

The purpose of this group would be to discuss the design for a mascot of OMI, as well as figure out the funding in order to pay artists to make it into an avatar. The avatar would be for several purposes:

• To provide a personification of OMI that makes our collective stance easier to understand
• To use as a vtuber for videos about OMI explaining concepts and representing the group
• To allow other people embodying the avatar to promote OMI
• To test different platforms' avatar interoperability

The design has been partially completed, but is still subject to change and given I've been the main one deciding the design while OMI-chan is supposed to represent the group, I need to make sure others are a part of the decision making process.

Formal working group proposal of #135

The open metaverse is decentralized across many discords and communities, lets have a calendar system for the cool events happening in between. To start with:

• OMI
  • weekly community call + gltf working group
• M3
  • Friday twitter spaces
• VRChat (for the culture)
  • https://vrchatevents.com/

Maybe the real metaverse are the friends we made along the way

Form newly approved WASM working group.

Originally posted by @mrmetaverse in #133 (comment)

Context

In order to ensure we are consistent with updating the agenda, publicly documenting our attendance, and establishing an effective system for voting, we need a discord/matrix bot that can document and automate some of our processes.

Acceptance Criteria:

• Takes attendance
• Track voting
• need a list of usernames for these people

Bonus:

• It can provide reminders (alternative to old bot)
• The bot automatically starts and shares a github discussion or hackmd for the meeting that pulls the agenda from github, and adds the attendance, and results of any votes.

Metaversity

About

Metaversity is an open source project dedicated to helping people become new or improved metaverse creators.

Who we hope gets involved to make this happen?

• A wide variety of people, with a wide range of Knowledge, Skills, Abilities, and Interests.
• We hope multiple orgs are part of this creation, as multiple orgs have something like this on their backlogs and roadmaps, and the entire metaverse benefits when we increase the number of creators.

💡 Why are we here?

"I wanted to take all of my bookmarks that helped me become a webxr dev, and create a wiki that would help others" - Liam

We want to organically create value by helping others become Metaverse creators and contributors. We want to find creative ways to sustain ourselves. We want to create incentive structures that align with peoples values.

People need something that keeps them focused, and moving forward on their mission to get involved with the Metaverse. It can be easy to run into a roadblock, and get deflated or distracted. We want to make achieving the goal of becoming or improving as a Metaverse creator more attainable. We want to create incentive structures that align with peoples values.

Furthermore, we should strive to deliver this message with minimal fluff or bullshit. The goal should be to enable folks to discover solutions and make effective choices, using inclusive language.

Eventually we will have more options for metaverse contributors. Beyond developers, there will be metaverse designers, metaverse modelers, and even metaverse entertainers. Shops, services, SaaS.

The metaverse is the vehicle by which we all wake up to the game we are already playing. - gheric

👩 Who are we serving?

• People building the Metaverse
• People who want to become Metaverse developers
• People who want to create Metaverse products
• People who want to share their knowledge with others
• We are indirectly helping other groups in the Metaverse seeking future hires, by effectively manufacturing metaverse talent.

🎯 Goals: What do we hope to accomplish? (TBD)

Objective I: Increase the number of Metaverse contributors and creators.

Objective II: Organically create sustainable value

Objective III: Launch first curriculums*

KR: Craft 3 journey maps of people becoming metaverse creators
KR: Establish curriculum for each archetype.

What if we added tags for each of our 5 core values?* That way our tasks / stories / epics can display how that work aligns with one of our core values. I can demonstrate an example:

Metaverse Mapping

Contributors

• Evo, Co-Chair
• Article by Doug Thompson: https://outofscope.bureauofbrightideas.com/a-map-of-the-metaverse/

Summary

Dynamic map of the metaverse industry with a clear assessment toward interoperability

Example Use Cases

Dynamic maps exist of other fields, such as the cloud industry:

Implementation

1. Begin conceptualizing how to pull 2D field maps into a 3D industry map (needs assessment, iconography, how to map?)
2. Address best use of dynamic database/dataviz tools native for 3D web
3. Set dates to hack together a mapping process (proposed November 12-Thansgiving week)
4. Let the dust settle, fix issues, edit and bring to community (Dec 1-5)
5. Open for public participation, include public engagement as part of OMI end of year community membership drive

Evo: This is the 2nd week of December, so we have a little bit of time if we want to put something together. Let's think about the significance of identity. Evo suggested this may be a great opp to collaborative with the internet identity workshop (IIW).

would love if next week we can come with to the table with ideas, and content and messaging to spread the word or get involved.

Originally posted by @mrmetaverse in #124 (comment)

I'd like to propose that we create a Discord channel that is bridged to Matrix. @thibaultamartin, my co-worker at Element has volunteered to set things up and I already have a matrix room #omi:matrix.org that we can use for this. The goal would be to have this channel as a method of discovery for people on Matrix but not on Discord, as well as a prime example of interoperability for us to dogfood.

What do you all think?

comment from board

Metaverse business collaboration group

The purpose of this group would be to help people find and maintain work in the ethical part of the metaverse space in order to make sure we can invest our time fully to have maximum impact.

It's also for business leaders to network with other business leaders in the space and find ways that we can collaborate.

We need:

Participants
A meeting organization leader
Topics we should discuss.

I would really like to emphasize that even though I think we're all believers in the idea that different ideas should be tried in this space, I really want to avoid anything that doesn't have a lasting positive impact on the consumer of the metaverse. No get-rich-quick schemes. No taking advantage of people who know very little about the space.

pet3rpan is a guru of community building and DAOs, some reading for those unfamiliar:

• https://www.pet3rpan.net/blog
• https://medium.com/1kxnetwork/how-to-grow-decentralized-communities-1bf1044924f8
• http://mission.metacartel.org/

Lately I noticed he has been joining metaverse interoperability channels like OMI, M3, WebXR hackathon channel.

One model for sustainability is:

1. Launch a grants DAO focused on funding projects, experiments, research (and grow a thriving community of builders)
2. From the community built with the grants DAO, create an community owned that invests in the projects incubated by builders. On top of this could run events, raise sponsorship funding etc.

This was the path MetaCartel mostly took (community for web3 dapp devs started in 2018 when there was barely any funding available)

I want to setup a time for a brainstorming session and discussion around this, post below if interested and when works for you.

Yesterday we voted to ratify our first draft vision statement. We understand that it reads as a mission and will review our mission next. We feel this vision statement reflects our intentions together.

We bolster the metaverse as an open and interoperable resource for anyone, inspired by the collaborative efforts of the community

Areas for initial standardization

Contributors

• John Nagle, Animats

Summary

Initial areas that need standardization.

• Portals - you can leave one grid and go to another with your avatar, if the destination grid will accept it. (The destination grid may not want spacesuits in their cowboy sim.) Some of the browser-based virtual worlds already have this.

• Asset portability - you should be able to take your stuff from one grid to another, if the destination grid accepts it. This is what NFTs claim to do, but rarely do in reality. This may already be a legal right in EU countries, per Article 20 of the GDPR, "Data Portability".

• Money portability - you should be able to spend and withdraw money on a grid without being locked into its payment system. Epic is currently fighting Apple over this.

("Grid" here means a virtual world or worlds under coordinated management.)

Example Use Cases

The portal case is obvious, since some web-based VR systems already have portals to other systems. Portals between Roblox games are common, but do not usually cross the boundary between grid operators. Open Simulator systems can have portals between grids under different management. Going from one system to another involves either compatible clients or loading a new client program. Both cases should be supported.

Asset portability is a tough problem. NVidia is working on file formats for that. This is more about how the user does it from inside a virtual world. Can you carry your stuff through a portal?

Money portability is controversial. The standardization issue is that that buyer A, service provider B, money transfer service C, and seller D should be able to achieve a successful transaction in a reasonably standard way. If money transfer service C is acceptable to buyer A and seller D, technical integration between service provider B and money transfer service C should not be required.

Implementation

Web-based virtual world systems can already move between worlds via URL. Most of the hard problems involve what you can take with you. In any case, this needs to be easy and seamless, or we don't have a metaverse, just a collection of disconnected systems.

Asset portability at the file level can build on the GLTF/USD standard. That doesn't address permissions, identity, copyright, and ownership issues. The first step is probably a best practices document for discussion.

Money portability is about payment APIs, of which there are many. Too many. NACHA, which runs the US interbank ACH network, has new APIs coming out to make payments easier without being locked into a single payment provider. ACH has traditionally been somewhat clunky, but that's being fixed. Piggyback on that work. In the EU, there are Single European Payment Area standards. While metaverse operators may offer their own payment system or currency, it should always be possible to use these standard banking systems if the user desires. Cryptocurrency payments are a separate subject.

Posted on behalf of Evo: Members of the community would like to see OMI host/co-host a hackathon for March or April.

We need support planning, and to decide on a date, preferably during the weekend between March and April.

• could we coordinate with anyone hosting the webxr hackathon?

OMI Identity

Contributors

• Robert Long, Independent Contributor

Summary

I'd like to kick off discussion around an interoperable identity specification. By identity I'm referring to an identifier that resolves to a document full of profile data. I'd like to scope the data contained in this document to two fields for now: display name, and avatar model. The spec will also cover verifying a user's identity.

The spec should have three core properties. It should be:

1. Addressable: Given a public identifier you should be able to resolve the document
2. Verifiable: You should be able to determine if the user you are interacting with, is the user associated with the id they are giving you
3. Well formed: This document needs to be specified in a standard format so that an application can resolve your profile data

Example Use Cases

In my work on Mozilla Hubs we purposely made our identities lightweight, both for privacy reasons and for the ability to integrate Hubs into other systems. As soon as people started hosting their own Hubs Cloud instances we noticed the friction associated with even this lightweight identity system. You need to set your name and avatar every time you move to a new server. This generally requires uploading your avatar model or going through and finding an avatar again. People are generally very attached to their avatars, it represents their digital self. When people find something that they identity with, they want to use it everywhere.

People also want to be able to verify that a person are who they claim to be. In Hubs, unless your room is connected to a Discord room, you can set whatever name you wish. Including duplicates of a given name. You can spoof someone's identity very easily. In Hubs, most of the meetings we have are private and we can trust the users in the room. However, as we create more public spaces, being able to verify a user's identity becomes more important.

Implementation

Decentralized Identifiers (DID)

Decentralized Identifiers look like a perfect spec to use for address resolution and identity verification. It is really only missing the profile data model.

DID identifiers look like this:

did:example:123456

Where did is the scheme, example is the method, and 123456 is the id.

DID identifiers resolve to documents which contain data for verification of the subject via public key encryption, authentication as the subject of the identifier, or a number of other verification relationships expressed in the spec.

However, the documents are not intended for storing store personal data. Documents can contain an array of services which can then have access control for this personal data. However, linking to services with public personal data still seems to be discouraged.

I'm still a bit confused on how best personal data should be resolved from a DID and could use some help here. In the section of the spec on service privacy the authors recommend a single service url without any additional user identifiers. In our context, perhaps this is a home server domain and the DID identifier can then be used to get the public user profile data. @dmitrizagidulin I could use some of your help here.

You may also want to lock down your profile data so that only your close connections can see your avatar/display name. I'm not so sure how to express this within the DID ecosystem.

ActivityPub

Another solution could be to use ActivityPub. This is the protocol behind Mastodon and PixelFed. My public ID is: @[email protected] and from there you can find my public profile. The ActivityPub spec is already built to be extensible and add things like avatar info. @wmurphyrd already has an implementation of such a thing with immers.space.

Sensitive user profile information could be hidden except for mutual followers, which is a big plus. There's also a social graph which is appealing for the friends list spec I'd love to propose next.

I do have a few outstanding questions about ActivityPub though:

1. In a public space, how can one user verify the identity of another? If I'm connected with another user over P2P and another user broadcasts their id as @[email protected] how can I check that they are in-fact that user? @cwebber and @dmitrizagidulin I could use your help here. I see there's already Keybase support on Mastodon. What other methods of verification are already out there or could be used?
2. How much work is it going to be for apps to implement fetching user data from ActivityPub? @wmurphyrd, you've got very tight integration with ActivityPub in Immers.space, but what about for those apps which want a more lightweight integration? What options are out there?

Data Model

With any solution the profile data I think we should focus on in its simplest form is this:

{
  "displayName": "Robert Long",
  "avatar": {
    "mimeType": "model/gltf-binary+vrm",
    "url": "https://robertlong.me/files/avatar.vrm"
  }
}

Application specific avatars or an avatar collection are things we should discuss as well. We also should discuss supporting multiple identities.

I'd like to keep discussing this topic in this issue. If you have specific proposals for identity, go ahead and create another issue where we can discuss the implementation further. I'm hoping we can get a couple subject matter experts to weigh in and guide us towards the correct solution. If you are a possible implementer of an application that might want to use this identity specification, please let us know what your specific requirements are below.

Looking forward to talking more!

#XRSW2021 Community partnership for Safety in the Metaverse

Holidays are around the corner.. so is XR Safety Week 🥳🥳🥳

The XR Safety Week is an annual event powered by XRSI. It is both a celebration of the many different facets of XR and an opportunity for individuals, organizations, policymakers, and institutions to promote ideas that will guide us towards a safer future with XR technologies.
Getting into XR might seem as straightforward as putting on an HMD or holding up a phone to view Augmented Reality (AR) content. However, cultivating a sense of safety is imperative.
This week encourages everyone to get into XR with awareness, independent of the use case platform or experience.

Celebrate with us: www.xrsafetyweek.org
 
Why XR Safety Week?
By dedicating these five days events around various themes, XRSI intends to create a reflection point on the safety and trust aspects of immersive technologies and XR ecosystems, aka the Metaverse. This is necessary to address the need for technological risks this holiday season due to the expected increase in purchasing the latest XR devices, platforms, experiences, and games.

Also, Apply to take part in the XR Data Classification Roundtable during XR Safety week: https://dc.xrsi.org/
 
The foundation of the XR Safety Week is “safety” for the simple reason safety is of critical importance when exploring unique innovations of XR to remain mindful of the implications that come with those concepts. Each year before the holidays, XRSI will promote this time of the year to ensure that we engage with XR technology with safety at the forefront.