Announcing the Web of Worlds Whitepaper: A Concrete Path to the Open Metaverse

The 3D Internet Interoperability Working Group of the Metaverse Requirements Discussion board is proud to announce the discharge of the Internet of Worlds (WoW) whitepaper. This doc outlines a sensible, open framework for an interoperable metaverse constructed straight on the confirmed ideas of the fashionable Internet.

Re-imagining the Metaverse as a “Internet of Worlds”

Whereas the present metaverse panorama is commonly fragmented into remoted “walled gardens” or closed platforms, the WoW imaginative and prescient reimagines it as a cohesive community of linked, addressable 3D worlds. Very similar to at this time’s web sites type a unified digital ecosystem, these spatial experiences perform as net endpoints that allow seamless navigation and traversal between digital environments.

By offering a single URI for each discrete digital world, customers can transfer by the metaverse with the identical ease they browse the 2D net. This strategy leverages the facility of linked spatial experiences, the place full or partial worlds will be referenced, bookmarked, and shared throughout platforms.

Constructed on Open Internet Platform (OWP) Values

The WoW framework extends the core values of the Open Internet Platform—universality, interoperability, decentralization, and accessibility—into 3D immersive environments. Our aim is to make sure the metaverse stays:

• Common: Accessible by any customary browser on any system (desktop, cell, or XR) with out requiring proprietary software program installs.
• Decentralized: Free from a single level of management or platform lock-in, prioritizing user-owned information and self-sovereign id.
• Interoperable: Constructed on a basis of open, royalty-free requirements developed by consensus.

A Sturdy Technical Stack and API Structure

To scale back complexity and encourage adoption, WoW leverages a harmonized “glue layer” of present requirements. The structure is constructed on three core pillars:

1. Open Spatial World API: Treats digital worlds as persistent API and HTTP endpoints, permitting customers to affix, view, and preview worlds utilizing a single URI.
2. Open Consumer Manifest API (The “Digital YOU”): Powers a conveyable, user-controlled id layer. Using JSON-LD, Decentralized Identifiers (DIDs), and Verifiable Credentials, customers can carry their avatars, preferences, and property throughout completely different digital worlds.
3. Open Spatial Asset API: Facilitates modular, reusable 3D elements by leveraging present requirements like glTF, X3D, and USD, that are already registered with IANA.

Privateness and Consumer Possession

Central to the WoW structure is a “privacy-by-default” strategy. Through the use of a DID-enabled digital pockets to handle the Consumer Manifest, people preserve full management over their information. The framework helps selective disclosure, making certain solely the info strictly required for a particular expertise is shared, usually with specific consent prompts for the consumer.

Human-AI Collaboration

The WoW framework is designed for the way forward for human-AI symmetry. On this ecosystem, AI brokers function alongside people as collaborative companions, following the identical requirements and API strategies. These brokers can carry out “spatial computing” features—resembling computing bounding volumes or detecting collisions—to help people in complicated digital duties.

Scalable Use Instances for Each Business

The WoW imaginative and prescient offers a concrete roadmap for various purposes, together with:

• Industrial Digital Twins: Standardized 3D information alternate for engineering and manufacturing, aligning with initiatives like Catena-X.
• Schooling: Immersive 3D Internet Area Journeys that permit educators to move college students to digital places for distant studying.
• Collaboration & Social: Seamless digital conferences and cross-platform social experiences the place avatars and property stay constant.
• Gaming: Interoperable leisure experiences with transportable property and “metaverse bookmarks”.

The discharge of this whitepaper marks a big step towards an open and interconnected 3D Internet. We look ahead to working with MSF members and SDOs to develop the requirements and the necessities illustrated on this doc and specified within the WoW API.

Whitepaper abstract and hyperlink to full pdf: https://webofworlds.github.io/initial_MSF_Whitepaper

Repo: https://github.com/WebOfWorlds/WoWAPI

New House Web page with personal area
webofworlds.org

Subsequent steps

• Q2 implementation previews (per whitepaper): simpleWorlds, threedy.io
• Strategic alignments: OMBI workshop at SIGGRAPH LA; OpenARCloud and OMA3 ongoing by way of Spatial Computing WG, MSF

Internet of Worlds is on monitor to turn into the second MSF Initiative after OMBI, creating two complementary initiatives advancing an open, decentralized metaverse. Goal launch: SIGGRAPH.