blog draft 1: New discord / OMI is growing up!

[indiebio]

OMI is growing up!

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/GG68tswg

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. We are a broad commons of developers and other skillsets, involved in different aspects of the Metaverse. While there are a few more formal working groups, OMI is designed for participation from everyday people - or "normies", university groups, students, hobbyists, anyone. While we do prefer open source, we are more concerned about building an open ecosystem. If you wish to create a focus group, start in the #omi-experiments channel on our Discord.

We have show-and-tell events, weekly community discussions in our Discord voice channel and wide conversation across disciplines, also in Discord.

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, whatever rocks your boat.

Get in touch!
Join our new Discord server: https://discord.gg/GG68tswg
Or join via Matrix: ???
We also have a mailing list now via W3C: https://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-metaverse-interop/

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.

[indiebio]

Moved from here: https://hackmd.io/@indiebio/omi-moving-servers
Resolve the issue when it has been added to the website, and email has been sent.

"blocker" is review from team to OK this as ready to send.

[indiebio]

too wishy washy:
One of the specific things that OMI does is to develop open protocols ... aaron

We are a loose collective of people with a shared interest in the Metaverse, and shared goals of creating assets, standards potocols, knowledge and energy for the Metaverse.

[aaronfranke]

OMI group 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.

[indiebio]

On other points: add projects or things that excite you to be written into a blog, or be a guest blog - jimmy to say where to post these.

[jimmy6DOF]

In general use this for the table of contents of any blog activity in progress to review : #77

[JoyceBettencourt]

We should mention some of those broader groups of things we do and people that are part of OMI.

For example:

OMI members are a global group of developers, designers, 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.

OMI hosts weekly community meetings, development working groups, member-led metaverse tours, 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.

[jimmy6DOF]

done and done

[indiebio]

https://omigroup.org/omi-is-growing-up/

[Meticulac]

Apologies for submitting this late, but I was most done writing this the first time when I got called away and then I lot the commend restarting my computer. Anyway, a suggested alternate wording to the answer for "OK but what is the Metaverse, anyway?":
"Well, to begin with, the term Metaverse is a reference to its use in the novel Snowcrash, where it refers generally to the vision of a shared virtual universe, and basically the Internet in general. This makes it much like the earlier term Cyberspace, though OCI (for Open Cyberspace Interoperability) might sound more like something that should be eye or bone health related. Regardless, it leaves open a wide umbrella of what this vision of a metaverse could entail, and what could be built in service of achieving that vision. Rather than allowing any one platform (like Facebook/Meta) or even a collection of such platforms limit how that vision should be defined and expressed, we prefer to keep things open for people to create what they believe is useful for bringing the information world together. From virtual worlds, to integrating data, to open protocols, to augmented reality tools, if it facilitates interoperability in a open way, it's all potentially of interest here, so don't feel hesitant to discuss it with us, especially if you're doing active development or see any that you'd like to bring to our attention."

[indiebio]

Apologies for submitting this late, but I was most done writing this the first time when I got called away and then I lot the commend restarting my computer. Anyway, a suggested alternate wording to the answer for "OK but what is the Metaverse, anyway?": "Well, to begin with, the term Metaverse is a reference to its use in the novel Snowcrash, where it refers generally to the vision of a shared virtual universe, and basically the Internet in general. This makes it much like the earlier term Cyberspace, though OCI (for Open Cyberspace Interoperability) might sound more like something that should be eye or bone health related. Regardless, it leaves open a wide umbrella of what this vision of a metaverse could entail, and what could be built in service of achieving that vision. Rather than allowing any one platform (like Facebook/Meta) or even a collection of such platforms limit how that vision should be defined and expressed, we prefer to keep things open for people to create what they believe is useful for bringing the information world together. From virtual worlds, to integrating data, to open protocols, to augmented reality tools, if it facilitates interoperability in a open way, it's all potentially of interest here, so don't feel hesitant to discuss it with us, especially if you're doing active development or see any that you'd like to bring to our attention."

this is good! I think rather than expand the current post, let's make this it's own one, perhaps a few of us can chip in with how we define the Metaverse.

[indiebio]

https://omigroup.org/omi-is-growing-up/