The Linux Foundation announced the formation of the Open Metaverse Foundation (OMF) for the purpose of providing a collaborative environment for a variety of industries to build open-source software and standards for an inclusive, global, vendor-neutral, and scalable Metaverse.

“We’re still in the early days of the vision for an open Metaverse, and we recognize that many  open-source communities and foundations are working on vital pieces of this iterative puzzle,” said Royal O’Brien, executive director of the OMF. “While the challenges may seem daunting,  I’m energized by the opportunities to collaborate with a broad, global community to bring these pieces together as we transform this vision into reality.”  

Foundational Interest Groups (FIGs), organized by the OMF, provide targeted resources and forums to identify new ideas, get work done, and onboard new contributors. 

The FIGs offer a focused and distributed decision structure to address key topics, and members are comprised of specific disciplines dedicated to progressing projects or scalar technologies within their topic.

The eight FIGs are:

  1. Users 
  2. Transactions 
  3. Digital Assets 
  4. Simulations and Virtual Worlds 
  5. Artificial Intelligence 
  6. Networking
  7. Security and Privacy 
  8. Legal and Policy 

The organization aims to ensure that code ownership of every identifiable subpart of each project is addressed and managed by the appropriate FIG.

“The Metaverse brings exciting possibilities in revolutionizing the way we interact and engage,  but with it comes immense technical challenges. Through the power of open innovation, the  Open Metaverse Foundation will foster collaboration and community-driven development to  realize this promise,” said Taylor Dolezal, head of ecosystem at the CNCF, a founding member  of the project. “The Cloud Native Computing Foundation looks forward to contributing its deep expertise to evolve cloud technologies and infrastructure in tackling these challenges.  Together, we’ll build a truly open, accessible virtual world, where anyone can participate.”