Building the Spatial Web
Why are universal standards important?
What is the Spatial Web Foundation?
"The Spatial Web will transform every facet of our everyday lives."
- Peter Diamandis
- Peter Diamandis
The Spatial Web™ is a hyper-integrated, contextually-aware, and ethically-aligned network of humans, machines, and AI.
The mission of the Spatial Web Foundation is to develop and maintain the technical and ethical standards of the Spatial Web.
The time has come for a new web, not one made up of pages, text and media accessed from behind a screen, but one made up of people, places, things and the value we exchange made accessible in the world around us. The Spatial Web is based on a new set of protocols and standards that support, at their very core, both by design and by default, the universal values of privacy, security, trust, and interoperability.
By networking and integrating multiple next-generation technologies together, such as AI, VR/AR, IoT, Blockchain, Robotics & 5G, using space-time itself as the basis for our shared reality, an entirely new type of web can begin to emerge capable of building a future where we can live, play and work better, together.
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- Trust
- Interoperability
- Privacy
- Security
Spatial Web Standards
In order to link and search geospatial and virtual worlds—simultaneously, across multiple platforms—creators and users require universally standardized formats, languages and protocol standards. Here is a high-level outline.
Spatial Domains
A Web Domain name serves as a way to identify Internet resources, such as computers, networks, and services. It is really just an address.
We need a solution that metaphorically AND literally “addresses” space. We need three-dimensional or “spatial” domains.
Statefulness: a distributed ledger for identity and value
A Distributed Ledger-enabled and tokenized stateful web can reliably connect virtual and real-world spaces, track value, validate identity, and location while preserving privacy and data sovereignty.
A Hyperspatial Language
HSML, the elements of Spatial Contracts, enables cyber-physical “contracts as code”—programmable, automated and self-executing software that removes trade or service agreements from the realm of static documents that require constant human management and instead program them into the spatial interactions themselves so that contracts are executed by the correct action.
HSTP: a universal spatial protocol standard
Similar to how we link content and web pages on the Web today using HTTP, HSTP is the solution for traversing the Spatial Web.
HSTP allows for “hyperporting” of users and Smart Assets between web spaces. “Hyperspace” links can be placed in one webspace that links to any information about anything or to another webspace.
The Web 3.0 Stack
Our current Web was not designed to support newer technologies that will propel our civilization forward.
Inevitable… and Imminent
Contemporary tech innovations share a single common link.
Web 3.0 Danger/Opportunity
We are at a key inflection point for technology and society.
Foundational Principles
Piecemeal descriptions and industry-centric narratives do not provide the holistic vantage point from which we must consider how best to make the critically important decisions regarding matters of Trust, Interoperability, Privacy, and Security (TIPS™) in an age where powerful computing will literally surround us.
01.
Spatiality
Digital content isn’t only a single blob of data but is dimensionalized and inherently spatialized, making location the fundamental representation rather than strings.
02.
Ownership
Users can own their data and digital property and choose with whom they share this data. Moreover, they retain control of it when they leave a given service provider.
03.
Security
Secure data collection, transmission, and storage enables interactions and transactions with virtual and physical assets between any user within and across any space—physical or virtual.
04.
Privacy
Individual control, trust, and security utilizing cryptographically-secured and decentrally-stored digital identity enables “trustlessly” complete interactions and transactions with anonymity and auditability. Previously the exchange of personal data and layers of verification were required.
05.
Trust
Trust is based in reliable realtime validation of all users, assets, and spaces and their interactions with certifiable and verifiable records that validate various proofs of ownership, activity, traceability, and rights.
06.
Interoperability
Multiuser interoperability provides searchability, viewability, interaction, transaction, and transportation of any asset or user within or across any spaces. Seamless user navigation and asset transfer is enabled within and between spaces across devices, operating systems, and locations.
TEAM & ADVISORS
Gabriel René • Executive Director
Dan Mapes • Co-Founder
Prof. Karl Friston • Chief Scientist
Dr. Maxwell Ramstead • Director of Research
Kurt Cagle • Community Manager, Data Science Central
John Clippinger • MIT Media Lab CityScience Group
Tom Furness • ‘Grandfather of Virtual Reality’
John Gaeta • Matrix Trilogy VFX
Anselm Hook • MakerLab Co-Founder
Jennifer Kenny • Human Innovation Speaker/Mentor
Harry Kloor • Beyond Imagination Inc Robotics Expert
Kris Kolo • VR/AR Association Global Executive Director
Liza Lichtinger • Future Design Station Well-Tech Expert
Tony Parisi • LAMINA1 Chief Strategy Officer
Jay Samit • Bestselling Author & Keynote Speaker
Gabriel René
Co-Founder & Executive Director
Dan Mapes
Founder
Prof. Karl Friston
Chief Scientist
Dr. Maxwell Ramstead
Director of Research
PARTNERS
The Metaverse Standards Forum brings together leading standards organizations and companies for industry-wide cooperation on interoperability standards needed to build the open metaverse.
The Forum will explore where the lack of interoperability is holding back metaverse deployment and how the work of Standards Developing Organizations (SDOs) defining and evolving needed standards may be coordinated and accelerated.
Open to any organization at no cost, the Forum will focus on pragmatic, action-based projects such as implementation prototyping, hackathons, plugfests, and open-source tooling to accelerate the testing and adoption of metaverse standards, while also developing consistent terminology and deployment guidelines.
The Spatial Web Foundation is excited to join the Metaverse Standards Forum to collaborate with the world’s leading standards organizations to accelerate the critical interoperability standards needed for metaverse applications and across the broader Spatial Web
Gabriel René
Executive Director, Spatial Web Foundation
Founding members include:
0xSenses, Academy Software Foundation, Adobe, Alibaba, Autodesk, Avataar, Blackshark.ai, CalConnect, Cesium, Daly Realism, Disguise, the Enosema Foundation, Epic Games, the Express Language Foundation, Huawei, IKEA, John Peddie Research, Khronos, Lamina1, Maxon, Meta, Microsoft, NVIDIA, OpenAR Cloud, the Open Geospatial Consortium, Otoy, Perey Research and Consulting, Qualcomm Technologies, Ribose, Sony Interactive Entertainment, Spatial Web Foundation, Unity, VerseMaker, Wayfair, the Web3D Consortium, the World Wide Web Consortium, and the XR Association (XRA)
Multiple industry leaders have stated that the potential of the metaverse will be best realized if it is built on a foundation of open standards. Building an open and inclusive metaverse at pervasive scale will demand a constellation of open interoperability standards created by SDOs such as The Khronos Group, the World Wide Web Consortium, the Open Geospatial Consortium, the Open AR Cloud, the Spatial Web Foundation, and many others. The Metaverse Standards Forum aims to foster consensus-based cooperation between diverse SDOs and companies to define and align requirements and priorities for metaverse standards—accelerating their availability and reducing duplication of effort across the industry.
Posts & Articles
Defining Web 3.0
In Web 3.0, the domain of what can become smart, contextual, and consequently “semantic” will not be limited to text but extended into the physical world itself.
IEEE and SWF announce historic collaboration with the launch of Working Group 2874
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), the world’s largest technical professional organization dedicated to advancing technology for the benefit of humanity, has collaborated with the Spatial Web Foundation (SWF).
On the Spatial Web, identity is property—your own
A digital representation of one’s identity has become increasingly important; this applies not only to humans, but to devices, legal entities and beyond.
Online advertising is dead. This is good news for advertisers.
Beyond the dystopia of Hyper-Reality lies the dream of a prosperous world—one with no use whatsoever for targeted ads.
How can identity and trust function on the Web? History shows us how to evolve.
The Scientific Revolution changed our model of the Universe. The Digital Universe of Web 3.0 will shift our center of gravity from service-centric to a self-centric model for Digital Identity.
Spatial Web PRESS
FORBES (AUGUST 2021)
Fundamental Considerations In Building The Metaverse
PRWEB (AUGUST 2021)
Global Standards Organizations Collaborate On Governance and Interoperability Standards for the Spatial Web
Forbes (August 2020)
Global Collaboration To Track Governments And Companies In Response To The Climate Crisis
Coindesk (March 2020)
Yale Researchers Turn to Hyperledger to Track Carbon Emissions
Medium (OCTOBER 2019)
An Introduction to the Spatial Web
OTHER RECENT HEADLINES
MEDIUM (OCTOBER 2021)
The Seven Rules of the Metaverse
Buzzfeed News (October 2021)
Young People, Especially Young Women, Are Reporting Concerning Medical And Behavioral Changes Due To Social Media, And I Hope We’re Paying Attention
NY Times (October 2021)
Ignoring Sanctions, Russia Renews Broad Cybersurveillance Operation
Reuters (October 2021)
Amazon copied products and rigged search results to promote its own brands, documents show
ZDNet (OCTOBER 2021)
7-Eleven breached customer privacy by collecting facial imagery without consent
The Book
We are thrilled to announce that VERSES Co-Founders, Gabriel René and Dan Mapes, have published The Spatial Web: How Web 3.0 Will Connect Humans, Machines, and AI to Transform the World
Blade Runner, The Matrix, Star Wars, Avatar, Star Trek, Ready Player One, The Avengers, and many other popular films show us futuristic worlds where holograms, robots, smart devices, virtual avatars, digital transactions, and universe-scale teleportation all work together in sync, combining the virtual and the physical with the mechanical and the biological.
It won’t be fiction much longer.
This protocol enables the ideal system to quickly access and navigate new locations and regulate permissions instantly... the perfect AR enhancement enabler for humans.
The Spatial Web will guide the integration of current technologies in clever ways to create a new sphere of higher dimensionality... a ‘giant leap for mankind’ that will lift us to new worlds.
The Spatial Web locks the physical and virtual worlds into an open toolbox that Artificial Intelligence, the Internet of Things and People can use together.
Our joyful responsibility is to guarantee a "White Mirror" future where we prioritize values-driven design, data sovereignty, and holistic flourishing for people and planet. René and Mapes provide the philosophy, technology, and steps to achieve this positive and pragmatic future.
A seismic shift in how we live and who we are as humans is upon us and the decisions we make today will impact our world for centuries to come. The Spatial Web presents us with a clear roadmap setting the basis for the future of content, connection, community and commerce.
In this extraordinary book, a coherent vision is laid out that defines and describes the cross-industry universal standards necessary to ensure a unified approach to enabling everything to work together - Iot, AI, AR and more - unlocking the value that will come from the Spatial Web for everyone.
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Why a Foundation?
Neutrality
To serve the global public good, development of the Spatial Web must not be dominated by the interests of specific governments or corporations.
Protection of Universal Standards & Open Protocols
The Foundation develops and maintains the standards and protocols with a mandate for universal interoperability, without which adoption will be slow.
A panel of global experts
A council of advisors in human and technological advancement to inform the optimum framework.
Framework
Current regulatory frameworks are far behind the market, chasing the problems that occurred half a decade ago or more.
Beyond Silos
Competing systems for basic of spatial organization block the free flow of information.
Protection of Security, Privacy, Identity
Individuals must have basic trust in the security and sovereignty of identity in order to transact in a 21st century online world.
“To assist in creating awareness, advocacy, and adoption of Web 3.0 standards, we the authors and our associates have established the Spatial Web Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to delivering the protocols and specifications needed for an open, free, and secure Spatial Web.”
Gabriel René and Dan Mapes
Foundation Co-Founders