AFNOR mobilizes the metaverse sector in search of benchmarks

On February 22, 2023, Jean-Nöel Barrot, Minister Delegate for Digital Transition and Telecommunications, and Franck Lebeugle, Director of Standardization Activities at AFNOR, launched the standardization commission aimed at getting an embryonic but interoperability-hungry sector up and running. We

have lost industrial battles because we failed to lay the groundwork in terms of standardization upstream. Jean-Noël Barrot, Minister Delegate for Digital Transition and Telecommunications, made this clear on Wednesday, February 22, 2023, at the Ministry of Economy and Finance, at the launch of the AFNOR standardization commission on the metaverse: the voluntary standards of tomorrow are being written today, otherwise others will write them for you. And they will prevail in the

markets. Challenge #1:

interoperability

Sometimes referred to as the successor to the Internet, and also described as a 3D social network, the metaverse is set to profoundly change social interactions, digital identities, commercial interactions, consumer habits, and even users' relationship with public spaces. It also raises ethical and legal questions. However, fundraising is on the rise and players are getting organized: headset manufacturers, sound spatialization specialists, software publishers, etc.

It is therefore high time to bring all these people together and invite them to establish industry standards, defending the metaverse as an open, secure, and inclusive system, in line with European values. "French players cannot let others define international standards on their behalf. This is what European Commissioner for Internal Market Thierry Breton called for when he presented the new European standardization strategy in February 2022," comments Franck LEBEUGLE, Director of Standardization Activities at AFNOR. The

issue of sovereignty is a real one, as the metaverse is already giving rise to initiatives outside Europe, particularly in China (where $50 billion has been promised for immersive technologies between now and 2026) and South Korea. In Europe, an initial pre-normative initiative has been set up under the leadership of the Metaverse Standards Forum, which brings together around 30 stakeholders. Today, AFNOR is taking over for France, with the help of CEN-Cenelec, which has launched a Europe-wide needs assessment, and the IEC, the international organization for electrical technologies. "The number one issue is interoperability. The metaverse is not and will not be a single product," says Béatrice Oeuvrard, head of public affairs for Meta France. "However, it is unthinkable that a metaverse platform would prevent access to users who do not have the right equipment," warned the minister. "I will soon have to find a solution to the question: how can we move the same asset, the same avatar, from one metaverse to another, with the same guarantees of authenticity for the transactions that take place there and the characters that evolve there," adds Philippe Rodriguez of the Metacircle think tank.

Reassuring "metaverse skeptics"

Voluntary standards are precisely there to provide this common language. Unlike regulations, which are restrictive (for example, with the DSA at the EU level), standardization unites and reassures, on a voluntary and consensual basis. "In companies, IT security managers block access to professional metaverses. Once a standard is in place to guarantee trust, this barrier will be removed. We expect standards to reassure 'metaverse skeptics'," hopes Jacques Baranger, in charge of metaverses at Talan Consulting, who sees three types of metaverse use:

• The customer relations metaverse, focused on marketing and sales
• The employee metaverse, focused on human resources and recruitment
• The production metaverse, focused on design and innovation

In addition to all these expectations, there are, of course, security expectations to protect against discriminatory, illegal, or dangerous situations for children that could occur in a metaverse. This is what motivates Philippe Coen, from the Respectzone collective, to take part in standardization work and call for an "avatar charter." This is despite the fact that one of the most eagerly awaited applications of the metaverse is training and education, as pointed out by Sébastien Massart, Chief Strategy Officer at Dassault Systèmes. "We will also need standards to know how to structure a training course," he says, giving healthcare as another example of an area in need of trust: "If I'm a doctor and I want to treat a patient by studying the virtual twin of the diseased organ in a metaverse, I want to be sure that I'm dealing with the right person, that the data is reliable, and that the virtual model I'm using is scientifically valid. Standardization will enable this trust," explains

Sébastien Massart. In this sense, future users of metaverses are also welcome at the standardization table. A first meeting of the commission is scheduled for March 27, 2023, and a roadmap for mid-September.