I'll take my data with me

Interoperability is more than a complication, or buzzword.

Which way is up?

Seems simple doesn’t it? Up is up. However, if you are one class of creator, you operate in a XYZ world. X is right to left, Y is up and down, and Z is forward and backward. However, others would say “you’re wrong”. In their creator universe (builder engine) you’d say they live in a XZY world. In that their X is right to left, their Z is up and down, and their Y is forward and backward.

This little difference is actually one of many. And it makes things break. If you want to bring your avatar from one platform to another, and they use different engines or standards, its going to result in some scrambled data. Consistency is key. It’s like speaking different languages, if you have a cypher or translator, you can manage. But if your basics (XYZ) are different, and nobody is there to guide you, you’re gonna have a bad time.

Taking your data

So if you want to switch from iphone to android, it probably feels impossible and therefore not worth it. You would have to transfer your contacts, and data. Re-download the apps you love. Learn a new user experience, and much more. Plus, you may have grown used to hating green bubbles. Well, now your bubbles can be any color, and you’ll see that we don’t care about bubble color, we can customize our apps to our hearts desire. You were always the weird one.

What if you want to take your healthcare records with you? What if you are transferring States, jobs, and therefore, providers? You have to find a new grocery store, and hiking trails, plus you have to find a new doctor and therapist. You can transfer in data. That makes your life easier. That’s interoperability, and that is your right to controlling your own data. Shouldn’t you be given the same rights over your digital assets?

See, if you have played any games in the last 10 years, you have probably been propositioned with the opportunity to spend real people dollars on skins, avatars, and other digital goods. Maybe you unlock a fancy spaceship, or a special suit of armor. In fact, many games make Billions/Millions per year like fortnite, roblox, and Path of Exile, off of free games. They generate that kind of money off of digital assets and experiences. You can take your call of duty skins to future versions of the game! This is kinda progress. The Metaverse is not dead yet, baby.

Complex for whom?

The big companies, the old guard in leadership, and the uninspired say that interoperability is a complicated buzzword, but that’s not true. If you watch a 5 min video, read a single article, or actually try to use a open standard - you’ll get it. It’s ego that is the big blocker. You want credit for inventing virtual physics, and so does someone else. You can agree on a standard or fight to the death in passive aggressive recruitment.

Go make an avatar right now. Figure it out. Make some eggs. Rig it with the VRM standard. Watch a Youtube video on how to do that with Blender. Join a Discord like Angell or M3. Ask questions. VRM is an interoperable format for your avatars skeleton. This means that XYZ and XZY and XY-Z, and XZ-Y will always know how to translate and when. This means you can bring an avatar into competing platforms. This is the closest thing to digital embodied identity we have right now.

If you want to buy a cheaper phone, or a better phone, or simply reduce your dependency on the dead batteries, and walled gardens, you can. It’s your right, like your health data is. But when we wall off standard practice as features, and convince you that your blue bubbles are real, your ability to invite people directly from your calendar, or your virtual office that requires everyone else own a Meta Quest headset, you are being blindfolded. You should care about interoperability, because it is the very nature of what the internet, and society is built on. We each give, and we each take, but we are part of the same whole.

Get to the point (vertex)

Look, I know most of my readers are friends and family and supporters of me.. I am so grateful. But this message is for the folk who need to read it. Interop is alive, and I hope that we can see it standardized in our digital identity beyond VR. I want to see you own your data and understand in plain language, how.

If you want to try de-platforming, check out the Pixel series Android, install GrapheneOS, and learn about the open source alternatives to the everyday tools we have become dependent on. Learn to run your own cloud. Learn to interoperate your contacts and more through the web. We live in a time where you still can own your data.

I hope that more people will become aware of this gift that we have, and I hope we can continue to share knowledge freely. I do not want to see a world where all of knowledge, and the access to it, are walled off behind license. I hope you are not afraid to leave your phone carrier, and that you never have to worry about losing the 8,487 photos you took in the last 10 years.

I believe we will share these experiences, and co-create memories. We have the a gift to capture our own unique experiences, and collectively live through memories and experiences as a result. That doesn’t happen with lines in the sand, that happens with interop.