-

Help build the open metaverse by joining us this weekend for a hackathon!

2026-03-03 01:39:58

metaverse@fosstodon.org

We're pretty excited about this weekend's Open Metaverse Hackathon by RP1! This hackathon is dedicated to shaping the open metaverse and building interoperable spatial experiences that you own.

Dates: Mar 7–8, 2026
Location: Frontier Tower – San Francisco
Register & learn more: https://luma.com/rp1-hackathon-the-immersive-commons-day-

Get hands-on with open spatial web standards, collaborate with fellow innovators, and help define the future of AR/VR that works across platforms — your creations, your ownership.
#metaverse

2026-03-03 10:47:43

Pipeliner

pipeliner@mastodon.online

@metaverse is the metaverse still a thing?

2026-03-03 13:26:39

Jupiter Rowland

jupiter_rowland@hub.netzgemeinde.eu

@Pipeliner Depends on how you define "metaverse".

"The Metaverse" as in "Zuckerberg's Metaverse" as in "The Facebook Metaverse" as in "Meta Metaverse", actually Meta Horizon, is dwindling, as is Meta Platform's own support for it because they need all hands where the money is made: AI.

"The Metaverse" by its official definition is no longer booming, but far from dead. There are hundreds of monolithic, stand-alone virtual worlds out there that are largely incompatible with each other, from crypto-based get-rich-quick schemes that were haphazardly whipped up during the Metaverse hype of 2021/2022 to Second Life which was launched in 2002 and opened to the public in 2023, and which is still evolving.

What @Metaverse Standards Forum is talking about is the creation of an interconnected network of free, ideally open-source 3-D virtual worlds. It's being considered a first, something that has never been done before. The general consensus is that all virtual worlds that have existed so far were or still are non-free, closed-source, proprietary, stand-alone, monolithic silos. What's happening here is widely regarded as the first attempt ever at changing this.

Only that it isn't. No, really, it isn't. This has been done before long ago.

Free, open-source, decentralised, host-your-own-world 3-D virtual worlds have existed at least since January, 2007. That was when OpenSimulator was launched, a free, open-source re-implementation of the technology of Second Life, largely compatible with some third-party Second Life client applications ("viewers"). (Official website with no HTTPS support; article by me: Okay, so what is this OpenSim thing?)

The first OpenSim-based world ("grid") open to the general public was launched in July, 2007: OSgrid (official website). As you can see, it still exists. And it's the second-biggest grid and barely smaller than Second Life in area.

Also, in mid-2008, the Hypergrid was introduced which made it possible for avatars from one grid to teleport to another, outfit, inventory and all. From that point on, OpenSim was not just decentralised, but even federated. In other words: A federated network of independent 3-D virtual worlds based on free, open-source server software has been around for almost 18 years. And it has used the term "Metaverse" for even longer.

It isn't exactly tiny either. We're talking about a combined area of over four times Second Life. The biggest and most active grid is the Wolf Territories Grid, launched in 2020 by @Lone Wolf. It measures some 33,500 Second Life standard regions or about 2,200 square kilometres. That's not only 25% bigger than Second Life, but with much, much more room to grow.

See also another article by me: What is the Metaverse anyway?

#Long #LongPost #CWLong #CWLongPost #OpenSim #OpenSimulator #Metaverse #VirtualWorlds #Hypergrid