I'm sure Facebook is really excited to build a space they own and control completely, as well as have the ability to take a cut of all sales in it. Building a digital company town is right up Facebook's alley.
> ...just like you have the W3C that helps set standards around a bunch of the important internet protocols and how people build the web, I think there will need to be some of that here, too, for defining how developers and creators can build experiences that allow someone to take their avatar and their digital goods and their friends, and be able to teleport seamlessly between all these different experiences.
I'm sure Facebook is looking to have a big and profitable presence in the metaverse, but the point is that it's not one big walled garden like Facebook, but more like the Web as a whole.
The way I see it, Facebook kicking off the push towards a metaverse is kind of like Bell Labs creating Unix. Sure it took a big corp with a lot of money, but that gives the rest of the community something to emulate and build off of, or decide what parts they do and don't like, and so eventually we'll have the metaverse equivalent of Linux. (edited for clarity of the first paragraph)
What's to say that's how it's going to go here?
> I also wouldn't expect a big corp to be the one to create open standards for the rest of the community.
Exactly. So root for a W3C metaverse, not Facebook's walled garden.
Comparing themselves to W3C is a nice trick but they are not at all alike. W3C is a non-profit funded by its members. Facebook is a shareholder-controlled corporation.