The XR Association (XRA), one of the world’s top extended reality (XR) associations, gathered some of the industry’s leading representatives for its inaugural Future of XR Advisory Council (XRAC) meeting.
The February event outlined the organisation’s vision for the XRAC, which included numerous targets and goals for developing best practices for the Metaverse and working with the global XR community.
According to the XRA, it aimed to:
- Communicate a shared vision that included creators, users, and participants
- Build a roadmap to identify milestones across the sector
- Outline detailed work plans for advising policymakers to build trust, safety, and diverse XR talent
Council members also explored methods to define the XR market and measure its successful growth and development while tackling issues central to the sector.
According to the XRAC, steering committee members include Dan Guenther, Managing Director & Extended Reality Lead at Accenture, Cathy Hackl, Chief Metaverse Officer at Futures Intelligence Group, James Hairston, Director of Facebook Reality Labs Policy, as well as representatives from Google, Microsoft, the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF), Microsoft, the Center for Technology & Democracy, Meta Reality Labs, and many others.
Elizabeth Hyman, President and Chief Executive for the XRA, said there were “many critical questions and conversations” needed on the impact of XR technology.
She added,
“The XRAC is an exciting opportunity to help shape the future of our industry and get input and feedback from a diverse group of stakeholders to ensure the continued growth and ultimate success of XR”
Nick Clegg, Meta’s Global Comms Chief, announced ahead of the Facebook Connect event in October last year his company would collaborate with the XRA to develop best practices and ethics for future XR ecosystems, best practices, and policy development.
At the time, Hyman stated her organisation wanted to ensure “the responsible development of the technology” to create a “safe, inclusive, and respectful” XR ecosystem via the XRAC.
The XRA also recently onboarded Accenture, Qualcomm, and Unity Technologies as Associate Members in February in a bid to expand the organisation’s capabilities and knowledge of the XR sector.
The meeting took place ahead of a key annual conference hosted in Nashville, Tennessee in March last week, where Hyman lauded work in the XR medical industry which aimed to boost public health outcomes in sectors such as education, simulation, data science, therapeutics, and machine learning.
She also outlined public policy challenges in the XR medical market and potential steps to tackle the issues, which included best practices on categorising medical devices, closer cooperation with the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), as well as addressing core concerns on public trust in XR.
