Cisco and Metaversed Launching Metaverse Market Index

Christian Renaud, Chief Architect of Networked Virtual Environments for the Cisco Technology Center, is teaming up with Nick Wilson of Metaversed and Robert Bloomfield of Cornell University to launch the Metaverse Market Index at Virtual Worlds Fall Conference and Expo next week at the San Jose Convention Center. The goal of the MMI is to bring together comparable statistics and key metrics (focusing on User Engagement, Economy, and Technology) of virtual worlds to promote informed investment "while also allowing developers to identify opportunities for rapid convergence toward common technologies that will allow portability across platforms." [via Techcrunch]

The team will work with advisors to determine the best metrics and launch a set of tools for measurement in January 2008. Data will be shared later that year.

Christian discussed the need for standard measurement both on his personal blog and on Cisco's while trying to put together an aggregate population of virtual worlds.  On the latter, he explained that

There needs to be a common market index. There are some very good starts at databases to track the virtual world platforms, but where they are currently deficient is in capturing and analyzing the key metrics for this industry, as Gartner Group and others do for the networking industry. Until we get to a common set of metrics by which we measure these platforms, we can't accurately compare them or determine their real measures of success. This is a critical piece as we see more traditional advertisers step into the virtual arena, as you can rest assured that they will want rigorous statistics as to the degree of impact of their advertising message. Go ask the advergaming companies if you don't believe me.

After working on a similar project, I can understand his frustration--and the value of having a common market index.  Check back for more details after the conference.