The quality and consistency of market data on virtual worlds is not good enough for sound business decisions. As the virtual world is growing and the corporate world is starting to become interested to invest and advertise in these spaces, the need for accurate market data is growing.

To overcome this problem an initiative is being launched called Metaverse Market Index (MMI). According to Techcrunch, “MMI is founded by Nick Wilson of Metaversed.com and Robert Bloomfield of Cornell University, and will team with advisors and sponsors from industry and academia to construct a database of statistics on each platform’s user activity, economy, and technology. MMI is hoping that their work will foster informed investment in online worlds, “while also allowing developers to identify opportunities for rapid convergence toward common technologies that will allow portability across platforms.”

Data gathering will focus on three main areas: User Engagement will measure key indicators of how successfully businesses can reach customers and business partners, Economy will be a set of measures intended to capture economic activity in each world, and Technology will be focused on developing a list of key technological attributes of virtual worlds with an eye towards allowing developers to identify standards and interoperability opportunities.

MMI first step is to incorporate and work with advisors towards identifying key statistics. January 2008 will see tools development based on the initial key statistical areas, followed later by publication of the standards and data gathering.”