Hindsight reminds us of all the proprietary solutions who led the market, only to be disrupted by an open standard. Examining where things when right and wrong is essential to inform aspirations for success in future of XR and Spatial Computing. Ben Erwin is a leading advocate for standards, interoperability, and the agency of creators and developers in the Metaverse through his work as the creator of The Poly Awards, MetaTr@versal, and the WebXR Summit Series. In this talk, he’ll break down case studies from computing infrastructure to provide insight to why open wins, then transpose those findings onto the choices the XR industry faces today. This talk is of interest to decision makers, engineers, and creatives who are presently navigating the Wild West of the 4th Industrial Revolution.