Today we have our interview with Chris Mitchell, Razer’s Senior Manager, Product Marketing (for Software). OSVR is Razer’s effort to open source diverse virtual reality support with a wide selection of devices. However, while it’s been promoted as an “open standard” in the press, and while Razer touches on this at the beginning of the interview, things are made more clear as the segment goes on.
Open Source and Open Standards are not at all the same thing. While knowledge gained from collaboration and experimentation from open source efforts will benefit the industry at large, it’s very important to differentiate open source from open standards or things will get very messy very fast. There are unique responsibilities and expectations attached to each as demonstrated by such organizations as The Khronos Group, HDMI LLC, VESA, and more. For now as indicated in the interview and the OSVR brand name, we think this is best defined as an open source platform.