The term “metaverse” is the latest buzzword to capture the tech industry’s imagination—so much so that one of the best-known Internet platforms is rebranding to signal its adoption of the idea of the future. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s Thursday announcement that he is changing the name of his company to Meta Platform Inc., or Meta for short, could be the biggest thing for the Metaverse since science fiction author Neil Stephenson wrote his 1992 novel “Snow Crash.” The word was coined for.
but zuckerberg And his team is hardly the only tech visionary with ideas about how the Metaverse, which will employ a mix of virtual reality and other technologies, should take shape. And some who have been thinking about it for some time now worry about a new world involving the social media giant that could gain access to even more personal data and the spread of dangerous misinformation on them. Failing to stop and other online damages are charged. Increasing real world problems.
What is Metaverse?
Think of it as something the Internet brought to life, or at least rendered in 3D. Zuckerberg describes it as a “virtual environment” that you can walk into—instead of just looking at a screen. Essentially, it is a world of endless, interconnected virtual communities where people can meet, work, and play using virtual reality headsets, augmented reality glasses, smartphone apps, or other devices.
According to Victoria Petrok, an analyst who follows emerging technologies, it will also cover other aspects of online life such as shopping and social media.
“This is the next evolution of connectivity where all those things seem to come together in a seamless, doppelganger universe, so you’re living your virtual life the same way you’re living your physical life,” she said.
What will I be able to do in the Metaverse?
Things like going to virtual concerts, traveling online, viewing or creating artwork, and trying on or buying digital clothing. The metaverse could also be a game-changer for the work-from-home shift amid the coronavirus pandemic. Instead of seeing coworkers on a video call grid, employees can connect with them in a virtual office.
Facebook has launched meeting software for companies called Horizon Workroom to use with its Oculus VR headsets, though initial reviews haven’t been great. Headsets cost $300 or more, which puts the most cutting-edge experiences in the metaverse out of reach for many.
For those who can afford it, users will be able, through their avatars, to move between virtual worlds created by different companies.
“There’s going to be a lot of metaverse experience around being able to teleport from one experience to another,” Zuckerberg says.
Tech companies still have to figure out how to connect their online platforms to each other. It would require competing technology platforms to agree on a set of standards for it to work, so there are no “people in the Facebook metaverse and others in the Microsoft metaverse,” Petrock said.
Is Facebook everything going to the metaverse?
Zuckerberg is working big on what he sees as the next generation of the Internet because he thinks it’s going to be a big part of the digital economy.
Critics wonder whether the potential pivot could be an attempt to distract from the company’s woes, which include antitrust crackdowns, testimony by whistleblowing former employees, and concerns about its handling of misinformation.
Former employee Francis Haugen has accused Facebook’s platform of harming children and inciting political violence after copying internal research documents and submitting them to the US Securities and Exchange Commission.
They were also provided to a slew of media outlets, including The Associated Press, which reported several stories about how Facebook prioritized profit over security and hid its own research from investors and the public.
Is the Metaverse Just a Facebook Project?
No. Other companies talking about the metaverse include Microsoft and chipmaker Nvidia.
“We think there’s going to be a lot of companies creating virtual worlds and environments in the Metaverse, in the same way there’s going to be a lot of companies working on the World Wide Web,” said Richard Kerris, Nvidia’s vice president of Omniverse Platform. “It’s important to be open and extensible, so you can teleport to different worlds whether by one company or another, just as I go from one web page to another.”
Video game companies are also taking a lead. Epic Games, the company behind the popular Fortnite video game, has raised $1 billion from investors to help with its long-term plans to build the Metaverse. Game platform Roblox is another big player, outlining its vision of the Metaverse as a place where “people can come together to learn, work, play, create and socialize within millions of 3D experiences.” “
Consumer brands are also trying to jump on the trend. Italian fashion house Gucci collaborated with Roblox in June to sell a collection of digital-only accessories. Coca-Cola and Clinique have sold digital tokens in a move to the metaverse.
Would this be another way to get more of my data?
Zuckerberg’s embrace of the Metaverse in some ways contradicts a central tenet of its biggest enthusiasts. They see the metaverse as the emancipation of online culture from tech platforms such as Facebook, which assumed ownership of people’s accounts, photos, posts and playlists and traded what they gleaned from that data.
Venture capitalist Steve Zhang, managing partner at Kindred Ventures, said, “We want to be able to move around the Internet easily, but we also want to be able to move around the Internet in a way we don’t have to be tracked and monitored. Goes.” Which focuses on cryptocurrency technology.
It looks like Facebook wants to move its business model to the metaverse, which is based on using personal data to sell targeted ads.
“The social media portions of what we do will continue to be an important part of advertising strategy, and will probably be a worthwhile part of the metaverse as well,” Zuckerberg said in a recent company earnings call.
Petrock said he is concerned that Facebook is trying to move into a virtual world that could require even more personal data and provide greater potential for misuse and misinformation when it Haven’t fixed those problems in their current platforms.
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