What It Is – 2
Matthew Ball provides a definition of the metaverse:
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Be persistent – which is to say, it never “resets” or “pauses” or “ends”, it just continues indefinitely
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Be synchronous and live – even though pre-scheduled and self-contained events will happen, just as they do in “real life”, the Metaverse will be a living experience that exists consistently for everyone and in real-time
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Be without any cap to concurrent users, while also providing each user with an individual sense of “presence” – everyone can be a part of the Metaverse and participate in a specific event/place/activity together, at the same time and with individual agency
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Be a fully functioning economy – individuals and businesses will be able to create, own, invest, sell, and be rewarded for an incredibly wide range of “work” that produces “value” that is recognized by others
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Be an experience that spans both the digital and physical worlds, private and public networks/experiences, and open and closed platforms
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Offer unprecedented interoperability of data, digital items/assets, content, and so on across each of these experiences – your “Counter-Strike” gun skin, for example, could also be used to decorate a gun in Fortnite, or be gifted to a friend on/through Facebook. Similarly, a car designed for Rocket League (or even for Porsche’s website) could be brought over to work in Roblox. Today, the digital world basically acts as though it were a mall where every store used its own currency, required proprietary ID cards, had proprietary units of measurement for things like shoes or calories, and different dress codes, etc.
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Be populated by “content” and “experiences” created and operated by an incredibly wide range of contributors, some of whom are independent individuals, while others might be informally organized groups or commercially-focused enterprises
He also explains what a metaverse is not “… a virtual world, a virtual space, virtual reality, a digital and virtual economy, a game, a virtual theme park or Disneyland, a new app store, or a new UGC platform.”
Jon Radoff offers this definition: “The metaverse is the internet evolving into a creative space for anyone who wants to craft experiences.” He describes the attributes of the metaverse:
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An emphasis on activities
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…in increasingly immersive places in which the self is present
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…crafted by an exponential rise in creators
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…supported by the connective tissue to link and embed immersive, emergent content
He adds: “The metaverse is about a multiverse of metaverses that will exist. It is Roblox and games built in Unity; Fortnite and Rec Room; Clubhouse and WebXR. It is about open ecosystems as well as the walled-gardens. Most of all: it’s about an exponential rise in human expression. The metaverse will be co-created by all of us.”
Matthew Ball’s Metaverse Primer on the future: “We can guess that the Metaverse will revolutionize nearly every industry and function. From healthcare to payments, consumer products, entertainment, hourly labor, and even sex work. In addition, altogether new industries, marketplaces and resources will be created to enable this future, as will novel types of skills, professions, and certifications. The collective value of these changes will be in the trillions.”
