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In nerdspace, everybody is already converted to the metaverse.
The universe is passé. Web 1.0 was for one-way data gathering. Web 2.0 was all about user-generated content, the social media boom and the maturation of e-commerce. Web 3.0—the metaverse—is a place you don't have to log onto anymore, it's just there. Everywhere and always. You don't go ‘on’ the internet, you are smack dab in the middle of it. Quite crucially, the Metaverse is a single entity, otherwise it would lack the network effect that is so vital to successful technology. This calls for an open ecosystem, a completely different philosophy to that of, say, most of the Big Tech companies. The metaverse is a prediction, a coming together of all major technologies booming right now. Just pour in a little 5G, add a drop of blockchain, mix it up with VR and watch it augment into a tantalizing and mighty tasty metaverse. Bottoms up.
As Is
The Metaverse is a world where online and offline become symbiotic. The transition between the two feels seamless. Hence the term ‘embodied’. You can use different devices to merge with the metaverse, but it’s the immersive technologies that make the experience worthwhile. AR, VR and the likes may not be a prerequisite for the metaverse to take hold, but they are highly desirable. They are the foam on your cappuccino, so to speak.
The wearables are in the way.
That also means there are a lot of dependencies on other technologies for this prediction to really come true. We need blockchain to secure things (like your identity), we need 5G to make it run smoothly, and—for now— we still need devices to support the AR and VR portal in this magical universe. Because people aren’t fond of friction, every condition the Metaverse relies on, every dependency will have to be fulfilled, with a-beyond-optimal-user experience for the grand masses to adopt.
could be
Today, the metaverse is still more of a hypothesis, an idea, a dream to unify our online presence. The avatar, our digital counterpart, is ideally just one entity, whether you’re shopping at Zalando, sitting through a Teams meeting or farming in Minecraft. That’s the general idea. But as we all know, the vast seas between dream and reality are riddled with storms and monsters. If both Facebook (sorry, Meta) and Microsoft are going to build their own metaverses, then the dream has de facto failed. Closed ecosystems are at odds with inter-operability. You also surf ‘the’ internet, not ‘an’ internet.
If you don’t want to feel like a Nokia phone in five years time, go hire yourself a Chief Metaverse Officer.
We’ve said it once before and we’ll repeat it over and over again. The universe is passé. The future will take place in the metaverse, which will consist of our world and its digital twin. Unless you want to exist only halfway in the future, you had better start assembling a metaverse team. Preferably not just populated with interns and your second cousin who loves gaming, or you will miss the boat. Just like the sceptics missed the boat of Web 2.0 and social media. That must have hurt.