The Socio-Technical System
What is metaverse?
In the fall of 2021, March Zuckerberg of Facebook and Satya Nadella of Microsoft made grand presentations about metaverse, which became a new tech buzzword and captured popular imagination. However, the metaverse remains one of those concepts that tells everyone something, but not anything. As of April 14, 2022, Merriam Webster Dictionary has not added metaverse into its catalog, while Oxford Dictionary describes it as a slang word. One tech researcher wrote for Wired that “talking about what “the metaverse” means is a bit like having a discussion about what “the internet” means in the 1970s.” Unlike the internet, metaverse will not necessarily change the speed or quantity of the information we exchange, but will completely transform its quality.
A general explanation for metaverse is that it “refers to a convergence of physical, augmented, and virtual reality in a shared online space.” Meta from ancient Greek means across or transcending, while verse is the short for universe. It was first used in American writer Neal Stephenson’s science fiction novel “Snow flake”, published in 1982. So, the difference of metaverse platforms from other websites or software programs is that it offers a more holistic experience, where you feel like you have shifted into another universe. While many functions of metaverse platforms can be accessed via conventional computers, tablets or even smartphones, VR glasses are an essential component of the metaverse that can reveal the full range of the metaverse potential.
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The Socio-Technical Map
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3D Reconstruction
Immersing into metaverse via VR glasses leaves a lasting impression on its users. It upgrades the experience of human-computer interaction from 2D to 3D, which creates a paradigm shift for human sensory experiences. For example, today, remote work for most people means that they are surrounded by the usual home space and the only window into the work space is the 10 to 25 inch screen of their computer. However, VR glasses can completely change your outlook and make you feel like you have stepped into a new space, where every move of your head and gesture of your hands is part of the human-computer interaction. Mark Zuckerberg during his presentation about metaverse highlighted that “I don’t think that this is primarily about being engaged with the internet more. I think it’s about being engaged more naturally.”
Remote work
This new level of human computer interaction and real-life experience presents limitless opportunities. Imagine history students instead of reading about the Neolithic age from their textbooks, visit a 3D reconstruction of a Neolithic community and interact with local tribes’ people. Or, working on a social project to make your city more accessible for people with disabilities, you tour the 3D reconstruction of the city in a wheelchair. Metaverse is a paradigm shift that creates a completely new landscape for the education and entertainment sectors, as well as for work, productivity and collaboration. As we know, Covid-19 pandemic turned remote work into a new global trend. Video-conference calls on Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Google Meet or other similar software platforms, have become the new work standard for millions of people across the world. Now, with the anti-Covid-19 efforts making marked progress, many people are wondering what the future workplace will look like. We believe that metaverse will play a big role in shaping the post-pandemic workplace.
According to one estimate, across the globe there were 1.25 billion information workers in 2018. It means employees who use a personal computer, tablet or a smartphone work an hour or more in a typical work day. This number keeps increasing as technological advancement shifts the demand from physical labor to information work. Over the course of the 20th century this meant an ever-increasing demand for office space, business towers, and a broader infrastructure around it, including commuting options, parking space, coffee shops, cafes, etc. However, in 2020, the Covid-19 pandemic caught everyone by surprise and disrupted the trends centered around office culture. The International Labor Organization in its flagship report “World Employment and Social Outlook: Trends 2022,” writes that “against a backdrop of the pandemic-induced waxing and waning of different sectors, the crisis is changing not only the kind of work that exists but also where and how work is performed.”
When remote work (or distance working, or teleworking) first became the new reality for office staff from around the world, it created many challenges, because neither the employers nor employees were prepared for it. However, over time people could see certain benefits in teleworking. For example, eliminating daily commute saves employees time and money. Employers did not have to spend as much money on maintaining collective office space. In his 2014 book titled “The Best Place to Work: The Art and Science of Creating an Extraordinary Workplace”, Ron Friedman contemplates on which office style is the worst: "Cubicles are depressing. Private offices are isolating. Open spaces are distracting." Now, with the power of new technologies such as the VR glasses and metaverse, one can change the office space from a cubicle to a private office or open space within a matter of seconds.
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Technologies
Microsoft, the biggest professional software producer in the world, is already working on a number of metaverse projects. For example, users of Microsoft Teams can use avatars through the Mesh application and or experience 3D meetings with Microsoft HoloLens. Satya Nadella in his presentation, about Microsoft’s metaverse projects, said that “metaverse enables us to embed computing into the real world and real world into computing.” Meta (former Facebook) has also launched its Horizon World program, which allows its Oculus VR headset users to meet and collaborate in metaverse. According to various estimates, the metaverse market was somewhere between $210 and $500 billion in 2021. However, most analysts expect that it will grow to an $800 billion market within the next 5 years. Please, visit our Technical Component page to learn more about VR glasses.
Entertainment Industry
While using metaverse for work and collaboration is a relatively new trend, the entertainment industry has been selling games on metaverse platforms for many years now. For example, the Roblox platform had more than 50 million daily active users from180 countries in 2021, who, reportedly, spent more than 40 billion hours on the Roblox metaverse. Users can celebrate virtual birthday parties, attend online concerts, and not only play games, but also create their own games, which is why there are more than 40 million games on the metaverse. Most of the Roblox users today are teenagers, who will comprise the majority of the workforce in 10-15 years. You may have heard about the concept of digital natives, which refers to persons who were brought up during the age of digital technology and thus find it easier to work with digital tools, compared to digital immigrants. Now, we can speak about metaverse natives, children who are familiar with ins and outs of metaverse platforms from an early age and thus can operate in metaverse environments very efficiently in later stages of life.
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