Mark Zuckerberg Open letter Announce his vision for Metaverse Rebranding to Facebook Meta.
He painted a fascinating picture, but was told, “With Metaverse, you can do almost anything you can imagine.” There was plenty of room for interpretation in this letter, and there was a lot of discussion about what this new virtual world would look like. ..
Some argue that the Metaverse already exists (at least in its constituents), while others argue that the required criteria are not met for years. However, as is widely understood, the Metaverse consists of a series of interconnected spaces that connect the physical and digital worlds, thanks to the fusion of traditional and augmented reality (XR) platforms.
In his letter, Zuckerberg acknowledged the metaverse that “it will never be created by one company” and introduced a new governance model to ensure that “more people will have a stake in the future.” Will request.
He also promised to offer developers and creatives “as often as possible” low rates to encourage innovation and “maximize the overall creative economy.”
however, Already signed This utopian vision can quickly be dispelled by the weight of monopoly impulses. Instead, it is presided over by Meta only, supported by many of its services, server Infrastructure and access via it Oculus headset..
But can a metaverse controlled by a single party be considered a metaverse?
Interoperability issues
Metaverse is expected to enable many new consumer experiences (from virtual concerts to new types of online games), but it is also home to business services built to support enhanced support. Become. collaboration..
One such application is Arthur. virtual reality Conference platform Designed specifically for the enterprise. The idea is that employees do not spend the whole day in a virtual world, but switch media fluidly according to the nature of the activity at hand.
“It’s important to realize that after 2022, old systems were obsolete long before the pandemic. The downside of looking at the screen 10 hours a day is that it’s designed to work in 2D. It’s not related to the fact that it’s designed to work in 3D, “explains Arthur founder Christoph Fleischmann.
However, maximizing the potential of the Metaverse depends more than the ability to switch computing platforms. Equally important is the free movement between services, he told us.
“The key factor is interoperability. The ability to move properties and Identity Between applications. The moment of becoming a metaverse is the moment when we can move from a business-centric service to a social app and then undo it, “says Freishman.
“Openness is the key to Metaverse becoming a popular technology for everyone, so it’s all about how much friction can be reduced.”
Asked if this level of interoperability is feasible given the tendency of companies to get the Metaverse, Freishman admitted that a universal standard needs to be established-and soon. ..
He also said he hopes that technologies like the blockchain will play a role in decentralizing the governance of the Metaverse and, in theory, strengthen democracy through technological mechanisms that resist manipulation.
“Building the Metaverse alone is an inherently unsolvable challenge for a company,” Freishmann told us. “An organization may own part of the Metaverse, like a real-world country, but it cannot own the Metaverse alone.”
However, the concern is that the Metaverse is divided into a number of minibars, each owned and operated by a single organization, and standardization effective enough to prevent them from being separated by impregnable boundaries. It won’t happen right away.
Headset war
Another player with space ambitions is HTC, which makes the popular Vive series. VR headsetOne of the few legitimate competitors in Meta’s Oculus series.
In scenarios where Meta disables control of the Metaverse, HTC runs the risk of being put aside. If not supported by the basic Metaverse application, the quality of your company’s hardware is irrelevant.
Talk to TechRadar Pro At MWC earlier this year, the company’s head of hardware, Shen Ye, explained that the Metaverse was “always built” by HTC long before it was named and raised to the public’s awareness. Did. The implicit suggestion was that no company had the right to own the concept.
Although I don’t specifically comment on Meta’s position, Shen is also keen to emphasize the importance of open standards in order to promote broad hardware support and integrate services from multiple vendors. was.
“Ultimately, we hope that standards will be established. There is a W3 standard on the Web, but there is currently no equivalent to the Metaverse. We are trying to leverage as many open standards as possible. . “
“Our goal is to aim for openness. It’s not about building a closed metaverse-we want other universes to connect with our universe. Surrounded by walls here. I’m not trying to make a nice garden. “
Like Freishman, Shen made a gesture towards the potential of the blockchain to support the decentralization of the Metaverse. Specifically, he emphasized the role of cryptocurrencies. payment NFTs that can help you apply ownership rules in processes and virtual worlds.
Demonstrating its commitment to ideas, HTC recently launched a new crypto-centric XR. browserBuilt on the foundation of Project abandoned by Mozilla..
“Vive Browser is the key to the Metaverse and enables a VR-wide experience. PC When smartphone.. Our goal is to have a cross-platform browser that supports Web 3.0 and cryptographic use cases, “Shen said.
HTC recently announced Vive Connect. This is a cross-platform hub space where people can view and launch NFTs and other digital assets. Virtual event.. The long-term strategy is probably to establish the service as a gateway to the metaverse on which you depend.
Noise of all rights
So far, Meta is making all the right sounds.The company says it wants to work with third parties to help and prioritize the establishment of open standards. Cyber security When privacyAnd resist unfair market dynamics.
However, in issuing the open letter, Zuckerberg implicitly positioned his company (and to some extent himself) as the founder of the Metaverse. In effect, Meta claims a digital domain that doesn’t yet exist.
The resources and infrastructure that the company has at its disposal, and its founders Suspicious prejudice In the Metaverse project, other players in the universe are probably right to be on the alert.
It’s everyone’s guess what the Metaverse will look like in the end, but Big Tech’s story shows that it’s unlikely to be as open, fair, and inclusive as we’re told. increase.
