Recently, Tim O Reilly posted his vision of the metaverse which resonates with me
It’s not exactly an earth shattering revelation – but it’s easy to forget that the Web and also the Metaverse – are primarily social mediums.
It’s easy to get caught up in the Web 3/ NFT real estate metaphor and forget the original vision of the Metaverse was a social one.
The good thing is – this vision is an extension of our current behaviour – especially post pandemic
On TEAMS and Zoom, the place does not matter so much as the occasion does.
We all know this from our family calls on Teams of Zoom – rather than our business calls.
If we extend this idea a bit – the metaverse can be seen as an amalgamation of multiple technology vectors
In this sense, vectors are referred to as quantities that comprise of both a magnitude and a direction and that can be summed or multiplied to get a sense of how they might cancel, amplify, or redirect possible pathways to the future
A place like mmhmm is video centric rather than avatar centric.
They use embedded video to create a sense of occasion and setting – thereby aspiring to create a community around the occasion through video.
Shared experiences may seem a bit weird but i think everyone has their favourite place/ setting where they would like to meet others (ex Setting of a historical novel like three musketeers, Jurassic era etc)
So, probably we need a vast library of immersive 3D still images of amazing places into which either avatars or people’s images can be inserted
Combine these with a real time experience then we could have a sense of shared activity through embedded video as an extension of today’s technology that could blend seamlessly into the metaverse in the future
But the social aspect could have practical implications: you could plan your whole work or education experiences as a series of occasions planned and serendipitous.
So, the occasion comprises a rich, real time environment around a theme. The work or learning takes place around that occasion – either synchronously or asynchronously.
The idea is again not new – much like an enhanced version of slack channels.
The critical point is: embedded video is the driver rather than the avatar
So, the idea could have practical applications for the future of work from home and the future of education
References: the metaverse is not a place
Image source pixabay
