European Council Publishes Web 4.0 Strategy

vrcoin on July 18, 2023

The European Commission is already setting out to tackle Web 4.0. There’s quite a bit to unpack here, including the EC approach, the 4-point plan that they recently published, and – of course – what they mean by Web 4.0. What Is Web 4.0? It’s not a typo and you’re not asleep at the wheel. While most of us haven’t gotten the hang of Web 3.0 yet, Europe is already setting the table for Web 4.0. Don’t worry, this is just a new terminology for something that’s already on your radar. “Beyond the currently developing third generation of the internet, Web 3.0, whose main features are openness, decentralization, and user empowerment, the next generation, Web 4.0, will allow an integration between digital and real objects and environments and enhanced interactions between humans and machines,” reads the EC’s report. So, essentially, “Web 4.0” is the metaverse. But, why not just call

“Navigating the Metaverse” Book Review

vrcoin on May 23, 2022

saidNavigating the Metaverse: A Guide to Limitless Possibilities in a Web 3.0 World is a new book by Cathy Hackl, Dirk Lueth, and Tommaso Di Bartolo. We got an advance copy of the book, and spoke with the authors, as well as the editor John Arkontaky, to learn more about how the book came together. Navigating “Navigating the Metaverse” Navigating the Metaverse consists of information-dense chapters broken up into manageable sections – a necessary consideration for a topic so branching and nebulous. While the metaverse itself may be a rats’ nest of uncertainty and conflicting ideas, the book is easy to follow and the ideas are presented with confidence and clarity. “The reason we have a full writing room is because the metaverse is complex. Different viewpoints add color and context. The co-authors’ combined forces offer a blend of industry knowledge, hard business, and blue sky aspirations.” – Introduction Many

ITIF Releases Report on Moderating Multi-User Immersive Experiences

vrcoin on March 16, 2022

When you’re on social media and see someone engaging in dangerous, illegal, or often just distasteful activity, it is often fairly easy to report the content or the poster. In the physical world, these situations are less frequent and scarier but here too there are ways to report illicit interactions when necessary. But, what about immersive experiences? We tend to spend most of our time talking about the positive interactions and promises of immersive experiences. While AR and VR applications combine the best of in-person and online events, they also combine the worst of these settings for people who would misuse them. A recent report by the Information Technology & Innovation Foundation (ITIF) explores this. Authors and Influences “Content Moderation in Multi-User Immersive Experiences: AR/VR and the Future of Online Speech” is a free online publication by Daniel Castro, ITIF vice president and director of the Center for Data Innovation.

Scalefast and YouGov Report on the NFT and Virtual Goods Market

vrcoin on January 26, 2022

By now, we’ve probably all at least heard of NFTs and virtual goods. But, what is the actual market like right now? How should interested companies get involved? Where is the market likely heading and what could drive these changes? Scalefast sifted through survey data from YouGov to come up with some answers and shared an early version of the report, titled “Revealing the Metaverse”, with ARPost. .uf36ce73394bb7b44fe7af7f772662799 { padding:0px; margin: 0; padding-top:1em!important; padding-bottom:1em!important; width:100%; display: block; font-weight:bold; background-color:#FFFFFF; border:0!important; border-left:4px solid #E74C3C!important; box-shadow: 0 1px 2px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.17); -moz-box-shadow: 0 1px 2px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.17); -o-box-shadow: 0 1px 2px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.17); -webkit-box-shadow: 0 1px 2px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.17); text-decoration:none; } .uf36ce73394bb7b44fe7af7f772662799:active, .uf36ce73394bb7b44fe7af7f772662799:hover { opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; text-decoration:none; } .uf36ce73394bb7b44fe7af7f772662799 { transition: background-color 250ms; webkit-transition: background-color 250ms; opacity: 1.05; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; } .uf36ce73394bb7b44fe7af7f772662799 .ctaText

Exploring New Frontiers With Metaverse

vrcoin on December 29, 2021

The tech world is abuzz with news of the metaverse and how it can open up a world of opportunities. It promises a more immersive digital experience for users, and it’s poised to become the internet’s successor. This vast network of virtual worlds is the stuff of science fiction brought to life with today’s technology. If you’ve seen Ready Player One or The Matrix, engaged in crypto or non-fungible tokens (NFT), or played games like Roblox or Fortnite, then you already have a glimpse of things to come. What Is the Metaverse? The term was first coined by Neal Stephenson in his 1992 science fiction novel Snow Crash. In the novel, the metaverse is a shared digital place that people visit to escape their dystopian reality. They use avatars to interact with other users and explore an online world where they can be who they want to be and do

Understanding the Atmosphere Around Policy in Emerging Technologies

vrcoin on November 1, 2021

“Emerging technologies” like extended reality, 5G internet, and blockchain are currently emerging faster than policy on them is developing. While this may allow increased experimentation with these technologies, we’ve seen what happened with the last round of emerging technologies like social media when policy lagged behind reality. Right now, legislation and protections around emerging technologies remain thin, but many, including many within the tech space, think that this needs to change. The Role of Ethicists and Organizations In the absence of legislation and policy regarding emerging technologies, in particular, people and agencies interacting with these technologies have the choice of existing in a vacuum of order, or trying to create that order for themselves. Those who take the latter route often do so by connecting novel concerns with less-specific and more familiar issues. “The process of XR ethics is asking what are these principles informed by human rights concerns,” XR

Why Every Company Needs a Metaverse Strategist

vrcoin on October 18, 2021

The metaverse is coming (some iteration of it is already here) and it’s going to encompass society as we know it. In 2019, Marshmello’s virtual concert on Fortnite saw 10.7 million attendees tune in. In 2020, Travis Scott’s virtual performances on Fortnite saw more than 45 million viewers across 5 shows. In just the last handful of weeks, a collection of Bored Apes sold at Sotheby’s for more than $24 million, Budweiser purchased the web3 domain beer.eth for almost $100,000, and Tennis superstar Naomi Osaka and her sister Mari Osaka dropped a six-piece collection of NFTs that sold for nearly $600,000. Naomi Osaka Sapphire Signed; Source: Autograph With the explosion of NFTs, virtual worlds, and immersive technologies in 2021, some of the largest companies in the world, the most famous athletes in the world, and the most popular musicians in the world have already started to enter the metaverse. A

XRA and Perkins Coie Release 2021 XR Industry Survey

vrcoin on August 2, 2021

The XR industry is a young one, making surveys and reports crucial. Recently, those reports have been… complicated. For months, reports started with a line explaining that responses were compiled before the pandemic, so they may not accurately reflect the industry. Then, the line changed to explain that responses were compiled during the pandemic, so they may not accurately reflect the industry. Perkins Coie and the XR Association’s most recent report is fresh with a practical shelf-life. The Survey and Why We Need It As we emerge from the pandemic, the XR Industry Insider: 2021 XR Survey may give us a look at how XR may work in the “new normal” rather than telling us what the industry looked like before or during the height of the pandemic. Their key takeaway is one that many readers likely came up with on their own: “Far from upending the industry’s momentum of