INTHEBLACK July 2022 - Magazine - Page 56
WORK SMART
// T E C H TA L K
Decentraland includes experiences such
as CryptoCarz, a blockchain-enabled VR
racing game where participants own
NFTs that represent cars.
META-WARS
W HAT IS THE M ETAVERS E, AND WH AT
W ILL I T MEA N FO R B U S I NES S?
STORY GLENN REES
F
acebook’s name change to Meta
represents a fundamental change at the
company. It’s a name that “reflects the
breadth of what we do”, says founder and
CEO Mark Zuckerberg. “From now on, we will
be metaverse-first, not Facebook-first.”
“In the metaverse,’ he explains, “you’ll be
able to do almost anything you can imagine
– get together with friends and family, work,
learn, play, shop, create – as well as
completely new experiences that don’t really
fit how we think about computers or phones
today. In this future, you will be able to
teleport instantly as a hologram to be at the
56 ITB July 2022
office without a commute, at a concert with
friends, or in your parents’ living room to
catch up.”
VIRTUAL TECHNOLOGIES
The metaverse concept and underlying
technologies aren’t new. Virtual reality (VR)
games and virtual 3D worlds have been
around for decades.
For example, Second Life launched in 2003
and has more than 60 million users living a
second virtual life, exploring new virtual
places, and buying and selling virtual things.
Similarly, augmented reality (AR) isn’t new.
AR glasses such as Google Glass and apps
like Pokémon Go feature a digital overlay
that adds information or effects to a realworld view. Microsoft uses a version of the
technology in its HoloLens headsets for
vertical business applications, such as
training manufacturing teams or remotely
assisting healthcare workers.
What is new is the ambition and scope
of today’s metaverse initiatives. Meta, for
example, is betting big on the trend – to
the tune of more than US$10 billion
(A$13.9 billion) in 2021.
One of Meta’s key initiatives is Horizon
Workrooms, a 3D virtual meeting application
that allows teams to join meetings as avatars
using VR headsets. Team members can also
join via a regular video call on their
computers, but VR is the more immersive
experience, even allowing teams to bring
virtual computers into the space so they can
work together.
Similarly, Microsoft has announced Mesh,
which adds immersive 3D meetings to
Microsoft Teams via a HoloLens or VR
headset, or more conventionally on a mobile