The metaverse has been a popular topic of conversation at the ongoing World Economic Forum (WEF) 2023 in Davos, Switzerland, as the future design of the internet holds the promise of transforming numerous industries and is not limited to simply being a gamified virtual representation of reality.
Recently, the WEF launched a working prototype of its own metaverse project – called Global Collaboration Village – designed to be a platform where organizations can collaborate and devise action steps to address the world’s most pressing challenges.
“This new form of technology-enabled human interaction is on track to become ubiquitous in our personal and professional lives,” said Klaus Schwab, the WEF’s founder and executive chairman, in a report he wrote in Forbes. “Business executives, government officials and civil society leaders must come together to define and build an economically viable, interoperable, safe, equitable and inclusive metaverse.”
Global Collaboration Village was built using Microsoft Mesh, a new “mixed-reality platform powered by Azure that allows people in different physical locations to join collaborative and shared holographic experiences on many kinds of devices.”
The metaverse platform has already established partnerships with Microsoft, Accenture and 80 other organizations, and will feature a town hall for sessions, meetings and workshops, along with virtual collaboration spaces. Organizations will also be able to create their own hubs to showcase their projects.
"Supported by a unique range of partners from the public and private sectors, the Village will use the frontier capabilities of the metaverse to find solutions for addressing the big issues of our time in a more open, inclusive and sustained way,” Schwab wrote. “To create mass adoption, the metaverse must show that it is not just a replacement for what we already do but that it enables us to do things in new and more effective ways.”
Schwab called Global Collaboration Village the “first global, purpose-driven metaverse platform,” and said that it was “created to enhance more sustained public-private cooperation and spur action to drive impact at scale.”
“Inclusive and responsible by design, it will be a creative place to imagine alternative futures, explore ideas and systems transparently and safely, and envision what the future of engaging multistakeholder collaboration could be,” he said.
A digital industrial revolution
During a panel discussion focused on the global idea of an industrialized metaverse, panel experts discussed how the metaverse is causing an echo of the industrial revolution, which will see an industrialized metaverse introduce Web3 technologies to industries that impact our everyday lives.
According to Abdullah Alswaha, the minister of communications and information technology in Saudi Arabia, the switchover is needed due to the fact that “the digital world that we live in today is not fit for purpose in the 21st century.”
Alswaha suggested that the current digital communication infrastructure would be better off if it was integrated with the metaverse, saying “I’m a big advocate of the metaverse that it’s going to be the next wave of how immersive experiences work for consumers, enterprises, and the industry.”
Åsa Tamsons, the senior vice president and head of business area technologies at Ericsson, noted that the technology is already being applied in the healthcare, automotive and consumer electronics industries, and holds significant promise in helping to improve retail onboarding.
“Huge retail and consumer goods companies are working on how to use this metaverse technology to improve and shorten the time for employee onboarding and training,” Tamsons said.
Interest in establishing a presence in the metaverse has skyrocketed as of late, with numerous companies and governments filing trademark applications and announcing their metaverse plans in recent months.
On Tuesday, South Korea announced the launch of “Metaverse Seoul,” a virtual representation of the country’s capital city designed to help improve the efficiency of public administration services. Citizens will be able to use personal avatars to explore the platform and access a variety of services, such as obtaining proof of citizenship, tax counseling, youth mentoring, and a support center for struggling businesses.
In December, Starbucks launched “Starbucks Odyssey,” an extension of Starbucks Rewards that is powered by Web3 technology and designed to unlock new benefits and experiences for members. Early participants of the platform have the opportunity to complete Starbucks Odyssey ‘Journeys’, a series of interactive activities where they can earn collectible ‘Journey Stamps’ (NFTs) and Odyssey Points that will unlock access to new benefits and experiences.