What is the metaverse, and do I have to care?

guest · Nov 2, 2021

Microsoft’s Own Metaverse Is Coming, and It Will Have PowerPoint
The software maker is embracing the buzzy concept with new products due next year
November 2, 2021
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...ing-and-it-will-have-powerpoint?sref=ExbtjcSG

If you’re worried the metaverse will be all fun and games, fear not: Microsoft Corp. is taking its own stab at the idea, and it will have PowerPoint and Excel.

The company is adapting its signature software products to create a more corporate version of the metaverse — a concept promoted by Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg that promises to let users live, work and play within interconnected virtual worlds.
Click to expand...

The first offering, a version of Microsoft’s Teams chat and conferencing program that features digital avatars, is in testing now and will be available in the first half of 2022. Customers will be able to share Office files and features, like PowerPoint decks, in the virtual world.

The new Teams features, unveiled Tuesday at the company’s Ignite conference, will let businesses create immersive spaces where workers can meet.
Click to expand...

The public perception of the metaverse — as a futuristic world where plugged-in people recreate their whole lives online — is still a ways off. But the business uses are starting to be available now, Nadella said.

While Microsoft is leading with corporate applications for the metaverse, expect its Xbox gaming platform to take part in the future, Nadella said.

“You can absolutely expect us to do things in gaming,” he said “If you take Halo as a game, it is a metaverse. Minecraft is a metaverse, and so is Flight Sim. In some sense, they are 2D today, but the question is, can you now take that to a full 3D world, and so we absolutely plan to do so.”
Click to expand...

Microsoft is focused on practical applications of the metaverse — ones where the benefits are clear, Nadella said. And that will help get people get accustomed to an idea that some critics call creepy.
Click to expand...

hawki · Nov 3, 2021

hawki said: ↑

"Facebook rebrands as Meta to emphasize ‘metaverse’ vision

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said his company is rebranding itself as Meta in an effort to encompass its virtual-reality vision for the future — what Zuckerberg calls the 'metaverse'..."

https://apnews.com/article/facebook...ogy-business-5ad543ab7780caae435935f0aca9fac6
Click to expand...

"After changing its name to Meta, Facebook discovers there's already a tech company with that name and it filed for trademark protection months ago"

David Lazarus,Consumer columnist for the Los Angeles Times and KTLA Channel 5.
https://twitter.com/Davidlaz/status/1455958423586017284

aztony · Nov 3, 2021

After changing its name to Meta, Facebook discovers there's already a tech company with that name and it filed for trademark protection months ago
Click to expand...

guest · Nov 3, 2021

Microsoft and Nvidia are working on their own more practical metaverse
A business-oriented approach to going meta
November 3, 2021
https://www.techspot.com/news/92064-microsoft-nvidia-working-their-own-more-practical-metaverse.html

In context: Given all the hoopla surrounding the company previously known as Facebook rebranding itself to Meta last week, it’s not the least bit surprising to see other big tech industry players start talking about their own visions of what the latest versions of virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR)—the metaverse—can bring. What is somewhat unexpected, however, is how different the perspectives on the topic are already proving to be.

At Microsoft’s Ignite conference this week and as part of a news build-up towards next week’s Nvidia GTC conference, both companies showed a more practical and business-oriented approach to the metaverse than the consumer-focused version that Mark Zuckerberg and team presented.
Click to expand...

There are many other dissimilarities between the different metaverse perspectives

Microsoft, for example, will be integrating its AR Mesh technology into Teams, providing a different “view” into the Teams environment for all Teams users.
The cartoon-like avatars provide participants a way to still offer non-verbal communication cues like facial expressions, gestures, and more without needing to be on camera all the time.
Click to expand...

In the case of Nvidia, the company has been talking about its Omniverse platform for several years now, where it means to provide a highly graphical 3D environment designed for engineering, graphics creation and collaboration.

Omniverse Enterprise is designed to collaboratively build graphically realistic simulations of real-world devices and systems, making it useful for everything from designing the latest cars to seeing how AI-powered versions of those cars would function in simulated environments.
Click to expand...

All of which highlights yet another critical difference between the Meta, Microsoft, and Nvidia offerings: the expected scope of the efforts.

Both the Microsoft and Nvidia concepts, on the other hand, seem much more targeted to certain environments in certain businesses.
Despite more limited scopes, realistically they’re also more practical than the Meta approach, not only from a numbers perspective, but an acceptance factor as well.
Click to expand...

Krusty · Nov 3, 2021

hawki said: ↑

"After changing its name to Meta, Facebook discovers there's already a tech company with that name and it filed for trademark protection months ago"
Click to expand...

guest · Nov 4, 2021

Facebook's metaverse plans labelled as 'dystopian' and 'a bad idea'
November 4, 2021
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-59154520

Meta, as Facebook is now known, is investing billions in the project.

But Roger McNamee told the BBC: "It's a bad idea and the fact we are all sitting and looking at this like it's normal should be alarming everyone."
Click to expand...

Meta's chief product officer Chris Cox told attendees at the Web Summit in Lisbon that the idea would make "the internet less flat".
However, speaking at the same event, Mr McNamee was highly sceptical.

"Facebook should not be allowed to create a dystopian metaverse," he said.
Mr Cox, speaking for Meta, put forward a different view - that the metaverse idea is the next step for the internet as a whole, not just for his company.

Meetings in the metaverse would be far better, he said, with Meta working on how to improve "spatial audio and body language" in virtual reality.
When asked why anyone would want to meet in virtual reality, he said: "It will not replace real life - nothing should - and I don't want to design something that does."
Click to expand...

xxJackxx · Nov 4, 2021

hawki said: ↑

"After changing its name to Meta, Facebook discovers there's already a tech company with that name and it filed for trademark protection months ago"

David Lazarus,Consumer columnist for the Los Angeles Times and KTLA Channel 5.
https://twitter.com/Davidlaz/status/1455958423586017284
Click to expand...

Why don't they just take it like Apple did with iPhone. And iCloud. And iPad...

guest · Nov 4, 2021

Microsoft president warns that the metaverse is 'not like dying and going to heaven'
Microsoft President Brad Smith pumped the brakes on the metaverse hype.
November 4, 2021
https://www.windowscentral.com/microsoft-president-warns-metaverse-not-dying-and-going-heaven

What you need to know

Microsoft president Brad Smith recently discussed the metaverse.

The metaverse is a joint augmented reality experience that Meta is working towards.

Smith warns that the experience "not like dying and going to heaven."

Click to expand...

Microsoft president Brad Smith recently discussed several hot topics, including the metaverse, in an interview with Reuters. While Smith thinks the technology will be important in the future, he tempered expectations for it. He also explained the importance of privacy and digital safety within it.

"I think (the metaverse) will be very big... and quite important," said Smith. "We have to ensure that it protects privacy, digital safety and protects against disinformation, manipulation. We have a lot to clean up."

Many of the concepts behind the augmented reality universe aren't new. Windows Central Senior Editor Jez Corden claims that "the tech industry's 'metaverse' fad is a load of [***]." He also highlights that Minecraft is already a metaverse app.
Click to expand...

While Smith didn't use the same type of language as Corden, he cautioned people about getting overhyped.
Click to expand...

guest · Nov 4, 2021

Nexon boss wants to move past the vague promises of the ‘metaverse’
November 4, 2021
https://venturebeat.com/2021/11/04/...ove-past-the-vague-promises-of-the-metaverse/

Nexon chief executive officer Owen Mahoney wants to put a sanity check on all the buzz around the metaverse. In particular, he wants to cut through the hype to get answers about the practicalities of the technology. And Mahoney argues that if the metaverse concept is going to turn into something real, it needs to avoid the vague promises of other recent trendy investments like virtual reality.

“The problem is that, as with many previous waves, so much of the hype around the metaverse lacks even the most rudimentary description of the intended user experience in any detail that can help the creative designer,” writes Mahoney.
The difference is that Mahoney wants to put specific creative solutions and virtual worlds first instead of working backward from some nebulous definition of metaverse.
Click to expand...

Metaverse talk is cheap — the talent to actually build it is not
For Mahoney, the key hurdle to building a successful metaverse has little to do with technology. Instead, it comes down to finding the people who have the creative spark to make it happen.

And while cloud, virtual reality, and social platforms are all in a place to power a metaverse-style virtual world, it’s going to require a specific creative vision to make that a reality.

“Today, the internet and associated technologies are enabling humans to collect simultaneously in a mass, high-def simulated reality. Technology has provided us with today’s equivalent of the printing press. Creators must now make experiences worth consuming. The better we meet the creative challenge, the more profound will be the impact.”
Click to expand...

guest · Nov 5, 2021

Facebook Wants to Open 'Welcoming' Retail Stores Where People Can Experience the 'Metaverse'
November 5, 2021
https://www.macrumors.com/2021/11/05/facebook-opening-retail-stores-for-metaverse/

Facebook, now rebranded to Meta, is looking to open physical retail stores where customers will be able to experience the wide range of products it has to offer, such as Oculus headsets, in a "welcoming" and "judgment-free" experience, according to a new report from The New York Times.

The report says that Facebook executives began floating the idea of a physical retail store last year, but following the company's rebrand to "Meta," the project is now gaining a little more steam. Early designs of the store showcase a minimal and modern design, according to The New York Times, with Meta wanting customers to feel curious and close. The company has considered a few names for its chain of stores, with "Facebook Store" being a top preference.

The aim of the stores is to make the world "more open and connected," according to the company documents viewed by The Times. They are also intended to spark emotions like "curiosity, closeness," as well as a sense of feeling "welcomed" while experimenting with headsets in a "judgment-free journey," according to the documents.
Click to expand...

Facebook's rebrand to Meta comes as part of Mark Zuckerberg's vision of transforming Facebook into more than just a social media company, but a metaverse company. Zuckerberg said the rename had laid the groundwork for the next chapter of his company's history.
Click to expand...

guest · Nov 7, 2021

So what is “the metaverse,” exactly?
Will we all live in the metaverse soon? Or is the idea just Second Life redux?
November 7, 2021
https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2021...metaverse-has-a-different-idea-of-what-it-is/

These days it seems like everybody and their corporate parent company is talking about "the metaverse" as the next big thing that's going to revolutionize our online lives. But everyone seems to have their own idea of what "the metaverse" means—that is, if they have any real idea what it means at all.

The term "metaverse" was originally coined in Neal Stephenson's seminal 1992 cyberpunk novel, Snow Crash. In the book, the Metaverse (always capitalized in Stephenson's fiction) is a shared "imaginary place" that's "made available to the public over the worldwide fiber-optics network" and projected onto virtual reality goggles.
Click to expand...

While Meta's rebranding drives most of the metaverse conversation these days, the nearly 30 years since Snow Crash appeared have seen plenty of online networks that embody some or most of what Stephenson's book describes. These efforts to create "the metaverse" have included numerous online games and gathering places that captured some of the metaverse's most important concepts without ever using the term.

So is the metaverse the next big advance that will revolutionize the way we all connect with each other? Is it just a repackaging of existing technologies into a new catch-all concept? Or is it just the latest buzzword marketing term?
The answer to that depends on what you mean by "metaverse."
Click to expand...

guest · Nov 7, 2021

Facebook’s ‘meta-existential’ pivot for survival
November 7, 2021
https://techcrunch.com/2021/11/07/facebooks-meta-existential-pivot-for-survival/

Facebook is in the fight for its life, but it won’t be the regulatory pressure that will kill it. Zuckerberg is leaning heavily on “metaverse” as a lifeboat to save a declining user base. He has long known that the future of Facebook is rooted in owning a major hardware platform.

Facebook’s brand pivot to “Meta” last week week is the third inning of a multibillion dollar game of balance sheet roulette. Let’s see if consumers adopt and make it a reality — all of Meta/Facebook is at stake.
Click to expand...

Lucky or good, he is known as a prescient strategist. He has displayed excellent strategy in response to market movements and timing, not all of which he controlled.
The “metaverse” already exists in Fortnite and Roblox. Zuck is betting we want fully immersive experiences through head-worn computers and can drive an older user base.

Going all in on the “metaverse” is creating a new platform and paradigm that has been woefully slow to find adoption despite multiple hype cycles over 30 years of excitement.
Click to expand...

Given the balance sheet, this will likely work — but today, it’s still a master stroke of strategy and opportunity existing in a vacuum.
Click to expand...

guest · Nov 7, 2021

When the metaverse comes, there are few good options on who will control it
November 7, 2021
https://www.zdnet.com/article/when-...-are-few-good-options-on-who-will-control-it/

When one of the biggest and most powerful companies in the world decides that the metaverse is definitely going to happen, it doesn't matter how weird the CEO looked in a fake environment, the push will be on.

While the Zuckerberg presentation was as glamorous as a rendered videos go, the real meat behind shifting to the metaverse was discussed soon after by consulting CTO for Meta-owned Oculus John Carmack, who is a long-term VR/AR enthusiast.

"I have been pretty active arguing against every single metaverse effort that we have tried to spin up internally in the company, even from pre-acquisition times," he said.
Click to expand...

The gaming legend returned for a Q&A session based in Horizon, and I hope it looked good with VR goggles on, because it was not impressive to watch on replay.
Days later, Microsoft arrived with its vision, so it is not as though Meta is alone in this.

While the metaverse is slated to be the next version of the internet, it will be born in a completely different environment. What became the internet was able to be fostered through universities and public money, with a sense of common good weaving its way though.
Click to expand...

For the metaverse, it's going to be born in a world of unbridled surveillance capitalism, where corporations will try to create the ground rules, and own the natural monopoly on offer, while governments attempt to regulate it in an effort to reduce potential harms -- sometimes to citizens, sometimes to the economy.
There isn't going to be a consortium for the metaverse; its future will get decided in board rooms and the options look rather bleak.

Apple might create a picket-fence Disneyesque metaverse, but unless a massive cultural change happened in Cupertino, it would restrict it to users of its own hardware.
Click to expand...

Between careless tech giants and governments, the metaverse could be the biggest privacy-destroying machine humanity has yet created -- and you still might not even have legs.
Click to expand...

guest · Nov 9, 2021

mood said: ↑

Microsoft and Nvidia are working on their own more practical metaverse
A business-oriented approach to going meta
November 3, 2021
https://www.techspot.com/news/92064-microsoft-nvidia-working-their-own-more-practical-metaverse.html
Click to expand...

Nvidia unveils AI Omniverse Avatars for the virtual world
November 9, 2021
https://venturebeat.com/2021/11/09/nvidia-unveils-ai-omniverse-avatars-for-the-virtual-world/

Nvidia today unveiled Omniverse Avatar, a platform for generating immersive AI-driven avatars. The platform enables users to leverage speech AI, computer vision, natural language understanding, and simulation to create avatars that recognize speech and communicate with human users within real-world simulation and collaboration platforms like Nvidia Omniverse, and other digital worlds.

Avatars or AI assistants created with the solution would be able to see and speak on a wide range of subjects and conduct customer service interactions, Nvidia said.
Click to expand...

Yet, while the initial demos in the keynote demonstration look promising, it remains to be seen how engaging Nvidia Omniverse Avatars are when they’re in a real customer-facing environment in a virtual world, working with human beings who have high expectations.
Click to expand...

guest · Nov 9, 2021

Zuckerberg’s metaverse will invade workers’ privacy, whistleblower says
Meta’s workplace metaverse could force more people to hand over more data.
November 9, 2021
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy...cy-problems-to-workplaces-whistleblower-says/

Facebook/Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s vision of the virtual reality-fueled future could bring new privacy risks to our homes and workplaces, Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen said.

Last month, Zuckerberg announced that he would focus his company on the metaverse. While the concept has many meanings, to Zuckerberg, it’s an “even more immersive and embodied Internet,” where users can meet with friends, connect with colleagues, shop for goods and services, and so on. In other words, Zuckerberg wants to take people’s lives and put them inside a metaverse, preferably one he controls.
Click to expand...

To Haugen, that’s a red flag. “Facebook should have a transparency plan for the metaverse before they start building all this stuff because they’ve demonstrated with regard to Facebook that they can hide behind a wall, they keep making unforced errors, they keep making things that prioritize their own profits over our safety,” she said in an interview with the Associated Press.
Click to expand...

guest · Nov 9, 2021

Why Niantic is a dark horse in the metaverse wars
It’s a compelling vision, but is it that different from Meta’s?
November 9, 2021
https://www.theverge.com/22771260/niantic-metaverse-meta-facebook-platformer

Today let’s talk about a concept that we can all agree is well defined and no one is yet sick of talking about: the metaverse.

OK, maybe you are a little tired of hearing about it. For a company often accused of being unable to do anything but copy, Facebook-now-Meta’s announcement this summer that it would pivot to the metaverse has already inspired a remarkable number of clones. As David Pierce notes at Protocol today, the tech world has recently announced “a fashion metaverse, an industrial metaverse, an entertainment metaverse, a gaming metaverse, [and] a shark metaverse.” (He forgot Match Group’s forthcoming dating metaverse, though in fairness I’m trying to forget it too.)
Click to expand...

One company that would seem to be well positioned to capitalize on this trend is Niantic Labs, which was created as an internal startup at Google in 2010 and was spun out as an independent company five years later.

And yet when it comes to the metaverse itself, the company is not a fan. “The Metaverse is a Dystopian Nightmare. Let’s Build a Better Reality,” read the headline on a company blog post this summer. CEO John Hanke explained himself this way: [...]
Hanke elaborated today in an interview with Steven Levy at Wired: [...]
Click to expand...

At the same time, most of the metaverse discourse to date has focused on which of the giants is most likely to dominate. Will it be Microsoft, with its business-focused HoloLens division? Will it be Meta, which just bet the long-term future of the company on consumer-focused mix reality? Or will Apple swoop in after years of working in secret and take the market for itself, just as it did with the iPhone before it?
Click to expand...

guest · Nov 10, 2021

Unity is buying Peter Jackson’s Weta Digital to help prepare for the metaverse
The VFX house's tools will make their way to the Unity Engine.
November 9, 2021
https://www.engadget.com/unity-weta-digital-acquisition-231256259.html

Unity Technologies, the company behind the Unity engine, is buying Weta Digital. If you’re a film buff, you need no introduction to Weta. It’s the VFX house Peter Jackson co-founded in 1993. It has worked on movies like the Fellowship of the Ring, Avatar and Black Widow. Under the $1.625 billion deal, Unity is obtaining the company’s technology division, including its artist tools and engineering talent. Weta’s VFX and animation teams will form a separate entity known as WetaFX, which Peter Jackson will continue to hold a majority stake in. The deal is expected to close by the end of the year, pending regulatory approval.

Weta’s technology suite includes tools for facial animation, creating virtual cityscapes and modeling the deformation of objects, among many other applications.
Click to expand...

The company didn’t say exactly when those things will happen, but the vision here is to put Unity at the forefront of the metaverse since whatever it entails will likely need a lot of 3D models.

“The unified tools and the incredible scientists and technologists of Weta Digital will accelerate our mission to give content creators easy to use and high performance tools to bring their visions to life,” Unity said in a blog post.
“Whatever the metaverse is or will be, we believe it will be built by content creators, just like you.”
Click to expand...

guest · Nov 10, 2021

Roblox is building a metaverse around its players
November 10, 2021
https://venturebeat.com/2021/11/10/roblox-is-building-a-metaverse-around-its-players/

Roblox is trying to build a virtual world that rivals our own. During the GamesBeat Summit Next event today, Roblox chief of technology Dan Sturman explained how the company plans to do that by designing a metaverse that caters to player’s needs. The studio wants to empower its community with tools that facilitate a safe atmosphere while providing tools to maintain relationships just as they exist in real life.

The first thing Sturman emphasized is the importance of real-time interaction. Roblox is known for its ability to connect players together in virtual online spaces, and the development wants to build its metaverse by maintaining and expanding on this functionality.
Click to expand...

But getting players to interact is crucial to the underlying success of Roblox, and an impressive tool that the game uses is voice chat. And not normal party-chat but proximity-based physical voice chat.
This tech makes Roblox feel like a bustling, living virtual world where players are encouraged to seek each other out and interact with one another. Through proximity voice chat, players will hear one another better depending on how close they are to each other.

This can foster friendships that mirror the real world. That sense of realism leads to a real sense of immersion and world-building. And it’s those elements that will lead to a more immersive metaverse.
Click to expand...

guest · Nov 15, 2021

The metaverse is investable — and it’s going to be big, says tech billionaire
November 15, 2021
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/11/15/orl...-investable-and-its-going-to-be-very-big.html

KEY POINTS

Orlando Bravo, co-founder and managing partner of private equity firm Thoma Bravo, told CNBC that he thinks “metaverse” is the big word of 2021.

It is a sci-fi concept whereby humans put on some sort of headset or smart glasses that allows them to live, work and play in a virtual world, much like the one depicted in the “Ready Player One” novel and movie.

“It’s investable and it’s going to be very big,” Bravo said.

Click to expand...

The so-called metaverse has a “big time” investment case, according to Puerto Rican billionaire businessman Orlando Bravo.

Bravo, co-founder and managing partner of private equity firm Thoma Bravo, told CNBC that he thinks “metaverse” is the big word of 2021.

“It’s investable and it’s going to be very big,” Bravo said in an interview with CNBC’s Annette Weisbach on Friday.
The metaverse is a sci-fi concept whereby humans put on some sort of headset or smart glasses that allows them to live, work and play in a virtual world much like the one depicted in the “Ready Player One” novel and movie.
Click to expand...

Depending on your point of view, it’s either a utopian dream or a dystopian nightmare.
Click to expand...

guest · Nov 17, 2021

Sundar Pichai thinks of the metaverse as more immersive computing with AR
November 17, 2021
https://9to5google.com/2021/11/17/sundar-pichai-google-metaverse/

Compared to Meta, Microsoft, Niantic, and a slew of other metaverse announcements, Google has been very quiet about its augmented reality plans in general. In a recent interview, Sundar Pichai gave his thoughts on the metaverse, but positioned Google’s future as a continuation of the core Search mission.

Interviewed by Bloomberg’s Emily Chang, the CEO was asked for his thoughts on the metaverse and Google’s strategy.
Click to expand...

Immersion was also a quality of the metaverse touted by Mark Zuckerburg. When pressed for what exactly the metaverse will be, Pichai said:

“The way I think about it is evolving computing in an immersive way with augmented reality.”
He then acknowledged how there will be many experiences as part of it, including “immersive, interactive virtual worlds.”
Click to expand...

The latter is Facebook/Meta’s current aim for building software and hardware. This interview did not yield a similar roadmap for Google’s ambitions in the area beyond Pichai, reiterating that computers – specifically, help – will be available everywhere (ambient computing) in the future, while AR was explicitly touted as being a part of that.
Click to expand...

guest · Nov 19, 2021

Nike is building its metaverse inside of 'Roblox'
Obviously it includes a product showroom.
November 18, 2021
https://www.engadget.com/nike-roblox-nikeland-metaverse-192234036.html

Meta and Microsoft aren’t the only companies with ambitions for the metaverse.

On Thursday, Nike announced a partnership with Roblox to offer a free virtual playspace called Nikeland. In its current iteration, Nikeland includes minigames such as tag, dodgeball and the floor is lava that players can check out with their friends. Mobile integration allows you to use your phone to translate real-life movement into the game. In that way, you can do things like long jumps and fast sprints. Naturally, there’s also a digital showroom where players can get Nike swag for their avatar.
Click to expand...

According to CNBC, that’s only the start of what the brand has planned for the space. In the future, it could host competitions tied to global sporting events. For instance, it could host soccer games when the 2022 World Cup kicks off in Qatar. The showroom could also one day tease future product releases and allow users to co-create items.
Click to expand...

Nike: Nike Creates NIKELAND on Roblox

There’s a new place on Roblox for Nike fans to connect, create, share experiences and compete: NIKELAND. Nike created this bespoke world with the backdrop of its world headquarters and inside Roblox’s immersive 3D space, building on its goal to turn sport and play into a lifestyle. Below are five things to know about NIKELAND on Roblox.
Click to expand...

guest · Nov 21, 2021

Barbados to Become the First Nation With a Virtual Embassy in the Metaverse
November 21, 2021
https://www.ghacks.net/2021/11/21/b...tion-with-a-virtual-embassy-in-the-metaverse/

Barbados has announced that they are extending their diplomacy to the virtual world of the metaverse. As the first nation to establish a virtual embassy, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade has signed an agreement with Decentraland, a metaverse platform. The agreement with the Ethereum user-based digital platform, Decentraland, was approved in August and will be launched officially in January 2022. This transition from real-world diplomacy to a virtual embassy may come as a surprise to some. Still, Barbados is thrilled to extend its outreach to the “cultural diplomacy” of the metaverse.
Why Did They Choose Decentraland?
Decentraland is known as the most popular and one of the largest metaverse platforms around. The Ethereum-based metaverse platform, Decentraland, is a leading metaverse ecosystem above any other virtual platforms. Decentraland allows users to buy virtual land to build upon and sell.
Click to expand...

The agreement between Decentraland and Barbados enables the design of virtual embassies and road mapping land acquisition. The plan is to expand the agreement to develop virtual infrastructure for “e-visas” to travel across metaworlds and a “teleporter” that affords players to travel across the different blockchain worlds.
Click to expand...

hawki · Dec 13, 2021

hawki said: ↑

"After changing its name to Meta, Facebook discovers there's already a tech company with that name and it filed for trademark protection months ago"

David Lazarus,Consumer columnist for the Los Angeles Times and KTLA Channel 5.
https://twitter.com/Davidlaz/status/1455958423586017284
Click to expand...

"Facebook owner is behind $60 mln deal for Meta name rights

Dec 13 (Reuters) - Meta Platforms Inc (FB.O), the owner of social media platform Facebook, is behind a $60 million deal to acquire the trademark assets of U.S. regional bank Meta Financial Group (CASH.O), spokespeople for the companies said on Monday..."

https://www.reuters.com/business/me...hind-60-mln-deal-meta-name-rights-2021-12-13/

xxJackxx · Dec 13, 2021

hawki said: ↑

"Facebook owner is behind $60 mln deal for Meta name rights

Dec 13 (Reuters) - Meta Platforms Inc (FB.O), the owner of social media platform Facebook, is behind a $60 million deal to acquire the trademark assets of U.S. regional bank Meta Financial Group (CASH.O), spokespeople for the companies said on Monday..."

https://www.reuters.com/business/me...hind-60-mln-deal-meta-name-rights-2021-12-13/
Click to expand...

How do you operate at the scale and not know someone else is already owner of the name? I could see where they didn't care and were determined to buy or take it but the idea that they didn't know doesn't seem believable.

hawki · Feb 15, 2022

hawki said: ↑

"Facebook rebrands as Meta to emphasize ‘metaverse’ vision..."

https://apnews.com/article/facebook...ogy-business-5ad543ab7780caae435935f0aca9fac6
Click to expand...

"Facebook Employees Will Now Be Called 'Metamates'

There's a mayday in rebrand-land, as employees at the social media giant Meta will now refer to each other as "Metamates," CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced in an employee town hall on Tuesday..."

https://www.thedailybeast.com/in-la...cebook-employees-will-now-be-called-metamates

[Not a Joke]

Log in or Sign up

What is the metaverse, and do I have to care?

guest Guest

hawki Registered Member

aztony Registered Member

guest Guest

Krusty Registered Member

guest Guest

xxJackxx Registered Member

guest Guest

guest Guest

guest Guest

guest Guest

guest Guest

guest Guest

guest Guest

guest Guest

guest Guest

guest Guest

guest Guest

guest Guest

guest Guest

guest Guest

guest Guest

hawki Registered Member

xxJackxx Registered Member

hawki Registered Member

Log in or Sign up

What is the metaverse, and do I have to care?

guest Guest

hawki Registered Member

aztony Registered Member

guest Guest

Krusty Registered Member

guest Guest

xxJackxx Registered Member

guest Guest

guest Guest

guest Guest

guest Guest

guest Guest

guest Guest

guest Guest

guest Guest

guest Guest

guest Guest

guest Guest

guest Guest

guest Guest

guest Guest

guest Guest

hawki Registered Member

xxJackxx Registered Member

hawki Registered Member

Useful Searches