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The metaverse demystified
The metaverse is not a futuristic scenario but an imminent reality of the not-so-distant future. What is the metaverse and how will it change your life and work? 
Afterwards, you take off your smart glasses for another few hours of focus work only to return to your company's virtual headquarters. You join all your global colleagues in the virtual theater for an all-hands meeting. Welcome to the metaverse!  
In your meeting, you plan a training session to improve a sales team's negotiation skills. You will immerse them into a replica of a potential customer's offices. They will have to present their offer and lead a tough conversation like they would in real life. Only in the metaverse, it is risk-free for business, more effective, and doesn’t require travelling.
You put on your smart glasses and enter a virtual, 3D replica of your company headquarters in the metaverse. On your way to the virtual meeting room, you see a colleague in the company lobby. You recognize her thanks to her avatar – an accurate, digitalized version of her real-life self. She is giving a tour to new employees joining from all corners of the world.
Imagine it's a regular Monday at work in the not-so-distant future. You are in your home office, and after a few hours of individual work, you join a meeting.
Big tech companies are now preparing the next great leap forward. They are working on advancing technologies that will converge into an immersive, virtual world paralleling our current one – the metaverse. The metaverse is supposed to fundamentally transform how we work, collaborate and learn within a decade. To keep you up to date, we shed light on this topic and its future impact on your life.  

It promises realistic, virtual world in which the experiences from our current life are not only possible but customizable: working, learning, interacting with people, playing, shopping, going out, travelling... 

That also includes an economy of its own: creating, distributing, trading and consuming goods and services.   

The metaverse is a set of shared, interconnected, persistent and scaled immersive digital worlds, accessed and experienced synchronously and continuously by an unlimited number of users. 

What is the metaverse? 

The metaverse at its full scale and potential, able to deliver virtual experiences almost as rich as the real-world ones, is years away. You can expect steady progress of the technologies making up the metaverse in the decades to come, rather than a major, scheduled global launch. The metaverse is not here yet not only because technology still needs to evolve. 

In other words, you still have time! You can explore the applications of immersive technologies in your organizations, build a use case and experiment. 

Immersive virtual spaces, already called 'metaverses', where people meet, interact, play games and even attend concerts exist already, created by gaming companies. Think of the recent metaverse concert experiences in the Fortnite or Roblox platforms. 

Is the metaverse here already?

The metaverse is not a single platform or technology, nor is it being built by a unique entity or organization. Just like the internet, it's not meant to be owned by anyone - organizations or individualsThere are hundreds of companies, including organizations such as Meta, Microsoft or Apple, that are building the components of what will make it possible.  

The metaverse will be based on current emerging technology that will need to be perfected for a fully-scaled, functional metaverse. That includes, but is not limited to: increased computing power, better and lighter VR headsets, enhanced network capacity, advanced sensorial and haptic technology (technology that can replicate the experience of touch), blockchain for transparent and secure transactions or NFTs (non-fungible tokens) for indisputable ownership proof of digital assets, etc. 

There are also fundamental questions that companies building it, as well as governments and society at large, must find an answer to. Who will regulate and govern the metaverse? What are the rules and laws regarding data, privacy and safety? Who will enforce them and how? 

Who is building the metaverse?

The ideal metaverse should be one open, shared, virtual space where everyone is welcome. 

But as competing entities such as Meta, Microsoft or Apple are building it, there is a possibility, at least at the beginning, of having different metaverses. To keep them separate, complementary devices (think Virtual Reality headsets) will be neither connectable nor interchangeable. 

While the outcome remains to be seen, multiple existing metaverses are expected to converge into one single space

Is there only one metaverse?

Overall, the metaverse will make workplace experiences more: 

  1. Global. Bring together talents worldwide and deliver programs that transcend physical borders. People will be able to see each other (via avatars), collaborate in-depth and create real connections in a shared space. 

  1. Flexible. Just put your headset on, click a few times and join your virtual workspace from anywhere in the world connected to the internet. 

  1. Customizable. A digital space like the metaverse will allow users to personalize the environment and features of their working experience. 

  1. ExperientialThere will be more room (literally and metaphorically!) to acquire skills by doing, practicing and refining. 

  1. Risk-freeThe space you join will be a realistic, 3D environment of a shared physical space. It will provide a safe place to try and fail with no risk to the business and less stress.

For some industries, virtual environments are directly around the corner or even readily available. Others will need to wait years until they can tap into something ‘metaverse-y’. It all depends on how elaborate the virtual world needs to be. 

Take education or corporate work for example. You only need to virtualize a classroom or meeting room to get started. Attendees can virtually join as avatars. This is something that is already possible today! Even entire manufacturing sites are available in a virtualized version; so-called digital twins 

But one thing’s for sure: the metaverse will change the way we live and work completely.

How will the metaverse change your professional life? 

Metaverse in L&D 

5 key things L&D professionals must know

Read more on barco.com
Interesting reads 
The metaverse demystified
Afterwards, you take off your smart glasses for another few hours of focus work only to return to your company's virtual headquarters. You join all your global colleagues in the virtual theater for an all-hands meeting. Welcome to the metaverse!  
In your meeting, you plan a training session to improve a sales team's negotiation skills. You will immerse them into a replica of a potential customer's offices. They will have to present their offer and lead a tough conversation like they would in real life. Only in the metaverse, it is risk-free for business, more effective, and doesn’t require travelling.
You put on your smart glasses and enter a virtual, 3D replica of your company headquarters in the metaverse. On your way to the virtual meeting room, you see a colleague in the company lobby. You recognize her thanks to her avatar – an accurate, digitalized version of her real-life self. She is giving a tour to new employees joining from all corners of the world.
Imagine it's a regular Monday at work in the not-so-distant future. You are in your home office, and after a few hours of individual work, you join a meeting.
The metaverse is not a futuristic scenario but an imminent reality of the not-so-distant future. What is the metaverse and how will it change your life and work? 
Big tech companies are now preparing the next great leap forward. They are working on advancing technologies that will converge into an immersive, virtual world paralleling our current one – the metaverse. The metaverse is supposed to fundamentally transform how we work, collaborate and learn within a decade. To keep you up to date, we shed light on this topic and its future impact on your life.  

It promises realistic, virtual world in which the experiences from our current life are not only possible but customizable: working, learning, interacting with people, playing, shopping, going out, travelling... 

That also includes an economy of its own: creating, distributing, trading and consuming goods and services.   

The metaverse is a set of shared, interconnected, persistent and scaled immersive digital worlds, accessed and experienced synchronously and continuously by an unlimited number of users. 

What is the metaverse? 

The metaverse at its full scale and potential, able to deliver virtual experiences almost as rich as the real-world ones, is years away. You can expect steady progress of the technologies making up the metaverse in the decades to come, rather than a major, scheduled global launch. The metaverse is not here yet not only because technology still needs to evolve. 

In other words, you still have time! You can explore the applications of immersive technologies in your organizations, build a use case and experiment. 

Immersive virtual spaces, already called 'metaverses', where people meet, interact, play games and even attend concerts exist already, created by gaming companies. Think of the recent metaverse concert experiences in the Fortnite or Roblox platforms. 

Is the metaverse here already?

The metaverse is not a single platform or technology, nor is it being built by a unique entity or organization. Just like the internet, it's not meant to be owned by anyone - organizations or individualsThere are hundreds of companies, including organizations such as Meta, Microsoft or Apple, that are building the components of what will make it possible.  

The metaverse will be based on current emerging technology that will need to be perfected for a fully-scaled, functional metaverse. That includes, but is not limited to: increased computing power, better and lighter VR headsets, enhanced network capacity, advanced sensorial and haptic technology (technology that can replicate the experience of touch), blockchain for transparent and secure transactions or NFTs (non-fungible tokens) for indisputable ownership proof of digital assets, etc. 

There are also fundamental questions that companies building it, as well as governments and society at large, must find an answer to. Who will regulate and govern the metaverse? What are the rules and laws regarding data, privacy and safety? Who will enforce them and how? 

Who is building the metaverse?

The ideal metaverse should be one open, shared, virtual space where everyone is welcome. 

But as competing entities such as Meta, Microsoft or Apple are building it, there is a possibility, at least at the beginning, of having different metaverses. To keep them separate, complementary devices (think Virtual Reality headsets) will be neither connectable nor interchangeable. 

While the outcome remains to be seen, multiple existing metaverses are expected to converge into one single space

Is there only one metaverse?

Overall, the metaverse will make workplace experiences more: 

  1. Global. Bring together talents worldwide and deliver programs that transcend physical borders. People will be able to see each other (via avatars), collaborate in-depth and create real connections in a shared space. 

  1. Flexible. Just put your headset on, click a few times and join your virtual workspace from anywhere in the world connected to the internet. 

  1. Customizable. A digital space like the metaverse will allow users to personalize the environment and features of their working experience. 

  1. ExperientialThere will be more room (literally and metaphorically!) to acquire skills by doing, practicing and refining. 

  1. Risk-freeThe space you join will be a realistic, 3D environment of a shared physical space. It will provide a safe place to try and fail with no risk to the business and less stress.

For some industries, virtual environments are directly around the corner or even readily available. Others will need to wait years until they can tap into something ‘metaverse-y’. It all depends on how elaborate the virtual world needs to be. 

Take education or corporate work for example. You only need to virtualize a classroom or meeting room to get started. Attendees can virtually join as avatars. This is something that is already possible today! Even entire manufacturing sites are available in a virtualized version; so-called digital twins 

But one thing’s for sure: the metaverse will change the way we live and work completely.

How will the metaverse change your professional life? 

Metaverse in L&D 

5 key things L&D professionals must know

Read more on barco.com
Interesting reads