Dan York

I have always been intrigued by “what comes after the web browser” for how we interact with information online. After all, the web browser has been our primary way of interacting with information since the early 1990s. Even when we are using “apps” on our phones today, in many cases they are effectively web browsers wrapped in a customized layer.

Could there be something more? Could we get to a “3 dimensional” view of information? Could we start interacting more in virtual worlds? Using “virtual reality” (VR)? Or this thing called a “metaverse”?

Some of you may remember VRML from the mid-1990s. And of course in mid-2000s we saw the rise of Second Life (where I was amused to call my avatar “Dan Go” in homage to a certain artist ) .. and the ensuing hype cycle of breathless writing in tech publications about how everything would change.

And of course it didn’t… or hasn’t yet. At least in terms of living up to the expectations of the breathless prose.

Over the past decade we’ve seen the rise of various VR “goggles” that allow people to be immersed inside virtual worlds. None have yet made it down to the price point where I’m willing to buy one , but I’ve tried them out.

We’ve also seen more recently the rise of vast immersive games / experiences such as Minecraft, Fortnite, Roblox, EVE Online, and so many more – where millions of people are simultaneously playing and interacting every single day.

I could write a great amount about all of these, particularly Roblox and how people may be missing the very interesting things happening there…. but that’s all for another time.

Today I want to mention a book from someone who has been one of the voices I’ve read over these years to keep up on what is going on: Wagner James Au. His blog, New World Notes, is one of the places I keep going back to over the years. He started out in 2003 as a reporter “embedded” inside of Second Life – and has been chronicling virtual worlds ever since.

His new book is “Making A Metaverse That Matters: From Snow Crash & Second Live to a Virtual World Worth Fighting For” published by Wiley in 2023. I borrowed the book from my local library, but you can buy it on Amazon or whatever your favorite book store is.

I like that he begins with this definition:

The Metaverse is a vast, immersive virtual world simultaneously accessible by millions of people through highly customizable avatars and powerful experience creation tools integrated with the offline world through its virtual economy and external technology.

That works for me. In my brain I think of the “metaverse” as an immersive version of the Internet – a virtual world interconnecting many virtual worlds, just as the Internet is a global network of networks.

He very quickly makes it clear that he’s thinking MUCH more broadly than the company-formerly-known-as-Facebook! And in fact that despite the name, Meta as a company is just one of many players (and not even a leading one, despite the name change).

The first hundred pages or so trace the origins of the “metaverse” concept from Neal Stephenson’s Snow Crash novel in 1992 on up through Second Life and into the Facebook era. Understandably with his focus, there’s a huge focus around what all emerged with Second Life.

The second 80-ish pages explore the newer entrants: Minecraft, Roblox, Fortnite, VRChat, and Neal Stephenson’s own Lamina1. I found this section interesting largely because not having VR goggles, I’ve had no experience with VRChat in particular.

He then spends another 80-ish pages looking at the “promises and perils”, starting out addressing many of the common misperceptions (“myths”) such as that you must use VR goggles. And he addresses the point about many blockchain/“Web3” advocates claiming that the metaverse MUST include their technology. (Nope! They aren’t needed.) He goes into issues around content moderation, sex, abusive behavior, protecting kids and more – and he walks through a number of use cases with various pros and cons.

Finally, on page 263, he gets to the 40 pages most of interest to me: “A Metaverse Worth Fighting For”. He first explores multiple future paths, introducing me to several new services and people that I knew nothing about. He talk about generational issues, AI, mobile usage and more. Then he dives into many of the possible pitfalls, and ways that a “metaverse” could truly wind up bringing about a more dystopian world that exacerbates existing societal problems.

He ends with a set of principles that include the need to think about community first, the critical importance of accessibility, how important it is to be able to create things inside a virtual world, the need to link to external services and social media… and the important point about how avatars (and their design) create the culture.

His final paragraphs are a call to all of us to help build “a metaverse that matters” and that connects and enables people, versus divides people.

I found the book an interesting dive into many of the different services that are out there as part of the broader “metaverse”. It was a great history and overview of so many different services.

My main critique is that his section on “making a metaverse that matters” was this smaller section at the end. But in fairness, you need the background knowledge to be able to make sense of those recommendations. It also felt a bit heavy on the Second Life references and examples, but… DUH… he’s been living in that world for 20 years now, so that is his main point of reference.

Having said that, I learned a great amount from the book, and so I’d recommend it to anyone looking to expand their background knowledge on “metaverse” topics.

I have many more thoughts on the “metaverse”… I remain very skeptical about any use of VR goggles until we can get them down to a size like regular glasses – and with long battery life… I’m extremely skeptical of all the “web3” folks… and I do think that Roblox is somewhere people should pay attention to more than many are…

…but I’ll save those for future newsletters. Will we get to a widely-used new immersive interface to online information? I don’t know… but the experiments are certainly fascinating!

I wish you all the best as 2023 draws to a close and 2024 begins!

P.S. I note that Wagner James Au has some metaverse predictions for 2024.

Thanks for reading to the end. I welcome any comments and feedback you may have. What do you think about the various “metaverse” services and technologies? What did you think about this book if you read it?

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Until the next time,
Dan

* – Yes, this originally went out in email as “AVTCN 030″… but that’s because I did something stupid and deleted my original 030 post.

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Disclaimer

Disclaimer: This newsletter is a personal project I’ve been doing since 2007 or 2008, several years before I joined the Internet Society in 2011. While I may at times mention information or activities from the Internet Society, all viewpoints are my personal opinion and do not represent any formal positions or views of the Internet Society. This is just me, saying some of the things on my mind.