What is the metaverse?

- The metaverse is a three-dimensional virtual reality-based environment that has gained a lot of popularity in the last couple of years, and continues to do so. One of the reasons for this is the convergence of this 3D world with emerging technologies, such as blockchain, cryptocurrencies, non-fungible tokens, and others. Today, there are many different players who are working on building different metaverse worlds and platforms within the broader metaverse. So how do we define the metaverse? To understand it, let's think about the current internet infrastructure for a minute, because many different pieces of the internet come together to create the functions and the features it offers us. The ability to use it for different things. Email, to watch your videos on YouTube, seeing what your friends are doing on TikTok or Facebook. Things such as big data and analytics are helping businesses understand what they should do and what the current trends are. There are so many different things that internet offers, and it's the whole internet as such that makes it possible. In a similar way, the metaverse is a collection of different features, starting from the gaming industry, and the ability to meet your friends and play a game, to being able to enjoy a metaverse world by creating a world of your own. The metaverse has many possibilities, and today, they are developing like never before. Applications of the metaverse range from the gaming industry into healthcare, and industries such as manufacturing, senior care, and the creator industry. Today, the metaverse is at a very initial stage of its overall development, and the next few years are going to be pivotal in unlocking its full value. If you were around in the late 1990s, you probably remember the early days of the internet. The .com bubble was a famous era that really determined the future of the industry, but it's also a time when a lot of hype was crushed and deflated because of overexpectations that certain groups of people had from the internet. Even after the .com bubble had burst, the internet didn't just end or cease to exist, but developed at its own pace, yet at a consistent basis, to be where it is today. In the early days of the internet, e-commerce was negligible. In fact, people were hesitant to buy things on the internet, so much so that the average person wouldn't even log onto their bank accounts to check their accounts, because it was all very new, and doing these things meant stepping into the unknown and doing something dramatically unfamiliar. Isn't that a similar point to where we are with the metaverse right now? There are many skeptics and naysayers who really believe the metaverse is extremely overhyped, and then there are the supporters and advocates of the metaverse, who really believe there's a future to virtual reality and the convergence of all the technologies that creates the metaverse. The metaverse is not one single virtual place, or a single environment or platform where you can do something and leave. It's a collection of all the worlds that are being built by different companies and different providers, all using different technologies. From the Microsoft HoloLens providing augmented and extended reality to Meta Quest, the very popular headset by Meta, there are many devices, headsets, accessories, and specialty hardware that users are utilizing to jump into the metaverse. This course is all about how we bring the metaverse into an organization, or how can your business be on the metaverse? Before we get started, let's capture the sentiment. On a piece of paper or in a notebook, write down a brief statement of which area of business you think the metaverse would apply to when it comes to you. If you're brave enough, you can post the statement in the comments below for all of us to share and understand. Learning only gets better when we learn together.