XR Masters CEO’s Article was published on In Business Magazine
You can see the whole article in English below.
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METAVERSE MUST BE DEMOCRATIC
In this period when the hybrid world is rapidly approaching, I think our biggest responsibility to future generations is to leave them a democratic and open Metaverse.
If we consider concepts such as augmented reality, virtual reality and Metaverse when considering hybrid life, we are rapidly approaching a new era in our lives where the physical and virtual worlds are completely intertwined. This era can be called the next version of the Internet. We will now switch from two-dimensional screens to holographic displays, which we see with XR glasses. We will find ourselves in this hybrid life quite rapidly, even though it seems far away at the moment.
XR GLASSES
All global companies such as Apple, Meta (Facebook) and Google are working on their own version of AR/VR headsets. In fact, Meta recently introduced the new Meta Quest Pro XR glasses. These XR glasses will soon enter our lives as both virtual reality and augmented reality glasses. With the release of Apple’s glasses, we will quickly transition to a world where we see holograms in the real world and where very important information in terms of geographical location is presented in the form of sensitive location information in real life. When this hybrid world arrives, we all need to pay attention to a very important issue. We have a very important responsibility to future generations. This is the question of how the infrastructure of this new world we will leave behind will be: Will it be a democratic or open for hegemony.
THERE MUST BE STANDARDS
The internet today is open and ‘interoperable’. It is interoperable, because it was built on the HTML and URL standards. Thus, any entrepreneur can stay at home and develop a website that complies with these HTML and URL standards and reach anyone who is connected to the internet.
When we consider mobile application markets, this is the opposite. Today, if your device is Apple, you can only enter the App Store, and if it is Android, you can only enter the Google Play Store. A software developer is forced to release his application to two application markets. This increases the cost and the time given. The rules are naturally determined by the companies that own these application markets. The Internet, on the other hand, has no owner because it is open, and the ones who set the rules are the governments, as in our daily lives. If Metaverse ends up like the mobile apps, we will see multiple closed multi-verses.
CLOSED MOBILE APPS
If we do not learn from our experience with the mobile application world, these ‘metaverses’ will not be open and interoperable ‘verses’, and unfortunately we will be talking about multi-verses instead of a single Metaverse with the first letter capitalized.
The fact that Metaverse is an open and interoperable network can only be possible through the establishment of certain standards. So, what is our duty here? We should not expect everything from governments and regulators. This brings an important responsibility to all individuals, users, companies, technology providers. If we don’t take action, there will be multiple ‘verses’ that are not open and that can’t operate with each other, and unfortunately, instead of a single Metaverse with the first letter capitalized, we will be talking about multi-verses.
OUR RESPONSIBILITY TO FUTURE GENERATIONS
In the not-too-distant future, we are moving towards a hybrid life in which we will exist both in the world we live in and simultaneously in different universes that we call the Metaverse. In the Metaverse, where we can all experience the intersection of the real world and the virtual world without being disconnected from what is happening around us, if a real democratic structure cannot be established, great difficulties and risks will await all of us, even our future generations. In the Metaverse, which is also defined as the future version of the internet, if we do not establish the necessary standards as soon as possible, we will not have the free and democratic internet environment we are used to today, on the contrary, we are very likely to encounter a Metaverse experience that is extremely anti-democratic, closed, and cannot work with each other. I think that we need to be conscious of this new world and its requirements, raise awareness of our environment and support the institutions working to develop standards, and this is our obligation for future generations.
DIGITAL CONTENT PRODUCTION
As the Open AR Cloud (Open AR Cloud) Association, we signed agreements with Ankara Metropolitan Municipality, for Ankara to become the fourth test bed city in the world; and with the Feyziye Schools Foundation for Nişantaşı Işık High School to be the first test bed high school campus in the world. Our aim is to make similar agreements with all municipalities, high schools and universities in Turkey.