Meta official invites creatives and others to help build out the Metaverse

As the thrust continues for local entrepreneurs in the cultural and creative industries to capitalise on digital opportunities, so does the need to distinguish between popular terms such as Meta and the Metaverse.

“Long story short, Meta is one participant of the Metaverse,” Héctor Faya, Director of Latin America Policy Programs and Government Outreach at Meta (Facebook) said as he sought to provide some clarity on a question posed at a webinar on July 14 in St Vincent and the Grenadines.

The webinar, dubbed “Unlocking the Metaverse: Digital transformation and the Creative and Cultural Industries” forms part of the effort by the Ministry of Tourism, Civil Aviation, Sustainable Development and Culture to provide sensitisation, training and alternative markets for creatives to boost their revenue streams.

Faya, who attended virtually, noted that the Metaverse is a virtual space that can be created by many companies, civil society organisations or governments while Meta is the rebranded name given to the tech company formerly known as Facebook.

According to the Meta official, it is the company’s desire to participate in building out the Metaverse, which already has several other players involved such as Microsoft, Roblox and Fortnite.

“There are many big players but there are many small players as well because in the Metaverse, you don’t need to have a big company to benefit from the Metaverse or gain income from it,” Fava said.

Currently, a series of apps; Instagram, WhatsApp and Facebook are attached to the Meta brand.

Meta also owns Quest 2, which is hardware that allows persons to participate in virtual reality (VR) experiences in the Metaverse.

Fava revealed that the company also has a partnership with Ray Ban to build smart glasses that will create the possibility to experience an augmented reality (AR) which is connected to one’s phone or computer.

It appears that some things are still uncertain when it comes to creatives occupying a space in the Metaverse, as the Meta official explained that agreements with governments of the region and the world on a whole must be discussed to assist in building standards.

“So let me try to explain the Metaverse as a building where you have three floors. In the first floor, you have the foundations. Within the foundations, you have the hardware that you need, the technology, you have the protocols and you have the standards,” Fava said.

“The protocols and the technological standards, then in the second floor, you have the platforms and the networks and cryptocurrency is one of the ways in which we can allow platforms and networks, work for profit for those who are creating those platforms and networks.

“And then in the last floor, which is at the top — it looks like a triangle — you have the experiences that those platforms, networks, hardware, protocols and standards are allowing to produce.”

The Meta official continued: “So, you build those experiences upon those floors and those floors are not yet built, and we are not expecting to build them ourselves because we can’t. We are inviting the whole industry; academics, journalists, even human rights defenders to help us build this in the next couple of years”.