The World Economic Forum (WEF) has announced the launch of its own metaverse platform, the Global Collaboration Village, for this year. Klaus Schwab, chairman of the World Economic Forum, intends to use this Davos representation to enable people and leaders to meet in virtual worlds and efficiently coordinate global collaboration efforts.
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The virtual village is intended to function and look exactly like a real Swiss town, with the exception that people congregating in co-working spaces, attending conferences in government buildings, and browsing museums will do so as avatars.
“This could revolutionize global collaboration,” said Schwab in a previous interview last December.
The village is being built with Microsoft Mesh, a still-in-development immersive upgrade to Microsoft’s collaboration software Teams. Schwab has already enlisted dozens of partners, including Meta and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), to populate the village. Many of these partners hope to have virtual buildings where they can showcase their projects. The village will be accessible via virtual reality (Oculus headsets will be available in Davos) or via phones or laptops.
Furthermore, the Forum anticipates that the village will be particularly advantageous for projects that benefit from immersion. Ocean environmentalists, for instance, could create simulations of the sea’s depths to demonstrate how soundscapes can help restore coral reefs or mangroves can help combat rising sea levels.
“Here, we can bring people together – and technology is only the means to achieve it,” concluded Schwab.
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