The metaverse is expected to influence the way, people, governments, companies, and society at large think, work, interact, and communicate for the purpose of collectively addressing issues on the global agenda.Â
The World Economic Forum (WEF), in collaboration with information technology companies Accenture and Microsoft, is building a Global Collaboration Village as the virtual future of public-private cooperation.
The Village will provide immersive spaces where stakeholders can convene, create and take action on the world’s most pressing challenges, as WEF embarks on an ambitious new journey to harness the potential of the metaverse as a platform for collaborative, inclusive, and effective international action.
The Global Collaboration Village will be an extension of the WEF’s public-private platforms and in-person meetings and will provide a more open, more sustained, and more comprehensive process for coming together.
The Global Collaboration Village will bring together key global stakeholders – international organizations, governments, partner companies, and civil society organizations – to imagine alternative futures, explore ideas in an immersive way, and envision what the future world could be. WEF aims to be a pioneer within this new space and bring together others to co-create within it.
WEF, in collaboration with the Strategic Partners Accenture and Microsoft, presented the overall concept and architecture of the Global Collaboration Village, as well as a proof-of-concept of the experience and functionality, at the Annual Meeting 2022.
This launch is the first step on a new journey. The Forum will continue to develop the Global Collaboration Village, together with a founding partners group, over the coming months and years, with the aim of turning the metaverse into a place where international cooperation can be strengthened and re-energized.
In addition, WEF is launching a new initiative on Defining and Building the Metaverse, which convenes more than 60 leading companies from technology and other sectors alongside experts from governments, academia, and civil society to accelerate the development of governance and policy frameworks for the metaverse and strengthen economic and social value creation opportunities.Â
This initiative and the Global Collaboration Village will help shape the foundations of the metaverse to truly create an equitable, interoperable, and safe digital environment from the onset.
Key aims of the Global Collaboration Village: Global cooperation – To create a new virtual space where global interaction can be enhanced and cooperative solutions found; Interactivity – To provide immersive experiences to foster a better understanding of key global challenges; Inclusivity – To offer a collaborative public space where broad participation in discussions about pressing global issues is both encouraged and enabled; Impact – The platform and all of its goals are geared toward catalyzing more effective individual and collective action following the Forum’s mission statement and commitment to improving the state of the world.
