Defining and Building the Metaverse
The World Economic Forum is bringing together leading voices from the private sector, civil society, academia and policy to define the parameters of an economically viable, interoperable, safe and inclusive metaverse, focusing on two core areas: governance, and economic and social value creation.
Our Mission: Moving From Theory to Practice
Defining and Building the Metaverse Initiative seeks to guide the development of a safe, interoperable and economically viable metaverse, by uniting stakeholders from various sectors, including government, academia, business, and civil society. It does so via two interrelated tracks: metaverse governance and value creation. Both tracks take an ethical, forward-thinking approach and work collaboratively to balance governance with economic and social opportunities.
The metaverse is a massively interactive and immersive media system that spans multiple hardware devices, games, virtual worlds and platforms, giving users the ability to transcend geography, identity and even mortality.
Matthew Ball
Managing Partner at Epyllion Industries
The metaverse is not just about gaming or entertainment, but it's about creating a shared space where people can connect and interact with each other in new and meaningful ways, regardless of physical distance or differences.
Peggy Johnson
CEO of Magic Leap
The metaverse has the potential to create new opportunities for education, entertainment, and social interaction. But we must also be vigilant about the risks it poses, particularly to young people.
Nick Clegg
Vice President of Global Affairs and Communications at Facebook
"The metaverse will be a world that transcends geography, nationality and even reality. It will be a space where people can come together to share experiences, form relationships and create value in ways that are impossible in the physical world."
Yat Siu
Co-Founder and Executive Chairman, Animoca Brands
"The metaverse has the potential to revolutionize our lives in ways we can't yet imagine. It will change the way we work, play, and connect with one another, and it will create new opportunities for innovation and growth. As policymakers, we need to ensure that the metaverse is developed in a way that is inclusive, transparent, and respects the rights and dignity of all users."
Eva Maydell
Member of the European Parliament
The metaverse is a dream we've had for decades. It's the idea that we can create a virtual world that's as rich, complex, and meaningful as the real world, and that we can use it to solve some of our biggest problems.
Jeremy Bailenson
Founding Director of the Virtual Human Interaction Lab at Standford
The metaverse is a collective virtual shared space, created by the convergence of virtual enhanced physical reality and physically persistent virtual space, including the sum of all virtual worlds, augmented reality, and the interne.
Neal Stephenson
Author of Snow Crash
Metaverse Governance
Working group members convene on a quarterly basis to recommend potential governance frameworks for an interoperable, safe and inclusive metaverse. This entails finding harmonization between regulation and innovation in order to develop interoperability while preserving user privacy, safety and security. They provide feedback on upcoming outputs, which will including briefing papers on interoperability, privacy, safety and security, and identity before the production of a white paper on metaverse governance.
Economic and Social Value Creation
Working group members convene on a quarterly basis to share insights and solutions for generating economic and social value creation in the metaverse. They provide feedback on upcoming outputs, including briefing papers on consumer applications, social impact, and future economies, culminating in a toolkit for metaverse stakeholders. In doing so, they are mapping new value chains and business models across industries, and identifying use cases for economic opportunity.