Intelligent CIO APAC Issue 25 | Page 82

FINAL WORD

The making of a better metaverse

Ashley Diffey , Head of APAC and Japan at Ping Identity , says : “ The online world amplified a lot of real world problems . Let ’ s not carry the same mistakes forward into the metaverse .”

We often hear governments and policymakers express a view that ‘ rules that exist in the real world should exist online too .’ It ’ s a view that ’ s partially grounded on the idea that physical and online no longer represent two distinct ‘ worlds ’. People move between them now with enough frequency that a single set of rules make sense , rather than trying to deal with each world independently .

There ’ s some truth to this . If we look at the retail industry , for example , it ’ s been moving away from talking about bricks-and-mortar stores and online as two distinct ‘ worlds ’ for a while . Instead , it treats all channels in an ‘ omni ’ or integrated fashion . Shoppers can start a transaction online and complete it instore , or vice versa . Everything takes place in one ‘ world ’ made up of physical and digital components .
That being said , online also has some complications , such as high levels of pseudonymity and anonymity , that make the need for some digital-specific rulemaking unavoidable .
This blurring of physical and digital lines will only become more pronounced as the metaverse takes shape . In 2022 , the metaverse is primed to be a digital social space that is not limited to the narrow realm of physical possibilities – creating simulated digital worlds that mimic our world .
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