The metaverse is the new buzzword of the technology industry. The future of the internet and social relationships point to Facebook (Meta), but the truth is that it is not something new . Already at the dawn of the so-called web 2.0, the first metaverse, Second Life, became relatively popular. Although at that time that of the metaverse did not yet exist, at least as a word.
Now one of the creators of the first metaverse, that is, of the classic Second Life, has given some advice to the new creators who have made the buzzword in fashion the foundations on which the internet of the future will be built. Whatever that means. Philip Rosedale, who is one of the founders of Second Life, has done it in an interview with Time together with the anthropologist Tom Boellstorff, who precisely analyzed the phenomenon of the virtual social network.
Basically the The most important advice that the creator of Second Life has for new creators of metaverse is that, beyond the experience, the most critical point is the creation of a moderation system that allows users to coexist equally in a metaverse. Which is precisely the weakest point of current social networks , at least in terms of toxicity.
Moderation and identity: the pillars for the metaverse to work
This is how fun was the celebration of the 11 years of Second Life
Rosedale points out that metaverses cannot be consolidated as a future meeting point as long as the identity of the users who participate in them cannot be guaranteed. A warning that, however, enters the line between privacy, transparency and the right of users to remain anonymous regarding their exposure to the network. Precisely, points of conflict regarding the personal identities of current social networks:
“There are things like getting the correct identity (…) when identifying the real person behind of the avatar. The avatar or pseudonym of the person has to be stable enough, since their actions have consequences and they have to behave well. We still don't have identity systems that allow for solid governance. “
And it all leads to moderation. In fact, the founder of Second Life points out that it is vital to create a solid framework, some rules of the game that prevent bad guys from taking advantage of the platform to harm others.
The creator states that, since users had to pay for a Second Life subscription, ad-driven corporations couldn't exploit it as effectively as a platform like Facebook or Twitter. Or, in other words, as Facebook's ad-based metaverse model can be bad news for the company. industry:
The 'Second Life' subscription model is one of the reasons there is no misinformation and anti-vax stuff. None of these future metaverse things have that is part of a corporate model driven by ads. “
Logically the words of Philip Rosedale have a great biased load with respect to all the well that Second Life did with respect to the approach of the new metaverses. And we are still not very clear about where the virtual worlds industry is going to go, we only have the experience of Second Life as an example. And it's not that it was especially good.
