Metaverse, trials in Italy | Wired Italy

It’s been a little over a year since Facebook, the company led by Mark Zuckerberg which manages the homonymous social network, Instagram and Whatsapp, changed its name to Meta. On the one hand a rebranding made expedient by one reputational crisis brought about by years of scandals that led the company founder to a question in the US parliament, on the other hand a declaration of intent that symbolizes the transition to a new era: from web 2.0 to video and traditional social networks to web 3.0 of blockchain and metaverse.

Since then of metaverse, a three-dimensional and immersive world that for the company constitutes the evolution of social networks, it has been talked about a lot but of applications if they are few seen, above all here in Italy. This was discussed during the last edition of theInternet governance gorum Italy, held in Ancona between 18 and 19 November last. The event organized by the Agency for Digital Italy (Agid) and Confcommercio Marche dedicated two panels to the theme, presenting the progress that public institutions and private companies are making to be ready for a possible paradigm shift.

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Lecture in the metaverse

Paola Pisanoformer Minister for Technological Innovation and Digitization and professor at the University of Turin, presented the first experimentation of the Piedmontese university with the metaverse. As part of a course in Competitive Analysis, the students from Turin took part in lessons in mixed modality, a traditional part in the classroom and another experimental with virtual reality viewers. According to Pisano the metaverse has the potential to become what he terms a “second generation of digital disruptors”after a first made up of massive online open courses (MOOCs) offered by platforms such as Coursera and by universities around the world. “The goal of the experimentation is to explore how these technologies can enhance the learning experience”says the former minister.

To do this, the University of Turin collaborated directly with Meta, which provided technological support, and with the Turin-based company Synesthesia, which dealt with the design of the environment and characters. In addition to innovation experts such as Pisano herself, sociologists and psychologists contributed to the university who observed the delivery of courses. The first results seem to be encouraging from an educational point of view. “Virtual reality turned out to be a lot more motivating and engaging compared to the traditional classroom or video call” – says Pisano – “and both students and teachers reported of being able to maintain concentration for longer”. From a technological point of view, however, the obstacle represented by the viewers necessary for virtual reality, which cause nausea after prolonged use, remains to be resolved, and work is underway “on creating a safe environment and a user experience suitable for all”.

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Companies start moving

Moving from academia to the business world, Luca Marinelliprofessor at the Marche Polytechnic University, presented the results of a research by the Web 3.0 Alliance: if only 4% of companies already have active concrete projects, three out of four declare themselves interested in metaverse and web 3.0, with 64% of companies who are studying its feasibility and 7% who started with a pilot project. There is talk of projects ranging from the creation and marketing of Nft (non-fungible tokens) to the experimentation of what Marinelli calls “true smart working, which is not limited to remote work but creates digital operating spaces”.

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Doubts and regulatory needs

How to regulate the interaction between these emerging technologies and their interaction with public and private? The lesson that web 2.0 bequeaths to its supposed successor is that innovation runs faster than legislation. The concept was underlined by Marco Pierano of Euroconsumers: “We also express our fundamental rights within these platforms, but we enter them as consumers through a contractual relationship. It’s an important dichotomy.”. Underlining it, however, is not enough to overcome it. According to Pierani, the Digital service act and the Digital market act provide guidelines that can be implemented immediately for new technologies, such as the concept of interoperability. “But to avoid that in ten years time we find ourselves here talking about making laws to regulate technologies that have been in use for some time, these technologies should be constructed as more balanced from the beginning”. The doubt remains whether all this could be compatible with the interests of the same company described by the Facebook Files whistlebowler Frances Haugen during the last Wired Next Fest.