Not peanuts: Bloomberg Intelligence estimates that the metaverse will generate a turnover of around 2024 billion dollars by 800. It's already a hot potato as it is (I'll stop with the culinary comparisons now), but before I blow the lid (sorry) you need to make it clear what the highlights of the secure metaverse that we really want.

No, not the metaverse that will arrive, dictated by the laws of the market, speculation pure, listening to the indications of the brands and signed by the best lender: a safe, honest, metaverse ethical. A safe space where – within the limits of utopia – you can send your child without too many reservations. Where you too feel safe to explore, make payments, live your new digital life.

It may seem like a superstructure: a pontificate on nothing (in fact the metaverse is not so "relevant" today), yet to put hands forward means to do something that for the internet it was not done. Lands unexploredyet familiar.

During the World Economic Forum of Davos the initiative “Defining and Building the Metaverse”. It is an exciting project in which the public sector has met the private sector (companies, companies, associations, academia and authorities) to establish the cornerstones of a fair, interoperable, and secure metaverse. Words that everyone likes and which, for sure, constitute an important comparison for the world to come.

The dialogue involved 60 companies, including Meta, Microsoft, Lego Group and Walmart, which met with experts, associations and academics to reach an agreement on what was defined as "the development of the governance and political framework of the metaverse”. Put simply, it is a project meant for lay solid and concrete foundations for the creation of a revdigital solution that does not only have economic connotations, but can translate into a social revolution.

A quick word on the metaverse

But so in a nutshell where is the metaverse? How do you enter? Which way should I look at it? It is very likely that if you have been hanging around Innovando for a long time you do not need a detailed explanation, but we prefer not to skip a step.

To understand why an ethical metaverse must be everyone's goal, we start from the basics. Indeed, it could change the how we use the internet. Through the metaverse there will no longer be a simple connection to a website: it will become a tool for creating a digital level capable of enriching and "empowering" the world in which we live. The metaverse is a world immersive virtual where people will go about their daily activities, from shopping to playing games to socialization.

Every aspect of this new layer of "digital and non-digital" life must contemplate an ethical and educational sphere that allows the metaverse to become a place not only dedicated to brands, but also to people. With due safety, protection. I would like to talk about filters, but it shouldn't necessarily be about filters: the idea I got is that the metaverse will become real enough to replace itself in some aspects of real life, where interactions are complex and shaped by millennia of socialization and regulation. When a regulatory vacuum is filled in the wrong way, the digital world could become a dangerous place. Not only from the point of view of the security of personal data, but also due to the large amount of information, news and social trends that can affect real life in ways we still struggle to imagine.

What is the Global Collaboration Village?

The Defining and Building the Metaverses initiative is thus establishing a Global Collaboration Village, i.e. a collaboration that exploits the potential of the best public and private minds to provide spaces for meeting, meeting, action on safe metaverse challengesBut not only.

In this space one will be developed toolbox, which is a collection of essential tools to set up future digital projects using the right ethical, sustainable and clean footprint that the world would like to give to this emerging technology. Jeremy Jurgens, CEO of the World Economic Forum, argues that this configuration will allow for the generation of an inclusive, transformative and indispensable in the best of its meanings for social and economic interconnectivity.

An internet which, having already made its mistakes due to inexperience, has perhaps now learned something from itself, and wants to transform itself into that magnificent neighborhood of our city where we would all like to move because it is peaceful, inclusive, happy and safe. I already said sure?

Okay, but what's the plan?

The idea itself is great. It's what we've always needed, and it's the basis that was missing when the situation of fake news it got out of hand. When i social media they began to pursue unattainable ideals for young people and adults.

The metaverse plan will focus on two key areas.

• La governance. By examining how technologies can influence the real world, it will be possible to study increasingly inclusive, protected and socially positive working methods and digital environments.
• Il value. It's bad to say, but without big companies the metaverse will remain a distant dream. As much as we would all like to live barefoot in a world of barter and green fields (perhaps?), will be the big capitalized first, and to follow all the others, to infuse the fuel into the engine of the metaverse. This means that if the companies do not see opportunity, they will hardly invest in the project. From these opportunities risks arise which the initiative intends to analyse, filling the regulatory gaps through responsible policies. Companies can sell, yes, but consumers can decide not to be overwhelmed by the commercial aspect.

These two simple elements are the catalysts of the future: the future of ours daily lives, but also of way of doing business, of creating assets (cryptocurrencies, anyone?) and by legally regulate life beyond the screen.

Not just a reality shaped by the business needs of big tech, therefore, but a choral and collective context in which associations, bodies, organizations and civil society in the broadest sense can cooperate to create an improvement in the quality of digital life.

Considering that the metaverse, even now, is an embryonic project, it is difficult to focus on the potential of this project. Still, this is the right time to avoid past mistakes and build a metaverse where we can really imagine ourselves, in a context free from the threats and ugliness that the internet sometimes offers us.

It's a nice one dream, but it is also a need and a necessity. The basic idea, which puts the people center, all, and the needs that derive from their preferences, ethnicities, abilities. Without exclusions.

I am neither a sociologist nor an expert, but I believe that the metaverse can rapidly advance to the extent achieved by the "real" society and support change, revolution and emancipation. Just like the internet did, in some respects, but better.

All of this is possible, but it is not certain that it will be feasible. For sure, the foundations for a kickstart in the right direction have been created.