Why cities are exploring metaverse technology
Source: Smart Cities Dive By Karen Kroll
Santa Monica, California, and Seoul, South Korea, are among the cities exploring how metaverse technology can improve city services or boost businesses. Some fear it could leave residents behind.
From Dubai, United Arab Emirates, to Seoul, South Korea, to Santa Monica, California, a growing number of cities worldwide are exploring how they can deploy metaverse technology to more effectively administer public services, engage residents, and boost activity with businesses or downtown areas.
Last year, “nobody was talking about the metaverse. Now, I can’t go a day without a conversation about it,” said Steve Zoegall, industry lead for global cities, transport and critical infrastructure with Accenture, and a fellow with the World Economic Forum.
The metaverse is an immersive virtual world in which people don’t just look at what’s online, but interact virtually to engage in many of the activities they do in the physical world, such as socialize, take classes, make purchases, and even travel. In Facebook’s buzzy rebrand to Meta, the company’s stated mission remains one of bringing people together — some city leaders might say the same about metaverse initiatives.
The technology is in the “novelty and strategy phase,” Zoegall said. For some cities, metaverse technology remains a novelty, while others are actively evaluating it and identifying goals.
The Seoul Metropolitan Government in late 2021 announced its intent to “establish a metaverse platform … to start providing a new-concept public service,” as part of its Five-year Metaverse Seoul Promotion Master Plan. The city stated that the platform will “create a metaverse ecosystem for all areas of its municipal administration,” including economic, cultural, tourism, educational and civic service.
For instance, starting in 2023 the Seoul Lantern Festival and other events will be held in the metaverse so they’re available around the world. The city stated it will also use the platform to develop services for the socially vulnerable, including safety and convenience content for people with disabilities, and will expand the platform to all areas of municipal administration to boost efficiency.