Talk Title:

Who am I now? The many faces on the road to interoperability

Talk Description :

Imagine a typical day off: You start with a relaxed breakfast at home, then go to town for some shopping, meet friends at a new café before you all go to a concert of your favourite artist and close the night out in a pub.

How many times will you change your outfit?

Is your hair different in every shop you enter?

Do you need to worry whether your appearance truly reflects your ethnicity?

Unlocking the true potential of the Metaverse rests to a large extent on its promise of interoperability. But early iterations show us that experiences are still granular and require separate avatars for various platforms. If your identity changes every few minutes because you enter a new experience, how will it affect your sense of self?

If you look different on each platform, how can new and old friends recognise you in the crowd to establish the feeling of community the Metaverse hails as one of its predominant strengths?

The requirement to create different avatars, names and purchase different outfits could amplify accessibility issues and deepen the digital divide for already disadvantaged people.

This talk will explore questions of identity, sociality and equality in the Metaverse through the lens of its promised interoperability – or rather the current lack thereof.