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In a Facebook earnings call last week, Mark Zuckerberg outlined the future of his company. The vision he put forth wasnt based on advertising, which provides the bulk of Facebooks current profits, or on an increase in the over-all size of the social network, which already has nearly three billion monthly active users. Instead, Zuckerberg said that his goal is for Facebook to help build the metaverse, a Silicon Valley buzzword that has become an obsession for anyone trying to predict, and thus profit from, the next decade of technology. I expect people will transition from seeing us primarily as a social-media company to seeing us as a metaverse company, Zuckerberg said. It was a remarkable pivot in messaging for the social-media giant, especially given the fact that the exact meaning of the metaverse, and what it portends for digital life, is far from clear. In the earnings call, Zuckerberg offered his own definition. The metaverse is a virtual environment where you can be present with people in digital spaces, he said. Its an embodied Internet that youre inside of rather than just looking at. We believe that this is going to be the successor to the mobile Internet.

Like the term cyberspace, a coinage of the fiction writer William Gibson, the term metaverse has literary origins. In Neal Stephensons novel Snow Crash, from 1992, the protagonist, Hiro, a sometime programmer and pizza-delivery driver in a dystopian Los Angeles, immerses himself in the metaverse, a computer-generated universe that his computer is drawing onto his goggles and pumping into his earphones. Its an established part of the books fictional world, a familiar aspect of the characters lives, which move fluidly between physical and virtual realms. On a black ground, below a black sky, like eternal night in Las Vegas, Stephensons metaverse is made up of the Street, a sprawling avenue where the buildings and signs represent different pieces of software that have been engineered by major corporations. The corporations all pay an entity called the Global Multimedia Protocol Group for their slice of digital real estate. Users also pay for access; those who can only afford cheaper public terminals appear in the metaverse in grainy black-and-white.

Stephensons fictional metaverse may not be that far off from what todays tech companies are now developing. Imagine, like Hiro, donning goggles (perhaps those produced by Oculus, which Facebook owns), controlling a three-dimensional virtual avatar, and browsing a series of virtual storefronts, the metaverse equivalents of different platforms like Instagram (which Facebook also owns), Netflix, or the video game Minecraft. You might gather with friends in the virtual landscape and all watch a movie in the same virtual theatre. Youre basically going to be able to do everything that you can on the Internet today as well as some things that dont make sense on the Internet today, like dancing, Zuckerberg said. In the future we might walk through Facebook, wear clothes on Facebook, host virtual parties on Facebook, or own property in the digital territory of Facebook. Each activity in what we once thought of as the real world will develop a metaverse equivalent, with attendant opportunities to spend money doing that activity online. Digital goods and creators are just going to be huge, Zuckerberg said.

This shift is already beginning to take place, though not yet under Facebooks domain. The video game Second Life, which was released in 2003 by Linden Lab, created a virtual world where users could wander, building their own structures; land can be bought there for either U.S. dollars or the in-game currency, Linden Dollars. Roblox, a childrens video game launched in 2006, has lately evolved into an immersive world in which players can design and sell their own creations, from avatar costumes to their own interactive experiences. Rather than a single game, Roblox became a platform for games. Fortnite, released in 2017, evolved from an online multiplayer free-for-all shoot-em-up into a more diffuse space in which players can collaboratively build structures or attend concerts and other live in-game events. (Ariana Grande just announced an upcoming virtual show there.) Players of Fortnite buy customized avatar skins and motions or gestures that the avatars can performperhaps thats where Zuckerberg got his reference to dancing. If any company is primed to profit from the metaverse its the maker of Fortnite, Epic Games, which owns a game marketplace and also sells Unreal Engine, the three-dimensional design software that is used in every corner of the gaming industry and in streaming blockbusters such as the Star Wars TV series The Mandalorian. In April, the company announced a billion-dollar funding round to support its vision for the metaverse.

No single company is meant to own or run the metaverse, however; it requires coperation to create consistency. Assets that one acquires in the metaverse will hypothetically be portable, moving even between platforms owned by different corporations. This synchronization might be enabled by blockchain technology like cryptocurrencies and non-fungible tokens, which are defined by their immutable record keeping. If you bought an N.F.T. avatar from the online society Bored Ape Yacht Club, Fortnite could theoretically verify your ownership on the blockchain and then allow you to use the avatar within its game world. The same avatar might show up on Roblox, too. The various realms are supposed to maintain interoperability, as Zuckerberg said in the earnings call, linking together to form the wider hypothetical metaverse, the way every Web site exists non-hierarchically on the open protocol of the Internet.

The metaverse represents a techno-optimist vision for a future in which culture can exist in all forms at once. Intellectual propertya phrase increasingly applied to creative output of any kindcan move seamlessly among movies, video games, and virtual-reality environments. Its a tantalizing possibility for the corporate producers of culture, who will profit from their I.P. wherever it goes. Disneys Marvel pantheon of superhero narratives already amounts to a cinematic universe; why not unleash it into every possible platform simultaneously? In Fortnite, as the pro-metaverse investor Matthew Ball wrote in an influential essay last year, You can literally wear a Marvel characters costume inside Gotham City, while interacting with those wearing legally licensed N.F.L. uniforms. (How appealing you find this may depend on how addicted you are to logos.) In the future, users own creations may attain the same kind of portability and profitability, letting fan concepts compete with Marvel just as self-published blogs once disrupted newspapers.

Judging from Facebooks growth strategy over the past decade, though, Zuckerberg wont be satisfied with making his company one component of a multiplatform metaverse. Just as the company bought, absorbed, and outcompeted smaller social-media platforms until it resembled a monopoly, it may try to control the entire space in which users dwell so that it will be able to charge us rents. Facebook may, indeed, create virtual real estate that online small businesses will have to rent in order to sell their wares, or build an in-game meeting space where an impressive, expensive avatar will be key to networking, like the equivalent of a fancy Zoom background. Our physical lives are already so saturated with Facebook and its other properties that the company must build new structures for the virtual iterations of our lives, and then dominate those as well in order to keep expanding.

Zuckerbergs comments brought to my mind an earlier iteration of online life, a game and social space called Neopets. Neopets launched in 1999; I remember playing it in middle school, trading strategies with friends. In the game, the player takes care of small digital creatures, feeding and grooming them as well as buying accessories with Neopoints earned from in-game activities. It was a point of pride and a form of self-expression, albeit a nerdy one, to have a highly developed profile in the game. In the metaverse Facebook envisions, however, you are the Neopet, and your in-game activities may affect every sphere of life that Facebook already touches: careers, relationships, politics. In Zuckerbergs vision, Neopoints become Facebook dollars, only usable on the platform; your self-presentation online becomes a choice limited to options that Facebook provides. A blue-and-gray virtual universe looms. The more immersive it is, the more inescapable it becomes, like an all-encompassing social-media feed, with all the problems thereof.

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Facebook Wants Us to Live in the Metaverse - The New Yorker

Dating app maker and Tinder parent Match Group said during its Q2 earnings it will bring audio and video chat, including group live video, and other livestreaming technologies to several of the companys brands over the next 12 to 24 months. The developments will be powered by innovations from Hyperconnect, the social networking company that this year became Matchs biggest acquisition to date when it bought the Korean app maker for a sizable $1.73 billion.

Since then, Match Group has been relatively quiet about its specific plans for Hyperconnects tech or its longer-term strategy with the operation, although Tinder was briefly spotted testing a group video chat feature called Tinder Mixer earlier this summer. The move had seemed to signal some exploration of social discovery features in the wake of the Hyperconnect deal. However, Tinder told us at the time the company had no plans to bring that specific product to market in the year ahead.

On Tuesdays earnings, Match Group offered a little more insight into the future of Hyperconnect, following the acquisitions official close in mid-June.

According to Match Group CEO Shar Dubey, who stepped into the top job last January, the company is excited about the potential to integrate technologies Hyperconnect has developed into existing Match-owned dating apps.

This includes, she said, AR features, self-expression tools, conversational AI and a number of what we would consider metaverse elements, which have the element to transform the online meeting and getting-to-know-each-other process, Dubey explained, without offering further specific details about how the products would work or which apps would receive these enhancements.

Many of these technologies emerged from Hyperconnects lab, Hyper X the same in-house incubator whose first product is nowone of the companys flagship apps, Azar, which joined Match Group with the acquisition.

Dubey also noted that the work to begin these tech integrations was already underway at the company.

By year-end, Match Group said it expects to have at least two of its brands integrated with technologies from Hyperconnect. A number of other brands will implement Hyperconnect capabilities by year-end 2022.

In doing so, Match aims to transform what people think of when it comes to online dating.

To date, online dating has been a fairly static experience across the industry, where apps focus largely on profiles and photos, and then offer some sort of matching technique whether swipes or quizzes or something else. Tinder, in more recent years, began to break out of that mold as it innovated with an array of different experiences, like its choose-your-own-adventure in-app video series, Swipe Night, video profiles, instant chat features (via Tinders product, Hot Takes) and others. But it still lacked some of the real-time elements that people have when meeting one another in the real world.

This is an area where Match believes Hyperconnect can help to improve the online dating experience.

One of the holy grails for us in online dating has always been to bridge the disconnect that happens between people chatting online and then meeting someone in person, Dubey said. These technologies will eventually allow us to build experiences that will help people determine if they have that much elusive chemistry or not Our ultimate vision here is for people to never have to go on a bad first date again, she added.

Of course, Match Groups positioning of the Hyperconnect deal as being more interesting because the innovation it brings and not just the standalone apps it operates also comes at a time when those apps have not met the companys expectations on revenue.

In the second half the of 2021, Match Group said it expects Hyperconnect to contribute to $125 to $135 million in revenue a financial outlook that the company admits reflects some pullback. It attributed this largely to COVID impacts, particularly in the Asia-Pacific region where Hyperconnects apps operate. Other impacts to Hyperconnects growth included a more crowded marketplace and Apples changes to IDFA (Identifier for Advertisers), which has impacted a number of apps including other social networking apps, like Facebook.

While Match still believes Hyperconnect will post solid revenue growth in 2021, it said that these new technology integrations into the Match Group portfolio are now a higher priority for the company.

Match Group posted mixed earnings in Q1, with revenue of $707.8 million, above analyst estimates, but earnings per share of 46 cents, below projections of 49 cents a share. Paying customers grew 15% to 15 million, up from 13 million in the year-ago quarter. Shares declined by 7% on Wednesday morning, following the earnings announcement.

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Match Group to add audio and video chat, including group live video, to its dating app portfolio - TechCrunch

Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung Uganda and South Sudan is delighted to announce the 6th Edition of its flagship convening The Uganda Social Media Conference.

The conference which brings together key stakeholders from government, civil society, academia, and the media for an exchange on the state and impact of social media on society is set to be held virtually in August 2021 on 25th 26th, at Kampala Sheraton Hotel.

Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in Uganda, March 2020, Social Media has grown to become one of the major communication tools driving conversations about government policies, current affairs, activism, and interpersonal communication.

This was evidenced in January 2021 where the different platforms were major tools used for mobilization and campaigning in the General elections since they happened at a time when crowds couldnt gather physically due to Covid19.

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In reference to the growing influence of social media, the conference will provide a unique platform for theorizing, dialoguing, and engaging on how the growing relevance of social media shapes our social and political interactions and changes the way we access and process information.

With this conference, we aim to bring together academics, policy-makers, industry professionals, and civil society activists to discuss the role of social media in Africa and globally, mobile technology, big data, and digital innovation, said Anna Reismann KAS Country Director for Uganda.

The conference aims to promote the exchange of ideas, networking, and collaboration on the topics of citizen engagement, political campaigning, misinformation, political polarization, populism, e-government, smart cities, and other emerging topics, she added.

This years Social Media Conference will run under the theme Digital democracy in a Post Pandemic Era, highlighting how Social Media has facilitated citizen journalism, Elections in Africa, its impact on mental health among many other topics.

Also key among the topics that will be covered at the conference will be how to tackle the emerging digital threats including extremism, trafficking, and Radicalization, the Gig economy which is currently a major source of income for unemployed youths in urban centres, and the crisis of state surveillance, digital privacy, and data protection.

Internet shutdowns by African governments will also be a topic to be covered with a major focus on the recent occurrence in January during Ugandas General elections and internet restrictions in Tanzania, also during their general elections.

The conference will be hosted in a virtual format. Delegates will be required to sign up/register to attend online.

The event will also be broadcast live on KAS Ugandas social medias channels and partner televisions.

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How to attend the Uganda Social Media Conference 2021 Techjaja - Techjaja

In October, Ms. Lugrin posted a blog post announcing FYPM, which, she wrote, was birthed out of rage. Taking aim at influencer marketing platforms, she said most were really just another platform designed to help more business owners exploit influencer talent, but in a new innovative way!

After building a prototype of FYPM, she was accepted in March into a 10-week start-up incubator program in Taiwan led by Backend Capital, a venture capital firm. There she met her co-founder, Ms. Mehra, who was on the hunt for her next challenge.

I wanted to use technology for good, Ms. Mehra said. I saw FYPM as a perfect way to tackle pay inequality.

FYPM is already on the radar of brands. James Nord, chief executive and founder of Fohr, an influencer marketing company that has paid out over $65 million to creators in the past five years, said he supported Ms. Lugrins mission but hoped more nuance could be incorporated into the platform as it grew.

It can lead to some creators having false expectations of what their pay could be because they hear about one person who booked one job at one specific price, he said.

FYPM, which is still being tested, allows users to filter brand deals by platform such as Twitter, Clubhouse, Substack, Instagram and OnlyFans. Creators can also sort by location, niche and brand category, such as travel or food and drink.

So far, about 1,500 creators have posted more than 2,000 reviews of 1,300 brands on FYPM. Ms. Lugrin and Ms. Mehra have raised a small amount of funding and plan to do more fund-raising.

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The App With the Unprintable Name That Wants to Give Power to Creators - The New York Times

Its like using someone elses computer or using a computer that you either trust or own to connect to the internet on your behalf, said Mallory Knodel, chief technology officer at the Center for Democracy and Technology, noting VPNs are generally used by companies to keep internal business assets private when employees work remotely and as a way to get around content filters.

A diverse and large combination of existing VPN providers, newly created VPNs, and those already in use in Cuba could form a stealthy ecosystem and help sustain internet connections as some would be inevitably blocked.

It's unclear when the Biden administration will approve a VPN system strategy. A senior administration official told POLITICO they are discussing providing wireless LTE communications with private-sector providers and continue to explore various options, including stratospheric balloons. The official said the Departments of State, Commerce, Treasury and the Federal Communications Commission have been directed to develop the required rules, licenses and authorizations.

Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and one of several Cuban American leaders Biden met with last week, supports using VPNs.

Chairman Menendez believes this is one of the most effective ways for people on the island to access and share information outside of the regimes control and, as such, has been working through numerous channels to support those efforts, said Juan Pachn, spokesperson for Menendez.

The biggest obstacle is the Cuban regime's ability to shut down the internet island-wide or in specific regions anytime.

I think more help, bringing in more access to different VPNs [and] faster communication will be appreciated. But that won't solve the issue completely because the main problem is that, once the government turns off the internet, people have no access to the VPN servers so they can't use a VPN either, said Salvi Pascual, executive director of Apretaste!, a social networking app that expands internet capabilities, web services, and privacy for Cubans.

Even if the regime chose not to shut down service, there would likely be a cat-and-mouse game between Cuban internet authorities and VPN servers.

But because most of the internet traffic would be political, itd be easier for Cuban authorities to track their target, said Jon Callas, director of technology projects at the Electronic Frontier Foundation. With there being an economic embargo, there is no commercial traffic. So, it's all political traffic; so that's part of why it makes it easy for the Cuban government to shut these down.

In place since the 1960s, the U.S. embargo prevents most American companies from conducting business in Cuba.

According to the 2021 Inclusive Internet Index, a tool commissioned by Facebook and developed by The Economist Intelligence Unit that measures internet access and affordability across the globe, approximately 31 percent of Cuban households have internet access, ranking 83rd in availability of 120 countries.

Both Knodel and Callas said a VPN strategy could succeed in the short-term, with Knodel noting longer-term success would be dependent on Cubans being able to make informed choices about how they want to use the internet and what they want to use it for.

Pascual said that VPNs are far from foreign to Cubans.

People in Cuba are already using VPNs," said Pascual, who thinks the issue boils down to the American political will and building infrastructure on the island that the Cuban government does not control pitching construction of a cell tower on the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base and suggesting the U.S. embassy share its Wi-Fi, which will be easy to spread all through Havana through the internal network.

It is hard but I think the main issue right now is political will, he said.

Callas said a VPN strategy is extraordinarily well-intentioned, but overly simplistic.

While a VPN essentially creates a network connection that no one can see the content of, they can still see that you're doing it and that would mean that the Cuban government could likely know what the start point and what the end point is of the VPN, he said, noting that the technology would work better when paired with political and economic strategies. Technical solutions for political and economic problems are always imperfect.

When working with Cubans, or others facing similar restrictions, who are unfamiliar with VPNs, its important to do trainings with them using trusted community outlets and refrain from politicizing the tool, said Dragana Kaurin, founder and executive director of Localization Lab, a global nonprofit that makes open source technology, including VPNs, accessible in underserved regions through collaboration with local developers and organizations.

When we frame technologies like this, as tools of democracy when we politicize technologies in this way, we, as developers of these tools, exclude the people who don't line up with the entire ideology, she said.

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Could VPNs help Cubans access the internet under the regimes nose? - POLITICO