The former Boss of Twitter India, Manish Maheshwari seems to have found the spotlight yet again. He became the centre of discussion in the Indian Metaverse community when he launched his startup, a global ed-tech platform based on Metaverse, called Invact Metaversity.
The Ex-Head of Twitter India who was working at a higher position in the US headquarters at the time announced via a tweet in December that he will be leaving the company for good to dedicate his time to the startup he’s been working upon that revolves around education.
The Surrounding Controversies
In the recent past, Twitter India has been the focal point of controversies, especially due to its clash with the Indian government. It was also alleged that Twitter played a crucial role in spreading biased and fake news. Many officials have reported that Twitter India was also unable to control the hate speeches being distributed across their platform.
The Buzz around Metaverse and Ed-tech
Metaverse is a three-dimensional virtual space that consists of multiple interconnected virtual worlds in the domain of social media. Many experts believe it could serve as a stepping stone in the direction of even more lifelike virtual as well as augmented reality headsets and allied technologies. A perfected Metaverse would be a 24/7 fictional world that is so realistic
that it could even blur the boundary separating what’s real and what’s not.
Many corporations have tried to incorporate the concepts of Metaverse in their respective game, to some extent, they have succeeded too. Like how Fortnite has incorporated the idea of virtual concerts and even exhibitions, or like how players of World of Warcraft where players could buy and sell goods.
Invact Metaversity tries to capitalise on the gains we’ve made in terms of Online Education in the last couple of years. Metaversity is like a university that’s based on the Metaverse. They aim to fabricate an immersive environment that provides an optimal and realistic learning experience.
They differ from platforms like Udemy or Coursera in the sense that these platforms are able to operate only in a 2D world whereas Metaversity would enable students to be present in a computer-generated 3D world.
Unlike the experience of online education we have, Metaversity could provide much more realistic experiences, like how we commute to our virtual university in the virtual world, or how we interact with the 3D avatars of our classmates and educators, how we experience ‘being present in a virtual 3D yet pragmatic world.
Another fascinating aspect is that the internet doesn’t discriminate, thus the concept of attending a virtual university might be more appealing to the students that don’t belong to families that are financially well off. One advantage could be that students would be able to attend a university located in any part of the world merely with access to the internet and a VR headset.
Metaversity has received enormous support and appreciation from the Indian Tech giants and the Indian Futurology and Metaverse communities. They’ve been successful in raising funds worth 33 million dollars from more than 70 global entrepreneurs, including Microsoft, Meta, Google, Twitter, Amazon, Disney and World Bank.