The infinite office makes it possible
to report to the office from anywhere
in the world

Today we can have an office job where we can work from a beachside lodging in Bali or hold meetings in an art gallery in Europe. The secret is in AR and VR. Today, there are companies that operate entirely online—companies without brick-and-mortar offices that operate on a VR platform. The metaverse allows professionals to clock into the office at any time, from anywhere. All they need is a computer and internet access. Let’s take a look at how the metaverse is changing today’s work environment.

Now in our second year of working from home due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we’re seeing rising numbers of companies using online collaboration tools like MS Teams, KakaoWork, and Line Works for transactions, meetings, communication, and other fundamental business activities. The Korean online collaboration tool market alone is estimated to be worth around KRW 500 billion. But online collaboration tools alone aren’t quite enough to bridge the physical distance between colleagues. Also showing up to every meeting via camera can be inconvenient. That’s where metaverse work platforms come in.

The metaverse
is here

American author Neal Stephenson first debuted the concept of the metaverse in his 1992 novel Snow Crash. “Meta”, meaning “virtual” or “transcendence”, is combined with the word “universe” to form “metaverse”. The metaverse is a virtual world, but the entities that you encounter and the interactions you have within it are all based in reality. The metaverse comprises the four elements of a mirror world: virtual world, augmented reality, and lifelogging. A mirror world is an online space based on physical world data, examples including Google Earth and Zoom meetings. A virtual world is a virtual space enabling connected individuals to engage in various activities, with examples including Minecraft and Roblox. Augmented reality superimposes a 2D or 3D object onto reality to produce interactions, with examples of AR including Pokémon GO and the head-up display found in late-model cars. Lifelogging captures, stores, transfers, and shares all kinds of data collected in real life. These metaverse technologies have all made life more convenient and fun. There are now metaverse platforms for the express purpose of business. Gather and oVice are both infinite office platforms where members can set up an office for staff to attend work. More and more companies are making use of this solution for avatar meetings, sharing of screens and files with colleagues, chat via messenger or microphone, and a host of other business functions, though critics have pointed out issues such as lagging communication and high levels of related work fatigue.

Now in our second year of working from home due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we’re seeing rising numbers of companies using online collaboration tools like MS Teams, KakaoWork, and Line Works for transactions, meetings, communication, and other fundamental business activities. The Korean online collaboration tool market alone is estimated to be worth around KRW 500 billion. But online collaboration tools alone aren’t quite enough to bridge the physical distance between colleagues. Also showing up to every meeting via camera can be inconvenient. That’s where metaverse work platforms come in.

The metaverse is here

American author Neal Stephenson first debuted the concept of the metaverse in his 1992 novel Snow Crash. “Meta”, meaning “virtual” or “transcendence”, is combined with the word “universe” to form “metaverse”. The metaverse is a virtual world, but the entities that you encounter and the interactions you have within it are all based in reality. The metaverse comprises the four elements of a mirror world: virtual world, augmented reality, and lifelogging. A mirror world is an online space based on physical world data, examples including Google Earth and Zoom meetings.

A virtual world is a virtual space enabling connected individuals to engage in various activities, with examples including Minecraft and Roblox. Augmented reality superimposes a 2D or 3D object onto reality to produce interactions, with examples of AR including Pokémon GO and the head-up display found in late-model cars. Lifelogging captures, stores, transfers, and shares all kinds of data collected in real life. These metaverse technologies have all made life more convenient and fun. There are now metaverse platforms for the express purpose of business. Gather and oVice are both infinite office platforms where members can set up an office for staff to attend work.

More and more companies are making use of this solution for avatar meetings, sharing of screens and files with colleagues, chat via messenger or microphone, and a host of other business functions, though critics have pointed out issues such as lagging communication and high levels of related work fatigue.

Is it real?
Is it virtual?
It’s the infinite office

Experiences in an infinite office can be made even more immersive using 3D holographic technologies that make it feel like you’re actually in the same space as your colleagues via VR or AR headsets. The infinite office blends the virtual and the real worlds to produce a work environment where you simply need to log in to get that feeling of being at the office with your co-workers, except that it’s no ordinary office in the sense of the limitations of reality, as you can take a coffee break with a colleague on a beach with just a click. To some extent it also operates according to the ground rules of reality, a case in point being that you would knock before entering a meeting room. The US company Spatial is one prominent metaverse platform provider offering an infinite office space where you can connect using a VR headset.

Its initial service offerings were taken mainly by companies with 3D design data needs, such as Mattel and Ford, for the reason that sharing 3D models in a virtual space is so much easier than emailing them back and forth.

Is it real?
Is it virtual?
It’s the infinite office

Experiences in an infinite office can be made even more immersive using 3D holographic technologies that make it feel like you’re actually in the same space as your colleagues via VR or AR headsets. The infinite office blends the virtual and the real worlds to produce a work environment where you simply need to log in to get that feeling of being at the office with your co-workers, except that it’s no ordinary office in the sense of the limitations of reality, as you can take a coffee break with a colleague on a beach with just a click. To some extent it also operates according to the ground rules of reality, a case in point being that you would knock before entering a meeting room. The US company Spatial is one prominent metaverse platform provider offering an infinite office space where you can connect using a VR headset.

Its initial service offerings were taken mainly by companies with 3D design data needs, such as Mattel and Ford, for the reason that sharing 3D models in a virtual space is so much easier than emailing them back and forth.

More recently, schools, universities, hospitals, and agencies have been adopting the Spatial platform. It allows everyone in your group to sit around a meeting table equipped with 3D materials and hold a meeting, put up sticky notes on a glass wall and brainstorm, and have a one-on-one with a colleague that feels very real. Spatial offers more maps along the way that will allow you and your team to get together not just in the office but in an outdoor location, in an art gallery, and so on. Microsoft, in a bid to boost work efficiency via its Teams tool and to increase its appeal to users, has formed a partnership with the mixed reality platform Mesh. The Teams-Mesh mix-up (Mesh for Teams) will replace the Teams collaborative tool functions centered on the medium of virtual meetings with custom avatar interaction functions. Users will be able to join meetings by smartphone, laptop, or VR headset as avatars that fully mimic their movements and facial expressions. Another Microsoft offering on the horizon is One Accenture Park, a metaverse park. Mesh for Teams is scheduled to be released in a preview version in the first half of 2022.

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More recently, schools, universities, hospitals, and agencies have been adopting the Spatial platform. It allows everyone in your group to sit around a meeting table equipped with 3D materials and hold a meeting, put up sticky notes on a glass wall and brainstorm, and have a one-on-one with a colleague that feels very real. Spatial offers more maps along the way that will allow you and your team to get together not just in the office but in an outdoor location, in an art gallery, and so on. Microsoft, in a bid to boost work efficiency via its Teams tool and to increase its appeal to users, has formed a partnership with the mixed reality platform Mesh.

The Teams-Mesh mix-up (Mesh for Teams) will replace the Teams collaborative tool functions centered on the medium of virtual meetings with custom avatar interaction functions. Users will be able to join meetings by smartphone, laptop, or VR headset as avatars that fully mimic their movements and facial expressions. Another Microsoft offering on the horizon is One Accenture Park, a metaverse park. Mesh for Teams is scheduled to be released in a preview version in the first half of 2022.

Trailblazers
say goodbye
to the traditional office

The different collaborative tools available and the advent of the infinite office are bringing some companies to dispense with physical offices altogether. Japanese AI tech developer Rozetta has permanently shut down its office building and moved into an infinite office on the Spatial platform. US real estate brokerage firm eXp Realty has also made a full metaverse switch. The staff of these companies are apparently loving it, marveling at all the office environment features that would never have been possible in real life. eXp Realty ranked 4th in workplace review website Glassdoor’s list of the Top 100 Best Places to Work in 2022. Both Rozetta and eXp Realty made the switch to enable its employees to spread around the world and work remotely from any location at any time, and their employees are attesting to the increased efficiency and creativity at work that the change has brought.

Trailblazers say goodbye
to the traditional office

The different collaborative tools available and the advent of the infinite office are bringing some companies to dispense with physical offices altogether. Japanese AI tech developer Rozetta has permanently shut down its office building and moved into an infinite office on the Spatial platform. US real estate brokerage firm eXp Realty has also made a full metaverse switch.

The staff of these companies are apparently loving it, marveling at all the office environment features that would never have been possible in real life. eXp Realty ranked 4th in workplace review website Glassdoor’s list of the Top 100 Best Places to Work in 2022. Both Rozetta and eXp Realty made the switch to enable its employees to spread around the world and work remotely from any location at any time, and their employees are attesting to the increased efficiency and creativity at work that the change has brought.

The metaverse
and our future

Low supply rates of AR and VR systems are a hurdle in the path to mass acceptance of the infinite office. Symptoms of physical stress caused by prolonged use of headsets are another issue to be addressed. At present, some users have said that using a headset for over an hour can cause nausea and, in more severe cases, vomiting. If advances in technology produce systems of a simpler structure and lighter weight, and if the problem of physical stress caused by headsets can be fixed, we should soon arrive at a future where the infinite office becomes a part of our everyday life. This is because international business trips require hours of flights along with other expenses, but in the metaverse, meetings can be arranged much more easily. Add to this attractive equation various technologies designed to overcome language barriers, and we can expect favorable conditions for work or education environments that provide equal opportunity to everyone from any part of the world who can show their own talents. The infinite office of the future. Exciting, isn’t it?

The metaverse and our future

Low supply rates of AR and VR systems are a hurdle in the path to mass acceptance of the infinite office. Symptoms of physical stress caused by prolonged use of headsets are another issue to be addressed. At present, some users have said that using a headset for over an hour can cause nausea and, in more severe cases, vomiting. If advances in technology produce systems of a simpler structure and lighter weight, and if the problem of physical stress caused by headsets can be fixed, we should soon arrive at a future where the infinite office becomes a part of our everyday life.

This is because international business trips require hours of flights along with other expenses, but in the metaverse, meetings can be arranged much more easily. Add to this attractive equation various technologies designed to overcome language barriers, and we can expect favorable conditions for work or education environments that provide equal opportunity to everyone from any part of the world who can show their own talents. The infinite office of the future. Exciting, isn’t it?

Writer Editorial Department
2022.03.30