The Metaverse: new frontier that re-imagines retail & health. And data re-imagines the Metaverse.
Avoid mistakes. How data dependent is the newest digital development?
The Metaverse, generated in science fiction and frequently applied to gaming platforms is trending in e-commerce and increasingly in healthcare.
Simply stated, the Metaverse is a connection between the physical and virtual worlds and is seen as the successor to the mobile internet.
Purchasing a digital product in one ecosystem in the Metaverse (e.g., Facebook) allows you to use it in another (like TikTok). Or buy a physical product, which includes a digital twin — a digital representation as well as a statistic — for your online persona. And vice versa, the digital twin could be used to increase sale at a physical location, if a physical product is not available at a shop, the digital twin can be shown as example. Want to model how a car would behave with the same conditions as in the physical world your are in right now (weather, population, other vehicles on the road) then you can in the Metaverse. Or just google Fortnite’s Ariana Grande concert in the Metaverse.
Meta-commerce is you like, beyond e-commerce. Metaverse is also beyond virtual reality. It is a hybrid of VR, AR, mixed reality and can interact with real life.
So interoperability between eco-systems is key. This is how the timestamps of blockchain can show its worth beyond crypto! The same goes for data. To understand the value of good data, you need to think beyond the structured data that often comes to mind when we talk about data, AI and innovations.
The Metaverse is all about unstructured data or files; e.g., images, videos, music, SEO. Often a neglected area when it comes to data quality concepts such as accuracy (high, medium, low quality), timeliness, versioning (which originates from archiving principles and is now becoming directly related to the core business & product life cycle management), format and completeness. Each file needs to have sufficient data quality rules, definitions and other meta data to enable the above mentioned interoperability. It needs to be totally clear that the digital twin you’re being is from this season or last season for instance. And don’t forget hygiene factors such as ownership (who owns the digital twin? Who can re-sell it?), customization possibilities, portability, sharing agreements, security and most of all privacy. Hot topic, privacy and The Metaverse. Being in accordance with legislation is key in a highly digital world.
From an analytics perspective, the Metaverse is similar to AR &VR. It needs high quality training data. Which means data sets needs to be accurate and fit for use, removing bias and including good data labeling — based on standard classifications.
The Metaverse within the healthcare sector seems a logical next move. Here the ownership, portability and privacy are even more significant. Further increasing the value of good data quality, governed by a fitting regime.
In short, the Metaverse is the upcoming opportunity to increase the value of good data. And for businesses to become further data driven.
