I mentioned in my last post that I had been working on a report & series of podcasts around the topic of the metaverse…

Well, I'm proud that I can now share the first episode of the podcast series - which just so happens to be the one in which I'm the guest/interviewee. Although I sat in on the other recordings, it was mainly as the eyes on the recording tech rather than joining in the conversations. (It isn't easy to keep my mouth shut when interesting people are talking about interesting things!)

I feel I should note that the actual interview/conversation was recorded before the Facebook/Meta announcement - although there has been a lot of buzz/chatter about "metaverse" stuff over the last couple of months, I'm really pleased that we got our discussion down when it was still a "metaverse platforms" topic (as opposed to the Meta Platforms... topic¹ that has somewhat overshadowed it more recently.)

Also, this was the first one that we recorded together, while our office's usual recording facilities were out of action- the usual "studio" space was full of boxes from another agency's office move, so although we did have some decent microphones, this was a fast learning process about setting them up, as well as audio recording and editing (so I take the blame for any sound quality issues, but thats my excuse.) ² I am very pleased with the results- but I'm surprised how hard I find it to listen to what I'm saying, rather than hearing every tiny tell-tale sound of an edit, or trying to mask the sound of footsteps in the coridoor.

The full series (5 episodes so far - I'm hoping we get the chance to record some more at some point) is available on Spotify, and features some truly excellent guests including Jay Owens (writer/author), Alison Goldsworthy (author of Poles Apart), Alex Le (Reddit), Lindsay Rowntree (ExchangeWire) and James Chandler (IAB) - as well as Starcom's own Jasdeep Mondae, Sophie Barr and Roxana Larizadeh.

Topics of discussion across the series include the tension between "solo" and "social" (ie. is the metaverse truly a social experience, if everyone is experiencing it alone with a VR headset on?), can we trust what we see in a virtual environment if we know nothing in it is truly 'real', and in a digital media world where access has largely replaced ownership (ie. Netflix vs DVDs, Spotify vs. CDs) where is the 'value' going to be created - and in a world of decentralised platforms that cross international borders and cultural norms, what does it all mean for the ethics of the metaverse?

(There's a written report too, which I should be able to share soon.)

[UPDATE- now live on Starcom's website Here!]