The development of the internet, particularly the World Wide Web, is currently hitting its limits—both technically and socio-culturally, as well as economically. A new internet is promised as a solution, one that aims to overcome the boundaries between the real and the virtual world, merging reality and digitality—the metaverse.

Metaverse?.- Where from ... where to ... or: what is it anyway?.- The merging of worlds and ... verses.- Another dimension: Economic merging.- What cannot be omitted: Critique.- The real vision.- Now is the time to build!.- Addendum 1 - Because it is so current: Artificial Intelligence in the Metaverse?.- Addendum 2 – Almost Even More Current: Is the Hype Already Over?.

The development of the internet, particularly the World Wide Web, is currently hitting its limits—both technically and socio-culturally, as well as economically. A new internet is promised as a solution, one that aims to overcome the boundaries between the real and the virtual world, merging reality and digitality—the metaverse. Technical, semantic, and organizational details are closely intertwined in this context.

But what does this mean upon closer examination? What technical and technological challenges must be overcome to achieve such a merging? What economic opportunities arise—and which ones may be precluded? How can we ensure that an open and universally accessible metaverse is created? And how can we prevent a few large providers from imposing their proprietary ideas in this new metaverse? This book aims to provide answers to these questions.

The Author

Dr. Peter Hoffmann, on one hand a professor of business informatics and on the other a passionate Media Computer Scientist, has been exploring for over 20 years the questions of what "digital media" and "virtual worlds" actually are and how users can interact with them.

The translation was done with the help of artificial intelligence. A subsequent human revision was done primarily in terms of content.