Q&A with Meta's Andrew Bosworth on how metaverse content will be ranked and displayed, balancing between private conversations and moderating content, and more
there is so much hope for innovation in trust & safety in AR/VR. But we can't let the mindset of connection at all costs lead this next era of computing. May $FB use this opportunity not just to reinvent its name, but also its culture. /fin @samidh : 7/ This is all too important to rely just on $MVRS leaders to evolve their culture. Regulators must be forward looking and take action now. Scrutinize their plans to dump hardware below costs, or their deals that snap up all the major VR studios. This can't wait. @samidh : 8/ Employees of conscience must also do their part. Refuse to work on anything @ FRL that bubbles up to a growth goal. Spend time w/ UXRs to understand risks. And don't let FB off the hook for its social media integrity failures. Put food on your table w/out blood on your hands. @samidh : 6C/ Never do any public presentation (or internal All Hands) without making safety 30% or more of the content. This isn't “breaking into jail”. It is showing your team that this needs to be in their DNA and also gives everyone the vocabulary and frameworks to do it seriously. @samidh : 3/ And Boz gets this, too. He has for a long time. What people forget about his ‘Ugly Truth’ memo is that he speaks incredibly honestly about the gut-wrenching downsides of social media. You bet he is building the Reality Labs team to get ahead of this problem. @samidh : 4/ But what people also overlook in Boz's ‘Ugly Truth’ manifesto is the most dangerous part where he asserts that connections are “perhaps the only area where the metrics do tell the true story as far as we are concerned.” This is the company's culture problem in a nutshell. @samidh : 6E/ Bring in outside experts from across the world (including civil society) as co-designers. I don't mean consultation groups. I mean actual design and decision sessions. Let them be in the room when you make tough product calls. Sound hard? Well so is VR. You can figure it out. @samidh : 5/ Now let's reconcile this with a main message of the company's metaverse unveiling this week: their explicit aspiration to bring this to a billion people ASAP. It's couched as an egalitarian goal, but practically speaking, it seeds a growth at all costs mindset all over again. @samidh : 6A/ Don't set growth/adoption as any FRL team's top level goal. Moreover, don't just set a different goal that prices in safety, but also publicly declare what it is and make quarterly reporting on progress towards that goal transparent. @samidh : 6B/ Make trust and safety a function that directly reports to the head of FRL. Empower this person with the same veto ability that other product and growth functions get over launches. Already there is a talented team here; now just give them real top billing. @samidh : 2/ On the positive side, there's already real recognition that safety is a critical problem in VR. The FB app was widely adopted by the time this was a concern, but safety will be critical to getting VR adoption. This time it is a business imperative and not just PR palliative. @samidh : 6/ So how can Mark, Boz, and crew do better this time around and bring this experience to the world without creating a digital dystopia? Here are a few ideas... @samidh : 6D/ Let the community actually govern the metaverse. Don't just pay lip service to being developer friendly. Actually give up control to the community. This is likely what Mark meant when he said VR would need new models of governance. Now flesh out this vision! @batka_ : Future is #Metaverse. https://twitter.com/... Geek / @nerdyandnatural : I want to strangle the word metaverse and everyone who was involved with making that word a thing https://twitter.com/...
1/ Now that FB has meta-stasized from fake news to fake reality, the big question is if they can make their metaverse a truly safe space by learning the lessons from social media's struggles. I'm hopeful, but it will require them to rewire their whole culture. Here's why/how...
2/ On the positive side, there's already real recognition that safety is a critical problem in VR. The FB app was widely adopted by the time this was a concern, but safety will be critical to getting VR adoption. This time it is a business imperative and not just PR palliative.
6C/ Never do any public presentation (or internal All Hands) without making safety 30% or more of the content. This isn't “breaking into jail”. It is showing your team that this needs to be in their DNA and also gives everyone the vocabulary and frameworks to do it seriously.
6E/ Bring in outside experts from across the world (including civil society) as co-designers. I don't mean consultation groups. I mean actual design and decision sessions. Let them be in the room when you make tough product calls. Sound hard? Well so is VR. You can figure it out.
9/ I believe all this is possible— there is so much hope for innovation in trust & safety in AR/VR. But we can't let the mindset of connection at all costs lead this next era of computing. May $FB use this opportunity not just to reinvent its name, but also its culture. /fin
5/ Now let's reconcile this with a main message of the company's metaverse unveiling this week: their explicit aspiration to bring this to a billion people ASAP. It's couched as an egalitarian goal, but practically speaking, it seeds a growth at all costs mindset all over again.
7/ This is all too important to rely just on $MVRS leaders to evolve their culture. Regulators must be forward looking and take action now. Scrutinize their plans to dump hardware below costs, or their deals that snap up all the major VR studios. This can't wait.
8/ Employees of conscience must also do their part. Refuse to work on anything @ FRL that bubbles up to a growth goal. Spend time w/ UXRs to understand risks. And don't let FB off the hook for its social media integrity failures. Put food on your table w/out blood on your hands.
Ditching this logo, and the brand name, is one of the worst moves anyone's made in a long time. They managed to make a name synonymous with VR - and are flushing it down the toilet to be replaced by generic nonsense. Wish ppl at Oculus pushed back on this a little harder https://…
Not too late to undo this mistake. Meta and Oculus could easily coexist. FB pretended Oculus was independent long after it wasn't, surely it can keep the brand for hardware https://twitter.com/...
3/ And Boz gets this, too. He has for a long time. What people forget about his ‘Ugly Truth’ memo is that he speaks incredibly honestly about the gut-wrenching downsides of social media. You bet he is building the Reality Labs team to get ahead of this problem.
6A/ Don't set growth/adoption as any FRL team's top level goal. Moreover, don't just set a different goal that prices in safety, but also publicly declare what it is and make quarterly reporting on progress towards that goal transparent.
6/ So how can Mark, Boz, and crew do better this time around and bring this experience to the world without creating a digital dystopia? Here are a few ideas...
4/ But what people also overlook in Boz's ‘Ugly Truth’ manifesto is the most dangerous part where he asserts that connections are “perhaps the only area where the metrics do tell the true story as far as we are concerned.” This is the company's culture problem in a nutshell.
6D/ Let the community actually govern the metaverse. Don't just pay lip service to being developer friendly. Actually give up control to the community. This is likely what Mark meant when he said VR would need new models of governance. Now flesh out this vision!
6B/ Make trust and safety a function that directly reports to the head of FRL. Empower this person with the same veto ability that other product and growth functions get over launches. Already there is a talented team here; now just give them real top billing.