The Future of XR, SXSW Meetup Plans, and Social War

Read until the end for Gritty’s take on Uncut Jahhhmmmms

Feb 25

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This week I moderated a panel discussion about the future of mixed reality experiences and the implications for behavior, brands, and beyond. The MIMA event included Farhan Khera from Huge (NY), Josh Beatty from ARound (MN), and Lauren Fisher from The Famous Group (LA), the company behind this amazing work…

The discussion focused on the current state of VR/AR/MR/XR and spatial computing, the opportunity to build community through collective experience, the implications of privacy, data and ethics of these emerging technologies, and… how brand can begin to test and learn with pilots in this important and emerging area of marketing! My favorite.

MIMA @mimatweet

The contentious definition of #Virtual Reality, #AugmentedReality, #MixedRealty #ExtendedReality #Metaverse and #SpatialComputing for today's panel discussion hosted by @gregswan #MIMATweet #MIMAEvent

If you missed the event, you can register after the fact to receive the recording playback (email info@mima.org to register).

🤠 Let’s Hang Out at SXSW

Planning to go to South by Southwest (SXSW) in Austin, Texas next month? Hit me up and let’s find a way to connect. And I’m organizing the 3rd Annual Minnesota Meetup this year, which you should come to. Even if you aren't from Minnesota, you are invited. That's what Minnesota Nice is all about. Details and RSVP here.

📝 A Brief Note on Ukraine + Social War

In 1991 my parents recorded Operation Desert Storm on our VCR as the first patriot missles were fired live on TV during the primetime news hour. I don’t know how it ended up in my possession (and I don’t even own a VCR anymore!), but I knew right where it was this morning. My parents clearly had a sense that military action was a turning point, and I certainly felt that keeping an archive of that live moment was intuitively important.

This week we watched missles hitting buildings in Ukraine live on TikTok and our kids had the saber rattling, violence, and damage all over their personal feeds. That footage is saved and will be accessible in the cloud forever. We witnessed the start of a war and a new paradigm again this week, but there was no need to save or record anything to be passed down through the generations. It’s everywhere. Forever. Ugh.

As the world moved social-first in the last two years, it’s not a surprise the next big war is also coming to us social-first. From Ukraine’s official Twitter handle slamming Russia to social media posts sharing firsthand reports of damage, Israel studying social content for military intelligence to WWIII memes flooding our feeds, it’s a sad week. And it’s playing out in our feeds at a pace and scale unlike we’ve ever seen. See this thread below..

Emma Berquist @eeberquist

need a master thread of the most insane takes today

For now, I highly recommend reading this piece from Axios and reading all the stories linked within: The TikTok War: Public video of Russian-Ukraine transforms battle theater. And keep an eye on those feeds – as both a global citizen who is affected by this war and a student of how today’s humans use social for bad and for good. We’re living history and a lot will be written about the new social-first war phenonema in the decades to come.