Nike is launching .Swoosh, an online store and trading platform for the brand’s virtual sneakers, with the first collection to debut in January 2023 (Kim Bhasin/Bloomberg)

As students head back into classrooms this fall, some schools are already using the metaverse for teaching and learning. Yet, according to Jaime Donally, engagement director at Identity Automation and a former EdTech K–12 influencer, the metaverse doesn’t exist — at least, not to its full potential.
“There are elements of the metaverse that are happening, but the metaverse itself is not open-ended like the metaverse will need to be,” Donally says. “Immersive experiences layering augmented reality information have been increasing, but it doesn’t mean that the metaverse exists today.”
As school…

Dean Takahashi / VentureBeat:
Sci-fi author Neal Stephenson’s blockchain technology startup Lamina1 releases a whitepaper on building an open metaverse, dubbed Theee Metaverse  —  Neal Stephenson’s Lamina1 blockchain technology startup dropped a white paper today on building the open metaverse.  It’s quite the manifesto.

Dean Takahashi / VentureBeat:
Nvidia unveils its first SaaS and IaaS offering, Omniverse Cloud, a services suite for artists, developers, and enterprise teams to build and run metaverse apps  —  Nvidia today announced its first software- and infrastructure-as-a-service offering — Nvidia Omniverse Cloud …

Bloomberg:
A profile of Unity CEO John Riccitiello, as he faces criticism for the company’s targeted ads, his metaverse ambitions, years of dating the head of HR, and more  —  John Riccitiello was on top of the metaverse.  Last November the chief executive officer of Unity Software Inc. spilled the news …

Melissa Repko / CNBC:
Walmart debuts metaverse experiences Walmart Land and Walmart’s Universe of Play in Roblox, which it calls a testing ground, to try to reach younger shoppers  —  – Walmart is entering the metaverse with two experiences, Walmart Land and Walmart’s Universe of Play, in gaming platform Roblox.