by Prince Anim

Whether you are tech-savvy, a tech-newbie or technophobic, you may have heard that Facebook has changed its name to Meta — a nod to Mark Zuckerberg’s big bet on the metaverse. This name change signalled a strategic reorientation of the company towards virtual reality — and potentially (we’ll see) a big change in the way we interact with each other and the world around us. 

In this short post (which is meant as a brief introduction to my recently completed masters thesis), I will explain the ideas behind the metaverse before discussing my recent research on the use of virtual reality (VR) by governments for engaging citizens and stakeholders in public discussions. 

The Metaverse: AR and VR

So what is ‘the metaverse’? Simply put, the metaverse is a graphically rich virtual space on the internet where people can work together, play, shop, and socialise, facilitated by virtual reality and augmented reality headsets.

Augmented Reality (AR), alters or enhances your perception of the physical environment with computer-generated information that you can see, hear, feel, taste, and smell. Because this information only augments reality, you are still able to view the real world in front of you. But AR puts an added layer on top of that real-world view, augmenting or enhancing the experience. Popular examples of AR are Snapchat filters and Pokémon GO. AR software often takes advantage of the smartphones that we all carry with us now, so we can use the technology for home decorating and in settings like museums.

Virtual reality, on the other hand, is a computerised system that uses various devices to mask your physical senses and let you explore and interact with a simulated environment.  For example, you can put on a VR headset which blocks out your current worldview and substitutes it with a virtual environment, allowing you to interact with virtual elements as if they were real. We usually think of visual information being experienced through VR. But as with AR, you can also hear, feel, taste, and smell VR input. Some of the leading VR headsets now available are the Quest (formerly Oculus, and now owned by Meta), the PlayStation VR, and the Hololens by Microsoft. 

My Recent Research

I recently published my thesis research for my masters degree in public policy (“Exploring the citizen engagement metaverse: Testing virtual reality for citizen feedback on public space design options” - available here). Given the hype around the Facebook-into-Meta hopes for VR, I was interested to see how far government use of VR had come and where it might be heading. As a student of public policy, I was also interested in understanding what the barriers and downsides of its use might be. And as a cofounder of TransGov in Ghana, I am interested in how technology can serve to strengthen citizen involvement in governance.

Governments have been experimenting with technology to support citizen and stakeholder engagement for public questions like designing public spaces for many years now, moving beyond traditional forms such as printed documents and design charrettes structured around physical objects. Using digital technology, the public can now contribute to the planning and design of public spaces through digital platforms such as online surveys, social media, interactive maps, and touchscreen kiosks. This has helped open up citizen engagement to a wider audience and a broader range of perspectives. 

Recent advances like VR are both a further step along that continuum of using digital tools for citizen engagement, as well as a different approach which can be used to give the public a better understanding of a proposed public space through virtual immersion before a site is built. 

My research involved an experiment with eight citizen volunteers simulating a public participation process on a community playground using VR, gauging how the public might respond to a VR approach to citizen engagement. These participants were asked to comment on a proposed community playpark for children (each of the participants were themselves parents). 

I also sat down with four public servants who regularly run citizen engagement forums to get their perspectives on how VR might change what they do and how they do it.

The results reveal the potential benefits and challenges of using VR for public participation. VR and other emerging technologies have the potential to transform public engagement by allowing participants to experience designs more vividly before they are built and letting them provide more tangible feedback on developing plans. Participants generally valued the VR experience as more vivid than a traditional approach. Rather than imagining how a proposed landscape viewed on a two-dimensional page might look in three dimensions, VR allowed the participants to view the proposal in front of them. And the feedback they could provide could more easily be translated into specific design criteria. Instead of saying “maybe the water fountain could be over there?”, VR can let a user move objects to see what the modification would look like. As one participant noted:

However, public planners need to be aware of these potential benefits and weigh them against the cost and time required to implement a VR-based engagement exercise. As it is, VR should not be seen as a standalone technique; planners can gain more participation and feedback by incorporating VR, but it should be done alongside other traditional approaches, allowing citizens to choose what works best for them. 

The use of VR for public engagement will not automatically increase citizen trust in their government. However, a carefully implemented VR participatory approach can leave citizens feeling more positive about their government and strengthen their attachment to public decision-making processes. 

The abstract and link to the full thesis can be found here.