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Episode 168

June 08, 2022

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    Intro

    Community is on the rise. It was just a few episodes ago that I spoke with Anamaria Dorgo about facilitating communities, but in this episode I’m looking further into the future.

    What do communities look like in the metaverse? Can we connect in digital spaces? What needs to change or emerge for us to find community in virtual or augmented reality?

    Daniel Liebeskind is just the person to address this question, as the co-founder and CEO of Topia. In such a nascent industry, Daniel is as experienced as anybody. Topia launched in 2020 and is at the forefront of world-building and virtual communities.

    Join us for a conversation that touches everything from facilitation and design to NFTs and decentralisation.

    Find out about

    • Why every community builder is a facilitator, even if they don’t realise it
    • How prioritising accessibility helps us build stronger communities
    • How Topia combines play, co-creation, and purpose to create communities in the metaverse
    • Why your members need to bond with your platform as well as each other
    • Why the best virtual worlds prioritise form and function ahead of visual beauty
    • What tutorials and onboarding look like in a metaverse space – and why they’re so important

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    Questions and Answers

    01:20When did you start calling yourself a facilitator – if you do? 02:05What was the trigger that moved you to found Topia? 04:17 Did you learn anything from your family taking over summer camps that applies to your work now? 06:36 What challenges did you encounter when trying to create communities – or facilitate the creation of communities – online? 13:27Can the space you’ve created facilitate itself, so new members don’t get lost in the world you’ve built? 19:59Would you agree that online communities that emerged since 2020 have been very centralised in terms of power? 23:00How do you create a social contract- shared rules and behaviours – for communities? 24:48 Do you have any best or worst practice examples? 27:37What have you built into the tool to facilitate the sense of occupying a world together? 32:40What would you say are the minimum requirements for somebody to facilitate in a Topia space? Where should they start? 01:13What’s the perfect size for a space? Is there such a thing? 04:28What are the tech obstacles – especially around bandwidth – to platforms like Topia 07:31How far away do you think we are from your initial vision of virtual reality worlds 11:13How do you handle issues of overwhelm – as the builder of the tool and a user, too 15:21Can non-visual thinkers build worlds, too? 23:12Would a world without constraints be a world that fails? 29:09Do you have a favourite exercise on Topia? 31:29Where do you see the opportunity with NFTs within online community building?

    Links

    Topia’s website

    Connect to Daniel

    On LinkedIn

    On Twitter