Metaverse: A Vision, Architectural Elements, and Future Directions for Scalable and Realtime Virtual Worlds

With the emergence of Cloud computing, Internet of Things-enabled Human-Computer Interfaces, Generative Artificial Intelligence, and high-accurate Machine and Deep-learning recognition and predictive models, along with the Post Covid-19 proliferation of social networking, and remote communications, the Metaverse gained a lot of popularity. Metaverse has the prospective to extend the physical world using virtual and augmented reality so the users can interact seamlessly with the real and virtual worlds using avatars and holograms. It has the potential to impact people in the way they interact on social media, collaborate in their work, perform marketing and business, teach, learn, and even access personalized healthcare. Several works in the literature examine Metaverse in terms of hardware wearable devices, and virtual reality gaming applications. However, the requirements of realizing the Metaverse in realtime and at a large-scale need yet to be examined for the technology to be usable. To address this limitation, this paper presents the temporal evolution of Metaverse definitions and captures its evolving requirements. Consequently, we provide insights into Metaverse requirements. In addition to enabling technologies, we lay out architectural elements for scalable, reliable, and efficient Metaverse systems, and a classification of existing Metaverse applications along with proposing required future research directions

The European Industrial Data Space (EIDS)

This research work has been performed in the framework of the Boost 4.0 Big Data lighthouse initiative, a project that has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under grant agreement no. 780732. This datadriven digital transformation research is also endorsed by the Digital Factory Alliance (DFA)The path that the European Commission foresees to leverage data in the best possible way for the sake of European citizens and the digital single market clearly addresses the need for a European Data Space. This data space must follow the rules, derived from European values. The European Data Strategy rests on four pillars: (1) Governance framework for access and use; (2) Investments in Europe’s data capabilities and infrastructures; (3) Competences and skills of individuals and SMEs; (4) Common European Data Spaces in nine strategic areas such as industrial manufacturing, mobility, health, and energy. The project BOOST 4.0 developed a prototype for the industrial manufacturing sector, called European Industrial Data Space (EIDS), an endeavour of 53 companies. The publication will show the developed architectural pattern as well as the developed components and introduce the required infrastructure that was developed for the EIDS. Additionally, the population of such a data space with Big Data enabled services and platforms is described and will be enriched with the perspective of the pilots that have been build based on EIDS.publishersversionpublishe

The Failed Implementation of the Electronic Prescription in Germany - A Case Study

Many countries worldwide are striving for improving the quality of care and for reducing costs in the health care sector by establishing large IT infrastructures. In Germany, the introduction of the electronic health card and the national telematics infrastructure is lagging years behind the original schedule. In this paper, we describe and analyze a case study of one selected part of this ultra-large intervention. The selected part is the failed implementation of the electronic prescription. The related activities started in 2003 and ended in 2010 when a decision was made to abandon this part of the intervention. We present a detailed analysis of the project and identify 14 reasons in five categories for the project’s failure. Furthermore, we provide a multi-layered overview of the episodes and sub-projects

How can the communication sector adapt to the metaverse

The metaverse is a term used to describe a new generation of the internet, where users can interact with each other and virtual objects and experiences in real-time. It is expected to significantly impact a wide range of industries, including communications, entertainment, and education. This research examines the potential impacts of the metaverse on the communications industry in the short term. It begins by defining the metaverse and discussing the key technologies enabling its development. It then goes on to identify the business areas that are most likely to be impacted by the metaverse. This research argues that the metaverse will significantly impact the communications industry in the short term. It will lead to the development of new communication technologies, platforms, and business models. It will also change the way that people communicate with each other and consume information. This investigation discusses how the communications industry can adapt to the metaverse. It argues that the industry needs to invest in new technologies and platforms and develop new business models. It also needs to focus on creating immersive and engaging user experiences.O metaverse é um termo utilizado para descrever uma nova geração da Internet, em que os utilizadores podem interagir uns com os outros e com objetos e experiências virtuais em tempo real. Prevê-se que venha a ter um impacto significativo numa vasta gama de sectores. Esta investigação examina os potenciais impactos do metaverse no sector das comunicações a curto prazo. Começa por definir o metaverse e discutir as principais tecnologias que permitem o seu desenvolvimento. Em seguida, identifica as áreas de negócio com maior probabilidade de serem afetadas pelo metaverse. Este estudo defende que o metaverse terá um impacto significativo no sector das comunicações a curto prazo e conduzirá ao desenvolvimento de novas tecnologias de comunicação, plataformas e modelos de negócio. Também mudará a forma como as pessoas comunicam umas com as outras e consomem informação. Esta investigação analisa a forma como o sector das comunicações se pode adaptar ao metaverse. Defende que o sector precisa de investir em novas tecnologias e plataformas e desenvolver novos modelos de negócio. Deve também concentrar-se na criação de experiências de utilização envolventes e cativantes que atraiam uma maior adoção do metaverse por dos utilizadores

Enterprise Architecture in Healthcare Networks: A Systematic Literature Review

Healthcare organizations collaborate, share knowledge, and need to be accountable to each other. Therefore, healthcare organizations manage a dynamic information system landscape. Enterprise Architecture (EA) is a management tool for aligning these landscapes to the primary information needs that healthcare organizations have. EA is of value in some environments, but it seems to be not well suited to the dynamics of healthcare. Despite the publication of several systematic literature reviews on EA in healthcare, a systematic literature study comparing EA applicability at various levels of cooperation (intra, inter, and network collaboration) is lacking. Therefore, we posed the following research question: To what extent is EA researched within healthcare organizations in the context of intra, inter and network collaboration? A systematic literature review was used to select 94 scientific publications for evaluation. These studies make explicit the EA elements at three levels of collaboration in the context of healthcare. The findings show that EA is most frequently studied in relation to a single healthcare organization with a wide range of topics. IT governance and EA implementation are the subjects of the majority of EA network level studies (17 out of 94 studies), followed by building/developing EA, EA acceptance, EA issues and root causes, and EA modeling. Although numerous EA frameworks are discussed in studies at the intra- and interorganizational levels, they are rarely referenced in studies at the network level. Additionally, the EA benefits, success factors, and challenges are comparable at high level, but details differ per level. These findings demonstrate that EA is researched within the healthcare sector context. The majority of knowledge on EA is focused on a single healthcare organization, but little is known about EA in a networked healthcare environment. To learn more about how EA might be used in a healthcare network setting, a research agenda has been set up based on the results

The Global Risks Report 2016, 11th Edition

Now in its 11th edition, The Global Risks Report 2016 draws attention to ways that global risks could evolve and interact in the next decade. The year 2016 marks a forceful departure from past findings, as the risks about which the Report has been warning over the past decade are starting to manifest themselves in new, sometimes unexpected ways and harm people, institutions and economies. Warming climate is likely to raise this year's temperature to 1° Celsius above the pre-industrial era, 60 million people, equivalent to the world's 24th largest country and largest number in recent history, are forcibly displaced, and crimes in cyberspace cost the global economy an estimated US$445 billion, higher than many economies' national incomes. In this context, the Reportcalls for action to build resilience – the "resilience imperative" – and identifies practical examples of how it could be done.The Report also steps back and explores how emerging global risks and major trends, such as climate change, the rise of cyber dependence and income and wealth disparity are impacting already-strained societies by highlighting three clusters of risks as Risks in Focus. As resilience building is helped by the ability to analyse global risks from the perspective of specific stakeholders, the Report also analyses the significance of global risks to the business community at a regional and country-level

Ecology-based planning. Italian and French experimentations

This paper examines some French and Italian experimentations of green infrastructures’ (GI) construction in relation to their techniques and methodologies. The construction of a multifunctional green infrastructure can lead to the generation of a number of relevant bene fi ts able to face the increasing challenges of climate change and resilience (for example, social, ecological and environmental through the recognition of the concept of ecosystem services) and could ease the achievement of a performance-based approach. This approach, differently from the traditional prescriptive one, helps to attain a better and more fl exible land-use integration. In both countries, GI play an important role in contrasting land take and, for their adaptive and cross-scale nature, they help to generate a res ilient approach to urban plans and projects. Due to their fl exible and site-based nature, GI can be adapted, even if through different methodologies and approaches, both to urban and extra-urban contexts. On one hand, France, through its strong national policy on ecological networks, recognizes them as one of the major planning strategies toward a more sustainable development of territories; on the other hand, Italy has no national policy and Regions still have a hard time integrating them in already existing planning tools. In this perspective, Italian experimentations on GI construction appear to be a simple and sporadic add-on of urban and regional plans