What Is the Metaverse?

In May 2022, the Seoul Metropolitan Government in Seoul, South Korea, launched the pilot of Metaverse Seoul, a virtual version of Seoul’s mayor’s office. As they worked towards building a broad, immersive, online government platform, they hoped to gain insights from citizens about everything from popular local tourist sites that could be experienced virtually to government services that could be delivered in the metaverse. But to do that, the team had to figure out how to solicit ideas from citizens and then determine which ideas to put to use.

Harvard Business School professor Mitchell Weiss discusses their approach, as well as questions relating to his research on public entrepreneurship and what he calls “possibility government,” in his case, “Metaverse Seoul.”