The metaverse has the potential to extend the physical world using augmented and virtual reality technologies allowing users to seamlessly interact within real and simulated environments using avatars and holograms. Virtual environments and immersive games (such as, Second Life, Fortnite, Roblox and VRChat) have been described as antecedents of the metaverse and offer some insight to the potential socio-economic impact of a fully functional persistent cross platform metaverse. Separating the hype and “meta…” rebranding from current reality is difficult, as “big tech” paints a picture of the transformative nature of the metaverse and how it will positively impact people in their work, leisure, and social interaction. The potential impact on the way we conduct business, interact with brands and others, and develop shared experiences is likely to be transformational as the distinct lines between physical and digital are likely to be somewhat blurred from current perceptions. However, although the technology and infrastructure does not yet exist to allow the development of new immersive virtual worlds at scale - one that our avatars could transcend across platforms, researchers are increasingly examining the transformative impact of the metaverse. Impacted sectors include marketing, education, healthcare as well as societal effects relating to social interaction factors from widespread adoption, and issues relating to trust, privacy, bias, disinformation, application of law as well as psychological aspects linked to addiction and impact on vulnerable people. This study examines these topics in detail by combining the informed narrative and multi-perspective approach from experts with varied disciplinary backgrounds on many aspects of the metaverse and its transformational impact. The paper concludes by proposing a future research agenda that is valuable for researchers, professionals and policy makers alike. ... Read more

The development of mobile technology is facilitating the transformation in a way that governments deliver their services. Mobile government is one area that has received very little research, but it can have a tremendous impact on the way citizens engage with their government. This research analyses the data gathered from 81 respondents through online survey on the various aspects of mobile government and collects their views on some of the key questions related to the use of mobile government. The findings showed that although citizens are aware of the possibilities they hardly used mobile devices as a direct communication channel with government. Most users tend to use social media platforms and social media is used as an intermediary between government and citizens. The findings of this research also indicated that although the users are well aware of m-government services and own smartphones, only a handful of them use their mobiles for accessing government services. ... Read more