While metaverse applications are growing, there’s still a perception that this medium is the domain for gamers and techno-geeks. Christopher Lafayette, founder of GatherVerse, is trying to democratize the metaverse through an ecosystem that enables a wider range of users to promote and shares their ideas.

Lafayette will give a keynote speech at IME West on Tuesday, February 7^th between 9 to 10 am, titled, “Medical Technology within the Metaverse – The Fundamental Shift.” In this talk, he will share the current and future state of immersive medtech in the metaverse and what this means for vendors, technologists, and medical practitioners.

But to Lafayette, medtech in the metaverse goes beyond looking how the metaverse can benefit medical technology. To him, it is part of his mission to bring the metaverse and emerging technologies into a human-centered view.

During a recent interview with Design News, Lafayette how his organization, GatherVerse uses human-centered principles to make the metaverse and other leading-edge technologies such as artificial intelligence and virtual and augmented reality accessible to the global community, regardless of political view, income, race, gender, and other factors. GatherVerse’s founding principles, which members must abide by, include accessibility, education, equality, safety and privacy, wellness, ethics, community development, and, first and foremost, humanity.

Related:The Web is the Metaverse

“GatherVerse is focused on the human side of the metaverse,” Lafayette said. “We must look at humanity and ethics. The problem with the dot.com revolution years ago is that it we ran the Internet based on the industrial age of business. Now, we are not just trying to build the next set of apps.”

Harnessing rapidly emerging technologies will be the key to ensuring the metaverse is there for the greater good, Lafayette noted. “Technology is becoming more advanced than the technologists.”

Lafayette operates GatherVerse’s using a virtual online model, which he believes gives it the ability to reach out to more people, in different countries and of different economic circumstances. Moreover, while the organization seeks to make sense out of disruptive technologies such as the metaverse, AI, virtual reality, and augmented reality, the organization acknowledges perhaps the greatest disruption to modern-day lifeꟷthe pandemic.

GatherVerse holds several virtual events where it invites speakers from various fields to speak about their contributions and ideas for the metaverse. It makes these events open to individuals from various nations and walks of life who agree with the company’s founding principles. “Our free platform gives a voice to the common man and woman to share information on disruptive technologies.

Related:The Industrial Metaverse Gets Real

For more information on this and other sessions at IME West, go here.

Spencer Chin is a Senior Editor for Design News covering the electronics beat. He has many years of experience covering developments in components, semiconductors, subsystems, power, and other facets of electronics from both a business/supply-chain and technology perspective. He can be reached at [email protected].