e-Factory for Metaverse-Based Smart Communities, Cities and Enterprises

Metaverse is the next advancement of the Internet that could usher in unprecedented opportunities for sustainability, resilience and growth in our society. However, it could also expose us to significant challenges in security, privacy, governance and ethical concerns. Additionally, the Metaverse is complex and transformations to it could be prone to failures. This is unfortunate because ICT and digital transformation projects have reached 70-90% failure rates. This paper proposes an innovative ‘e-factory’ model for planning, engineering and management of sustainable Metaverse solutions to address the huge challenges of security, governance, compliance and failure rates. A working prototype of such an e-factory is currently operational and is being used to support our work with the United Nations, as well as research and teaching assignments at academic institutions. Main results based on short case studies are shared and future research directions are discussed.