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MINT CLUSTER

MIND THE METAVERSE

Why MINT cluster?

Advances in technology are bringing, and often accelerating, change in almost all areas of life. The metaverse, or new internet, is associated with a whole range of new-age technologies: virtual, augmented and augmented reality, 5G communications, the internet of things, the semantic web, blockchain technologies, 3D modelling, web 3.0, and more. How will these even more engaging technologies affect business opportunities for companies, how will they change public services and the regulatory environment, and how will they change people's daily lives? These and many other important questions remain unanswered today. What is clear, however, is that harnessing the potential of the Metaverse will require new ways of working, new skills and new knowledge. What matters is not just the need to adapt to the new online economy, but the capacity to take a leading role in shaping the future.

Our focus in exploring the evolution of Metaverse is on people and the interplay between people and technology: what will communication, business and innovation look like in the internet of the future? The ability to combine expertise from different disciplines gives us an advantage in tackling complex issues and the ability to address change from a technology user perspective. As a university, we see our neutral position as an opportunity to bring together a range of partners and stakeholders and to take a leading role in shaping the knowledge and practices of the new internet economy.

Our 6
key areas

1.

Media innovation
studies

We have a long experience in researching cultural change and innovation processes in digital media and communication tools, new media business models, the mechanisms of audiovisual production and consumption, and the emergence of new media forms. Our approach is based on combining the humanities and economics and linking them to technological developments. This allows media innovations to be treated as a coherent system, which is a prerequisite for understanding economic and technological change in a complex and interdependent way. 

The metaverse implies a fundamental shift in business and economic practices in a media-driven world, bringing about changes in business models and media environments in the cultural, media and telecommunications sectors, and raising the need for new practices in media ethics and law. In this context, we have taken as one of our main focus the analysis of the new emerging socio-cultural and economic mechanisms affecting the interaction between the virtual and the physical world, as well as the new value creation and governance methods based on blockchain and data-driven business models, and the changes in media content in the era of Web 3.0 or 'the new Internet'.

In the field of cultural data analytics, we have a wide range of experience working with a wide variety of sources and data types, including text, images, video, audio and other audiovisual and interactive content, both historical and contemporary. We work with private and public stakeholders to understand their operating patterns and dynamics, and how the data generated by their activities can be put to better use for their own benefit, but also for the benefit of society at large. Our expertise lies in ideation, multidisciplinary research and development, and various methods and techniques for data acquisition, preparation, analysis, visualisation and application.

Metaverse is associated with a more interactive and functional, but also significantly more user-centric, data creation and use, where users have control over their data and can monetise it. With this in mind, we have focused on the development of AI-based solutions for data archives and big data analytics, the exploration of the emergence of media and cultural innovations based on the technological capabilities of open data, semantic web and blockchain, the potential for developing data-driven cultural and other services, and much more.

2.

Cultural Data
Analytics

3.

Research on digital participatory culture, online practices and social media.

We have a long track record of combining traditional, creative and innovative methods to analyse the networked world. Our research focuses on the cross-platform experiences of different groups of users (including young people, activists, artists, subcultures, and "regular users"), as well as on how the same groups of users (and even the same individuals) use different platforms. This allows understanding different patterns of interaction, dynamics of community formation and belonging, ways of self-expression and much more, and analysing the emergence of existing and new practices and preferences, both at individual and group levels, and across devices, platforms and applications.

The metaverse will bring about a change in the way people behave in their daily lives. The decentralisation and deplatformisation of the Internet will foster the emergence of new forms of self-organisation and co-creation based on trust. With this in mind, we have set our focus on the research and development of the trustworthiness and various ethical aspects of metaverse applications, as well as on the generational and cultural implications of the willingness to accept AI technologies, the study of different communities in the metaverse, and many other related topics.

We have been studying developments in audiovisual culture and industry for many years. Our strengths are our in-depth knowledge of established forms of audiovisual culture, such as film and television culture, as well as contemporary digital culture, and our interdisciplinary approach to their treatment. Our approach is based on both creative practice-based audiovisual cultural studies and production and content studies of different audiovisual cultural forms and phenomena. 

The metaverse, in which the virtual world intertwines with the physical world, is a significant driver for transmedia modes of creation. Therefore, we are focusing on the exploration and development of effective and persuasive digital storytelling, as well as co-creative and AI-based storytelling methodologies and new creative practices.

4.

Creative practice-based research and
storytelling

5.

Human-technology interaction studies

Technological solutions are only useful if they are designed with the user in mind. At Tallinn University, we have a broad knowledge of different social, human and creative fields and the ability to bring them together with technology. We have a long experience in studying different intervention and communication practices, human-computer interactions, experiences and emotions, as well as values and knowledge perceptions that influence technology use. 

The metaverse is not only seen as virtual reality (VR) consisting of different virtual worlds connected to each other but also as an important interaction between the virtual and the physical world through augmented reality (AR) or mixed reality (XR). We have therefore focused on understanding the virtual interventions and their social consequences that accompany the blending of the virtual and physical worlds, on developing the role and potential use of artificial intelligence in private and public services, on exploring user communities in the metaverse, on analysing the usability of metaverse applications, on the development of avatars for use in socially sensitive situations, and on many other related topics.

At Tallinn University, we have long been studying contemporary transformations in politics, policy-making and governance, as well as citizenship, the state and international and transnational fields. In the field of media and communication, we are interested in the relational dynamics of media policy and governance processes and strategies, their relation to the democratic system, as well as cybersecurity, data justice and ethics, and digital transformations in these fields.

The metaverse implies a structural change in media and internet laws and regulations, which requires new governance and policy-making practices. We aim to focus on the study of the effects of mediatization, digital transformations (digitalisation, automation, artificial intelligence, etc.) in the development of policy and governance solutions, the development of participatory democracy and participatory culture applications, the study of cybersecurity challenges, threats and bottlenecks, the development of tools to facilitate participatory processes, and several other related topics.

6.

Media policy,
governance and cybersecurity studies

Meet the
MINT
cluster people

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