Zuckerberg’s announced intention to build a more maximalist version of Facebook, spanning social presence, office work, and entertainment, comes at a time when the US government is attempting to break his current company up. Watching Zuckerberg’s presentation, I couldn’t decide which was more audacious: his vision itself or his timing. Critically, no one company will run the metaverse - it will be an “embodied internet,” Zuckerberg said, operated by many different players in a decentralized way. Among them: it has to span the physical and virtual worlds contain a fully fledged economy and offer “unprecedented interoperability” - users have to be able to take their avatars and goods from one place in the metaverse to another, no matter who runs that particular part of it. In January 2020, an influential essay by the venture capitalist Matthew Ball set out to identify key characteristics of a metaverse. “we will effectively transition from people seeing us as primarily being a social media company to being a metaverse company” (Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney has been discussing his desire to contribute to a metaverse for many months now.) Earlier this month, The New York Times explored how companies and products including Epic Games’ Fortnite, Roblox, and even Animal Crossing: New Horizons increasingly had metaverse-like elements. Coined in Snow Crash, Neal Stephenson’s 1992 sci-fi novel, the term refers to a convergence of physical, augmented, and virtual reality in a shared online space. “Our overarching goal across all of these initiatives is to help bring the metaverse to life.” “What I think is most interesting is how these themes will come together into a bigger idea,” Zuckerberg said. The company’s divisions focused on products for communities, creators, commerce, and virtual reality would increasingly work to realize this vision, he said in a remote address to employees. Instead, he said, Facebook would strive to build a maximalist, interconnected set of experiences straight out of sci-fi - a world known as the metaverse. The future of the company would go far beyond its current project of building a set of connected social apps and some hardware to support them. Otherwise, we’d pass on Ragazzi given all their tumult.As June came to an end, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg told his employees about an ambitious new initiative. If you see this furniture in a store and can buy it right off the floor, then go for it. Cribs are sold, but we saw more than one complaint online about shipping damage.Īll of Ragazzi’s ups and downs in recent years make it a gamble to purchase. Made in Vietnam, Ragazzi features quality finishes like dovetail drawers and top drawers with felt lining. Most dressers are $850.Īs for quality, it is good, in our opinion. As for dresser options, Ragazzi offers the gamut, from three/five drawer chests to armoires, night tables and combo dressers. In fact, the prices for Ragazzi furniture are about 40% to 50% less than on JcPenney, which makes us wonder if Ragazzi is dumping excess inventory on Amazon.įYI: Retail prices for Ragazzi cribs range from $500 to $900 (most are in the $600 range). A typical example is the Etruia crib, which retails for $700 but is sold on Amazon for $344.70. But then in late 2015, Ragazzi reemerged on Amazon and. After switching factories more than once, the company withdrew from the specialty store market in 2014.įor a while, Ragazzi looked like it was left for dead. Long story short-Ragazzi’s relaunch didn’t go so well. For an undisclosed figure, Stork Craft bought the rights to the Ragazzi name and re-launched the brand as an upper-end line in 2008. In the end, Ragazzi fell victim to the same forces that doomed other Canadian furniture makers: high costs, competition from Asian imports and an unfavorable currency exchange rate.Įnter Stork Craft, the Vancouver, Canada-based furniture importer best known for its low-end cribs sold in Walmart. Ragazzi’s long rein at the top of the luxury nursery market ended in 2006, when the company suddenly declared bankruptcy and shuttered its Canadian factory. The company started in the 70’s as a Quebec-based manufacturer of upper-end baby furniture and had its heyday in the ‘90’s. Ragazzi is a nursery furniture brand with nine lives. 2017 update: Ragazzi appears to be “on hiatus” at the moment there are no longer Ragazzi cribs or nursery furniture for sale.