UX Speaker Series: Yolanda Barton, The Revere XR Story and Its Oculus Launchpad Triumph
series in HCDE, and so as with every week we're in for treat again this week. I'm so excited about this week's speaker, she's also going to be hanging around for a couple days for a hackathon afterwards which she'll be also talking about. So it's great to have this engagement this week. So it's my pleasure to introduce Yolanda Barton, she's a trailblazer in immersive storytelling she's a venerated expert in pioneering founder of Revere XR, using cutting edge extended reality, virtual, augmented, mixed reality, and artificial intelligence to recreate history and bring it to life through XR preservation. She's transforming the ways we engage interact and experience history melding rich history and heritage of the past with future technologies. She holds double master's
degrees from the University of Washington. She's the most recent winner of the Oculus launchpad, and named among the top 100 women of the future as an XR evangelist and a finalist for the ferals black ambition award. She's also been honored by various foundations so with that I'm going to turn things over to Yolanda and she's going to go old school and use no slides today so we're in good treat. Oh look at that. [Yoland Barton] [Applause] I feel like we've met the quota for slides in the first five weeks so I'm going to spare you that and actually have a conversation and hope that we can accomplish an interaction today. I'll test the mic can you hear me okay? If someone in the back could give me a thumbs up can you hear me I see one I see two sold. Thank you really excited to be here with you guys today and I'm telling you it is bringing back insane memories to be walking around on this campus.
I'm not the average husky for a lot of reasons but I'll say that I initially started on this campus as a high school student. The Ida B. Wells school for social justice was chartered on this campus and I was one of the first 10 students, and then the University of Washington picked five of us to come straight from high school in to to do our bachelor's. I finished my bachelor's here - okay I'll date it, 2004, which was quite some time ago. I was trying to decide if I really wanted
to be honest about my age but given that I have a birthday I'm excited to tell you I'm 44 years old. And I as a professional who had been in corporate for more than a decade came back to school as a graduate student. I know no one wants to say that because we're all fixated on the timeline but it was honestly the best thing I could have ever done was to leave. And I was in not the cute part of corporate I was in the highly crisis-driven environment of corporate pushing like 80 hours a week it was not easy, and I wanted to do something different. So I took the time to get back to who I was as as a person. So let's start there I'm born and raised in Seattle how many of you are
from Seattle raise your hand. Oh you unicorns yes okay a couple of us. For those of you that live in Seattle but aren't born and raised here I'll fill you in on some history. There's some amazing people that chartered their career and a lot of legacies that come from this city that a lot of people don't talk about. Since this is black history month has anybody heard of Jacob
Lawrence? Seattle. Has anybody heard of Jimmy Hendricks? Seattleite. Quincy Jones. so people like Quincy Jones, Ray Charles, Jimmy Hendricks, Bruce Lee, Ernestine Anderson, Ruby Bishop, Sir Mix Alot, Kenny G, I mean Kurt Cobain, I can keep going. You guys can add to this list too. All amazingly from this city and for a city to have touched that many genres, that much music history, yet nobody talks about that. Well I was very proud of that history growing up and very keenly aware that my city birthed legacies - genius brilliant. So to be from Seattle for those of you who raised your hand congratulations and for those of you who are here you're now connected to the legacy, that was something I was really proud of when I was younger. I mean my parents helped do the breakfast
program with the Black Panther Party my father did a lot of like football camps and bought uniforms and coached and there was just a huge emphasis on community and I'm very grateful to be from that space to know that such brilliant people and contributions from so many other people came from the city. My grandmother was the first black woman in the city to own a beauty salon and she trained other women how to be beauticians so that they could make money and generate revenue. So much history wrapped up in Seattle that nobody's really talking about. And then I left, after college like most of us do and we go explore life elsewhere. Lived in a couple different places worked for some mayors worked for some global leadership in corporate, established an amazing career in project management and honestly I finessed relationships and learned that that was a gift but it wasn't intentional. It was just something I good at - I care about people right and I care
about their stories and that seemed to work for the people that I represented was that I cared about people's stories and learning who they were and where they came from. That's always been at the core of who I am so when corporate no longer worked for me I had to ask the question, what now? Anybody else been there am I the only one that's had to face the what now? That's not enough hands it's coming trust me. What okay three hands thank you. I appreciate you okay four. We're almost there it's coming and you really want to take the time to be honest with yourself and really get to the core of like what is my purpose. Listen I'm not here to tell you what you should believe in in terms of a higher power or not but we have an opportunity to explore what our purpose here could be and how that could impact others and that was something that I took very seriously. So as as a
grown and older professional with two children I applied to a communication leadership program with an emphasis on digital storytelling since storytelling is at the very core of who I am and what I want to offer the world. And I got accepted to come back to the University of Washington and reestablish my world as a grown Husky as opposed to the undergrad Husky. And that really launched something new because I was excited about bringing my two daughters back to the city that I was born and raised in you get to connect with your legacy, you get to see your great grandparents history, I have so many stories. Except when we got there none of that history was there anymore. Nor was the community that I was born and raised in. It literally vanished. Anybody experienced that before going home and it not being there? It was definitely a devastating moment that I really had a hard time approaching and so let's talk about the reactions of that - a lot of people are like get over it we moved. That's one approach not necessarily mine some people feel like well this is the new upscale version of your community except none of my community is here anymore. So
I want to make it really clear I am not here to talk to people about all the awful and the pros of gentrification but I am here to tell you it exists. And that an entire group of people and the history of a community that literally housed some of the most priceless history in the city they were displaced, and people are still finding their way back to their community. And some of the reactions I had was what about the elders what about Miss Johnson, she's the one I would walk home and carry groceries and hear her stories around the clock like what's going to happen to the storytellers, what's going to happen to the stories, what's going to happen to the history, how are we going to make sure future generations have access to that history. Some of you may be asking yourself the same questions and that's what I was faced with. I did not have an answer answer I did not have a solution but I decided I was going to use my grad school journey to approach a solution. And um I did. So I took the concept of what does it mean to preserve what's urgently
vanishing into every single classroom I don't know about you guys it's really easy to just kind of go to each class focus on the syllabus and you're just kind of checking off what's coming right and then it's over. But maybe there's an opportunity to approach it with a deeper story or a stronger understanding of what you're trying to do in life that can help guide you along that syllabus. And for me mine was how in the hell do I preserve the history that was lost, how do I honor the elders that took the time to raise me and contribute to my entire community. So given that you've already been updated that I did two masters I brought that concept into a lot of classes and there's some professors along the way that still are a part of my journey because they took a lot of time to support me and be a part of that. I'll share with you a little bit more about what happened from there after going through each class and taking some classes outside of my area of study I was exposed to some technology that literally blew my mind. I mean no one in my community ever talked about virtual reality nobody even knew what that was. So the minute I put on a headset I
was immediately exposed to what I'd like to say is infinite possibilities, right. And I think for the people who were plugging me in I'll say they were really excited about the games - yeah this is cool I can play beatsaber all day with my kids it's awesome I love that we can do sports and fitness, it's cool it's wonderful but there's got to be something else to this than just that. And for me I decided look are you telling me we can simulate any environment, like we can do that and then so we can simulate environments that we no longer have access to which means we can recreate history and bring it to life for people to experience? Bam there was my solution and so from 2016 to 2019 I did two masters and part of a doctorate where I met Yim in the iSchool and I just pushed that concept of what does it mean to preserve history with immersive technology. Built a body of work called XR preservation and immersive storytelling and you know really got some great media for that.
But what I think is really important for everybody to do and what I want to encourage you guys to do too I didn't just leave my ideas in the classrooms and the study groups and the professors, I went to communities to ask them their thoughts to get their feedback to get a response. And I make jokes all the time especially when I was in my doctorate program a lot of people are getting doctorates and doing research on their neighbors. You didn't really reach that far you know or they're doing it amongst their friends. I know that I'm not necessarily the council for who gives people doctorates but I believe if you're going to do research you should do it in groups and in communities that are very different from the one you sit in to really truly see the impact. So I went to different communities and said what do you think about virtual reality for preserving history anybody have any idea what the response was? I'm willing to take a gauge anybody want to take a guess? Okay I get it they said what the hell is virtual reality. So then there lies a bigger problem like I'm trying to talk to you about how we can preserve our history I have the solution in this headset right now and you've never heard of it. Well who else hasn't heard of it so we
took the time to really pivot with our research I encourage you guys to do the same thing like when you don't get the response that you're looking for be open to trying to take a new path and so we did. We went to a lot of different communities over a year we put on focused design groups all over the place we did it at Microsoft we went to communities that have no access to tech and we plugged people in still do it today even today you can go to the central district of Seattle and at least three times a year we are plugging in community. There's a lot of people that have never touched the technology and how are we ever going to be able to see the impact of that technology if we don't put it in other people's hands. If we all have the same area of expertise and we're using
technology in the same way how are we expanding its purpose beyond this room. And so we did a lot of opportunities to plug in elders, artists, storytellers, community high school students, teens, and literally said what do you think about recreating history in the space? What history would you like to see preserved in this space? How do you believe this technology can amplify the stories that exist in your community how can your voice play a role in this community like can we be a little audacious in our questions right I'd like to see more of that too and I hope that encourages you guys. But we got great responses and people wanted to be a part of that. So I spent an entire masters interviewing elders and collecting their history, we call it oral history preservation, lived experience preservation, but it's an opportunity to take history from those who have lived it as opposed to just reading a book about it. We worked with archives and oculus invited us to speak at their headquarters about our use of their technology and then we were invited to Oculus Launchpad. Now here's where the definitive line came for me. In school it's a concept it's a body of work it's a theory right. I really needed it to be more than that and so I took the time when I made the relationships with oculus to say let me prove it let me show you the impact that this can have on people so joining Oculus Launchpad was great we built a team we built a prototype we rebuilt the entire Central District of Seattle like a 12 block radius you can explore in virtual reality. We filled it up with elders history we put in different spaces
you can walk into and hear elders talk to you and share stories and we're still doing so much more it's not over. And what's really great is that the response from the community has been exceptional. In November we had 107 elders show up at Douglas Truth library to experience their community in virtual reality and when they put on the headsets they told stories, they laughed, they cried, they joined in circles and shared stories and reminisced and it transformed the space. Many students from HCDE participated as volunteers and were immediately impacted and to be
honest that was in November and a lot of students are still posting about it on LinkedIn or on their social media the impact that it had on them. So that's where I really determined my lane was more about bringing a touch a humanity into tech. It's interesting like I have kids and I hear a lot of other parents say technology is just removing our opportunity to connect and now kids don't connect.
I beg to differ it's how we're using technology we can really reins connection and explore humanity through our stories because every country, every city, every community, even every company has a story and so what better way can we experience one another's stories and each other's culture than through immersive storytelling. So yes most people say I'm the CEO and founder of Revere XR, I am but I go by immersive storyteller because I really care about using this technology to amplify our stories and to help us connect through lived experience. Really excited to tell you that our prototype is going to be announced the winner of oculus Launchpad it's the most recent very excited and I noticed when they were judging there was 1165 submissions under the category game and then there was one category that said other and it had one in it and it was ours. Which is in my family and in my community I've always been othered, I've been I was othered on this campus, I was othered in a doctorate program, I've been othered in so many capacities that it's hysterical now that I won with that because that's usually the opposite of how you feel when you're othered. But I've never been more proud to be othered in an industry where people don't look like me think like me don't consider the possibilities of technology like me and I feel like I'm the greatest opportunity for them to take advantage of what we can do with their technology, and I care about how that impacts community. And so listen I know the purpose of these sessions
are more about user design so some of you are like what the hell Yolanda. But I would I would like to say something that powerful how people experience technology is something that should be taken a lot more seriously. What are the community components in the voice of community that you can interweave in tech. Well I tell you that something we really care about so we're hosting a hackathon here on campus tomorrow and Saturday in the Bill and Melinda Gates Paul Allen CSE - okay it's got multiple names now. When I was here we went to the opening and it was the Paul Allen computer science building. So that's what we'll be tomorrow and here's what we're doing we have 14 elders coming one of them is turning 100 years old and he's spending his 100th birthday with us. And he has all of the stories of Quincy Jones and Ray Charles playing
at the same piano when Quincy Jones was 15 and just hearing these stories transforms you. So can you imagine experiencing and hearing it at the same time. Each team in our hackathon is dedicating themselves to preserving an elder through augmented reality and we want to bring that history to life for everyone to experience I have a vision for how history can be simulated in the real world how that can transform our ability to celebrate our differences to experience history and really to be inspired about our future. So you're welcome to come by and check out our hackathon you're welcome to mentor students that are really interested and learning how can they preserve the voice and stories and history of elders. There's plenty of seats. And that's what we're doing is we're recreating it uh the the definition of what a hackathon should be. I was invited to many hackathons I've been to reality hack at MIT I've been to Harvard I've been to a couple different hackathons and one thing that I would say is that I was othered there too and that people didn't really want me on their team because I didn't have coding experience. But I'd like to see a future of tech where we're not just relying on only developers,
programs, coders. I mean technical artists is a great opportunity but what about vision what about community voice, what about storytelling to really navigate how we're using that technology and for you guys what about user experience. How can we bring people together through how they're experiencing this technology what are the untapped in opportunities for connection how can you bring human connection into every opportunity and I do not doubt that that's challenging and a very difficult conversation to have, but in all the differences in this room we stand to create the greatest innovation just by exploring our different lived experiences and how they can enhance technology. And so that's what we're about that's what this hackathon is about.
We literally invited elders, community members, storytellers, amazing groups in design like HCDE, and we invited - there's community storytellers, elders, and design and we're letting people show up as their most authentic self. Come as you please not who you think you need to be not who you're told you need to be not who you've been trained or programmed to feel like you need to be on campus but really who you are and what your ambitions and goals and aspirations are for technology and for people to engage and create community. And so all those people are coming to the hackathon we have a wait list but you're welcome to come check us out we're doing presentations Saturday every team is going to get an elder that they have to preserve and collect their stories so every elder there is going to be preserved into the future and that's what we're about preserving the past into the future and creating new and innovative ways for people to experience that. Now see now that I've said that a ton of you have questions
about that [buzzer] that was my time? No okay I'm messing with you um so I'd love to hear your feedback and I want to be able to have an interaction so I see a hand up let's go. [unintelligible] History yeah absolutely in fact we'll be sharing a lot more and people be doing presentations on what they build what we've created is called an immersive footprint and for some people I'll say culturally a footprint is something that's more like an ancestral gift to the culture that I come from because it means you're following in the footsteps of those that came before you you're honoring the footsteps of those that came before you, and that's the purpose of Revere XR it's about reverence in technology because that's what we feel like is lacking is honoring what came before us. Celebrating the past and helping it inspire our future. I mean I will say personally Jimmy Hendricks was one of my favorite musicians but when the at the time the 97-year-old elder told us a story about this 15-year-old boy who was he wasn't old enough to get in the club let alone by a drink right and so he would go to the back of the club and he kept using tools to create a hole in the back of the club so he could watch these music legacies transform the stage and bring music to life. Every week that hole got bigger and bigger and people started to catch on to what he was doing they're like where's that kid we got to stop him from doing that and one day a blind man who plays the piano said he can come sit in here with me he can sit at the piano don't worry he won't drink let him sit at the piano with me. What the blind man didn't know was that 15-year-old had been taking music theory and piano lessons from a legacy in Seattle and that was the first time that Quincy Jones and Ray Charles played at the same piano together. And you wouldn't know that
story if an elder hadn't told it that's not in a history book that's not in something you'll see in an archive it's a story it's lived experience and being able to experience that can transform how we interact with history. So an immersive footprint allows you that opportunity to experience history and with the use of AI we can now interact with history. Really excited about that future and leading what immersive storytelling looks like in this city so I hope that answered your question. [unintelligible] I purposely was wetting your palette not showing you any visuals but you can come to the hackathon and see a lot more of what we're doing. You can check out our website reverexr.com and you'll learn more about what we're doing and there's a lot
more coming coming out we'll give you a reason to plug in don't worry. More questions? So the elders are going to be coming between 10 and 1, we celebrate Cecil's birthday at lunch at 1:00 so if you come be prepared to share what your vision for the next 100 years looks like and celebrate a 100-year-old Elder who has more stories than I think this city has in archives M another question I saw one yeah [unintelligible] Well first I'll just say and if I'm overstepping my balance let me know don't describe yourself as just an entry level anything. If you're here it's because you have purpose and you have something to offer that only you uniquely can provide. So removing the idea that the amount of experience dictates your expertise or what you can accomplish then you guys should boo me off the stage now because I've never developed or coded anything and I'm not a programmer I'm a voice I have stories I know how to amplify stories and uplift stories, and I still am very confident that that's part of the unique purpose that I have to offer. So not trying to check you I just want to make sure you really give yourself what to do and not really downplay your skill set because what you contribute is something only you uniquely can offer. I do recognize that it is difficult though a very difficult job to consider what does it mean to experience this technology how can we shape those interactions and I think what we need to expand is what we want want people to get out of it what are we hoping it's going to do right and let that really guide our process and not be afraid to do things that haven't been done before like let's push the boundaries let's make it something that people like. So I will say some
people consider a particular person from Stanford like a grandfather or Godfather of VR and he came to UW when I was in the doctorate program and I shared with him my passion for immersive storytelling. And what he said to me was hmm that's not really what it's for. And so at that moment I'm in the middle of a doctorate program the person that I would - you know how sometimes we really look up to some of these people and we just like want them to mentor us and we feel like they're somehow a part of our journey and our solution - well it was very clear in that moment he didn't see what I saw. But I'm also the kind of person that if you tell me no I'm probably going to do it and so I thanked him in my Ted Ex talk that it one of the greatest things that happened to me was someone told me that my ideas weren't what that technology was made for because it just made me want to do it even more and I found myself being driven to say I'm going to prove him wrong I'm going to force him to watch my TED talk I'm going to force him to see me win all these awards and recognition so he can see that he really missed out on the opportunity that I was trying to bring to him. I should find out how he feels about it now cuz that's been quite some time ago but I think being really audacious and apologetic so in my TED EX talk I bring up the understanding of what unapologetic yech is and I think some people think she's so rude like unapologetic, well I think I just explained to you guys I've been othered in every category of my life and nobody thought that was rude right so it's more about accepting yourself who you are not feeling like you have to be like other people to bring the best of who you are to a space authentically walking into every single space, not having to sort of adjust that or mask who you are. I mean a lot of people of color and people from indigenous communities and immigrants and all kinds of people have worn masks long before covid like I did in corporate I had to mask a great deal of who I was because that wasn't part of the environment. And unapologetic tech just means we're not doing that anymore so when you come to our hackathon community is running some of these workshops and you're going to learn how important it is to include community voice in every piece of technology and that every story has an opportunity to amplify connection and if the story is not in the tech it's not immersive storytelling. Wo being unapologetic and accepting your gifts
and your talents means not limiting them to what other people think you are like an entry level, nah you're more than that and what you bring is so unique so just own that and celebrate it and I really think the answers don't come easily. Like y'all I walked through quite a few degrees before I got to this solution but I was determined to create something and you have to be willing to say maybe I don't know what it is maybe I don't know what that outcome is maybe maybe I don't know exactly what I want to build but am I willing to walk through this process and learn from it and help and mold and shape me and my ideas and that the answer will come. So sometimes get rid of the trajectory and just be open to what happens. [unintelligible] yeah thank you so so much I
love hearing about this and this idea has always sparkled thank you how do you like you have this idea that especially people have like pushed back against how do you find the strength resources you know confidence to like keep going through like building a company like that's an unbelievable amount of time and effort like how do you stick with it instead of being like I guess I should do something else? [Yolanda] Well I'd say that those are questions I ask myself every day honestly I mean a lot of entrepreneurs we have to walk around on all the time. You are always pitching, you are always selling, you are always 100% demonstrating the power of what you can do and there's not a lot of safe spaces you can go to say wow this is a lot, do I need to reassess. And I'd say when I do that something really amazing happens every time I questioned if I should be doing something else because of how other people feel about it I get offered to do a TED talk or I get offered to present to the mayor of Seattle and him say, tell me more about how we're going to preserve Seattle's history. So I would say if it's truly for you you honestly can't get away from it it's going to keep knocking at your door and you know being celebrated and really embedding yourself in village and community that has the same aspirations is what got me named top 100 women of the future because I found like-minded ecosystem of women who want to push the boundaries see more women leadership in tech and not be told that they're not enough. So I think you know I've always been unapologetic we were in the same doctorate program so you know how I other myself just by being like no I'm here and I understand that you don't recognize the value in this but this is what's happening this is what we're doing. And essentially that's what we're doing at the hackathon tomorrow too right is I know how you define hackathon let me show you how we define hackathon and what that means to bring people together and preserve history. [unintelligible] Yeah we're doing some of that in fact Nvidia has offered us the opportunity
to be on their stage March 21st at 12:30 Pacific Standard time in San Jose and I have to say the whole thing it just just it works for me um we're going to bring a historic legacy to life and allow people to interact with it now what I can tell you is there's a lot of learning going on right now there's and and my team is amazing because we have no problem facing the challenges because they're like we're going to figure out a solution together. But it's also opened us up to a community of people who are doing similar things and then they want to join our table and say this is what worked for me this is what didn't. The opportunity in partnership with Nvidia is amazing because we get to test out some of their technology that's not available to everyone yet and I wouldn't lie if I wouldn't say listen the last thing I want is an elder acting like chat GPT telling you anything you want to know we want to create some boundaries around that, we want it to be safe, we want it to be true and represent the stories and not have it turn into what a standard conversation with chat GPT can look like if you're all over the map. And so it is important and what I can say is we care a lot about testing the technology and what I won't do because of my ethic and values is just throw anything together. And that technology is growing every day like I
think what we want to create sometimes is a little further ahead than what the technology is able to do and while there's a new AI technology coming out every five minutes, 20 more by the time this talk ends we still have to learn the strengths and weaknesses, we still have to explore the ethics, we still have to consider how it impacts people, we still have to consider how people want to use it, what they want to get out of it, and we need to consider what it looks like for future generations. As always it's not just us here right now what do we want to do to lead a future that promotes more connection and positivity and upliftment through technology. [unintelligible] got be a little louder for me I'm sorry [unintelligible] Oh wait one at a time, I'll lose it I'm sorry I know my strengths and weaknesses. Let's do that
one and then we'll go to the second one. So I I want to answer that in a few ways. I have to check myself on on a regular basis. I do not own history I do not want to dictate what should and shouldn't be told, that's not what I'm here to do. So we approach it in a way where we're focused on elders and their stories of lived experiences because we don't negate that. And then we're making it accessible and available and we don't determine we're only going to share this type we're not going to share that type we don't do that. We partner with archive organizations in Washington state where we pull history from there. Has anybody ever interviewed an elder like I mean
a 90-year old person has anybody ever sat down with their grandparents at an elderly age and ask them questions? Okay couple hands few of you okay and not because your parents made you because you actually wanted to - you don't have to answer that. It's not easy you know because you don't get everything on the first round and elders don't tell you anything until they can begin to trust you and feel like there's a connection. So you spend more time creating that connection in order to help like make that transfer of information so we had to go back a few times right and I'm not going to lie there are some elders that only want to talk politics and I can't be mad at that because their history was paved over their communities were erased I'd be pissed too. I mean I chose to use my frustration in a different way but at 90 years old I don't know that I would have enrolled for a double masters program to create a solution for the entire community. So we want to create a safe space where they can truly express themselves and again I don't own, it I don't dictate it, I don't tell them what they can and can't do. But it does take a gift and one
that I'm grateful to be born with because I care about building relationships with people and hearing their stories so they know that I don't have an agenda or motive and that's priceless when you're extracting information from elders or community is that you don't have an agenda or a motive. I've been interviewed many times and what I've noticed by a lot of people interviewing me is that they're trying to make my words fit in their box. They're trying trying to approach this with their motive and intention for whatever it is they're writing and they're not really using what I'm saying or what I'm trying to tell them they're going to take a couple sentences that hit all the facts they need to be able to provide you know the agenda that they want to pursue and share with the world. That's dangerous in storytelling you really got to be open to what's going to come out of somebody's mouth and not negate it or tell them they're wrong and so you have to be patient, you have to establish trust, you have to make someone feel comfortable and valued in a safe space. What I'm trying to do to show people how important that is is at this hackathon
I've built a Zen space it's for it's a safe space for conversation for people who are dealing with impostor syndrome, for people who feel like they don't belong because maybe it's their first time even exploring this technology. I don't think the culture of tech does that. I don't think people say like come on in and do this it's okay if it's your first time we're going to create a safe space, we have people there to focus on your mental health and wellness to make sure that you're removing doubt and imposter syndrome to make sure that you don't feel diminished in this environment. That's the level of tech that we want but that's also what I brought to the table when I'm interviewing elders and collecting their stories and I stay away from the politics. Any more questions? Did you have your hand up before I'm going to let her go
first and then I got you. [unintelligible] First focus on what you're trying to achieve and then find the this is this is what I'm going to blatantly say too is leave the UW campus and go explore what communities and organizations are interested in that cause, because they are the ones that have the connection to the community for you. So if you can bring your mission and what you're trying to establish to organizations for me that was heritage, that was culture, that was history and preservation that was the archives, that's the libraries that's there's a long list right but if you're willing to explore those lists then congratulations because I and another person in this classroom have spent a lot of time in classrooms with people getting their doctorate interviewing their neighbors and not being willing to explore a much further reach to see what their what the impact of their research can create and consider like beyond what they already want the answer to be. So embed your yourself in the community that you're trying to serve. So if you're looking for the LatinX
community what about de la rasa what about all the heritage organizations that are in alignment with your very mission and you have to be audacious in throwing that net out there. And an email isn't enough I know it's not a LinkedIn message is not enough it's just not and I know nobody says that because you just expect well if they didn't respond to LinkedIn that's no actually you're going to have to channel your good old people skills and go have a conversation and explain what you're trying to achieve and allow them to bring the solution to you because community always will. They'll always if there's alignment and they value what you're trying to accomplish they will open the door and help you access relationships and connections but you have to be willing to leave this campus. Like I'm born and raised in Seattle we were never allowed to go past John Street you know down the hill and I didn't know this was here and until I was in high school and they told me that I was going to be the first 10 students doing my high school diploma here.
That was the first time I even knew this campus existed. So I think about so many people on this campus who don't know what's up the street from here 10, 15 minutes away and it's worth going to explore and consider what other organizations and communities you're in alignment with. Allow them to be a part of your mission, allow their support and their access to community to help shape what you're doing. And then I do know you had question two and I stopped you at one so if you still want
to ask question two? Okay. [unintelligible] Yeah you know we were solely focused on virtual reality for quite some time and like I said I would go into communities we called it our plug-in campaign and plug people in. 98% of the people that came to our events had never ever had the opportunity to put a headset on. What's interesting is that in our internal group when I found out I wan some before right before someone asked someone from meta like what are you going to do to create more accessibility for VR and that leader literally said we've we're already charging very little and so we have to accept that like it's not a priority to everybody. For us it meant putting on regular events where we said come plug in. You don't have to buy this let's make it accessible for you. But at the end of the day that's not enough either right that's a small fish in a huge pond and we can't do that for everyone.
What we decided at Revere XR was it's going to take some time to captivate everyone in the realm of arts and culture and community into VR because it's a huge investment you know asking people to buy a headset is one thing downloading games on a regular basis is another right so we're shifting some of that focus to augmented reality. So now the community is like what is augmented reality so we're putting on a hackathon to introduce them to augmented reality. Because everyone has a phone and with all of the new technology coming out there's a lot of ways to amplify AR so that we can experience history in a lot of different ways. So we do absolutely use both we do have a strong vision for virtual reality but part of a pivot as an entrepreneur is really understanding what your consumers and community have access to, otherwise we're just another organization only serving a few. Any questions? [unintelligible] Oh that's a whole another talk! Um that's real that's something I deal with every single day like look we're being given opportunities that a lot of companies aren't right we're standing on Nvidia stage, we're pitching to the NFL at Super Bowl, we like we get offered to do things that companies who are a lot older have a lot more funding and resources they don't get these opportunities. And part of it is because I am unapologetic in saying everybody on my team is far more talented than me and it's we remove that ego and that need to kind of trump each other which you guys know happens in tech like sorry I didn't like that choice of words but I think you guys understand. What I'm what I'm saying is that the competition of who's the
best who has the most experience who's going to figure it out the fastest the junior versus the senior right like that that needed to be removed and we check ourselves on a regular basis about that like are we focused on the outcome and what it does for people or are we kind of weighing each other's ego and seeing who's is bigger. But every day at least 20 times a day I am faced with what you're talking about right now and especially as a woman of color in tech we make up a very small percentage of leadership and we are othered in every sense of funding resources and support. But the team that I have I call them the Marvel team they bring the visions to life. I just have them and they're all committed to being a part of that but we get people coming to us every day.
That's another thing is that there are people that want to work with Revere. There are people that I have teams that left Oculus to come work with me I have people that are working for large organizations like meta and saying they're bored out of their mind and they will volunteer time to work with us because they want to work on what we're creating. It is not easy, every day I'm at faced with with like I said at least 20 different decisions about how to delegate something, how to acknowledge that I don't have the skills and expertise. And on some level my team is just like overwhelmingly excited about the fact that I have a regular weekly meeting with Nvidia and I don't have any background in tech. Or that I'm in front of Mayors talking about the road map for their city and how to preserve their history to make tech and education more fun and exciting, and I have no background in tech. So it's part of owning that otherness calling it unapologetic and being authentic about who you are. I have the brightest minds to help me determine how we're
going to do it and the research and development is no joke like we spend a significant amount of time on that. Because we have to explore quite a bit of it but it really is a whole another talk the entrepreneur part and I will say I really couldn't go work for someone else and do what I'm doing today. I've worked for politicians I've worked for global leaderships of huge organizations and nothing feels better than what I'm doing right now. But that other stuff
you're talking about is really difficult. So there was one more question up there? [unintelligible] I don't think it's intuitive for anybody I think everybody's trying to figure out what the next greatest thing is going to be. You notice that right like we're in this space where everybody's like oh this is going to be the next greatest thing, this is going to be the next greatest thing, and you see companies closing their door taking that leap. I commend them I don't fault them for that now is a time where we have to be willing to kind of push the boundaries in that way it's intuitive for me I don't think it's intuitive for anybody else. And my team believes that this is the future of it as well so we're just going to keep going. I don't feel like I answered your
question so if you want to [unintelligible] That we need more of you for right like we really had to explore what is more intuitive about how people navigate this neighborhood how they sit down and interact with elders and that's why you come to the hackathon to share your perspective so we're open to having that discussion. I know we don't have a ton of time left... any more questions? unintelligible] You just need to register for the hackathon all the answers are there this weekend. We in terms of tools we are big on storyboarding right because you're talking about something highly visual can't just go based on what someone 's explaining. We have a lot of structures in place to keep
track of what didn't go well what is going well we primarily use unity and we're like that's one of our favorite tools. Learning more about technology that we're beta testing for other companies right now but I would say the design process is really important and we usually contract or have a consultant come in and manage that part for us because we all heavily invested that it's hard for any one of us to facilitate that so we need someone to come in and people in you guys' space always want to do that for us because we have the best ideas. And I think it's not easy, and the marketing part well if we win this pitch competition with the NFL they'll help us with that, and since I want Oculus Launchpad when we do release Meta says they'll help us with that.
We want to really focus on the organizations that have the reach that need us us because they don't have this option to give to anyone so we also recognize the power in what we bring that no one else has brought. And so while we want their help marketing they absolutely need us to keep people plugging in and buying their headsets and downloading games from their platforms. So I would say we're very clear on our added value and you know going to different cities and doing demos has definitely helped too. So we've been in New Orleans, DC, Seattle, Atlanta, North Carolina and people line up because they want to see what we're bringing that's different. And some of them like I said 98% of them are just people that are like I've never tried VR and I want to try it. So
107 elders coming to the event that we had to say I want to see what this is are you telling me I can see my old community and my neighborhood? And I can experience stories? So in some respects if you're from the community you also know good old community is word of mouth and it travels faster than any post to be honest. But I don't know that everybody feels that way we still do because we do very little advertising and marketing and we are always highly attended and sought after. [unintelligible] Thank you, thank you I hope some of you weren't disappointed about the lack of slides but I'm glad we got to have this conversation. [unintelligible]
Okay thanks come and check us out if you want this weekend and you can follow us at Revere XR on Instagram and if you want
2024-02-17 18:35
