Storytelling is as old as time itself. It has the power to shape humanity’s ability to connect across cultures, communities and generations. Society needs to refocus on inclusion to create a brighter future. And one woman is doing just that with immersive technology.
Yolanda Barton is an Inclusion Transformation Architect and President of YB Consulting, where she creates diversity and inclusion programs and branding strategies for organizations to bridge the gap in inclusion. As Founder and CEO of RevereXR, she develops immersive technology storytelling to magnify, influence, build, and preserve the history of music, legacies, and their unique stories.
Her breakthrough work is a virtual and augmented reality project that tells the musical history of Seattle’s historic neighborhood The Central District (CD) through immersive storytelling to uncover the lost stories and musical legacies.
Prior to founding RevereXR, Yolanda spent ten years in community outreach and engagement management. Yolanda also works to encourage the next generation of creators through her Virtual and Mixed Reality summer camps, after-school VR programs, and consulting on xr-in-the-classroom events and activities.
Yolanda holds dual MA degrees from the University of Washington in Communication Leadership, Storytelling Digital Media (MCDM) and Communities and Networks (MCCN). Yolanda is also a highly sought-after speaker who has spoken at numerous Technology and Fortune 500 company events on the importance of pushing the boundaries of inclusion in technology. She was recently
selected as a 2022 Oculus Launchpad finalist and named #1 on their leadership board for her inclusive immersive storytelling experience.
Yolanda defines the Metaverse as a playground. “I encourage everyone to play. The Metaverse is where people and communities plug in and help form new communities so that no people are left behind. With the Metaverse, we have a unique opportunity to foster inclusion by design – and that’s my mission.”
Through this play and interaction, Yolanda believes “we have an opportunity to remove the systems that divide us. We don’t want to bring those barriers into the digital world. For the Metaverse and the future, it is our duty to engage, interact, and redefine human connection in a way that doesn’t exist in the real world. We need to take that responsibility seriously.”
She started focusing on immersive technology at grad school, worked on a doctorate to focus her understanding, and fell in love with what immersive technology could afford communities. That’s inclusion. She weaves inclusion into technology to drive storytelling, XR preservation and inspire and create interactions that foster connections between people and global communities.
“How do we make tech accessible and help it provide solutions to everyone? Technology has that power and potential. At RevereXR, I create a living history of music’s most priceless memories and the communities that birth that music. I aim to chart a course for what the future of a diverse global base of storytellers, artists and musicians looks like in the Metaverse. That’s driving innovation for humanity.”
As the Inclusion Transformation Architect, she believes that th Metaverse provides the platform to make living history accessible as people and communities can experience it in an immersive environment. Why is this so imperative? “It is an opportunity to preserve what we need to
know about our past and inspires our future. We can take that tradition of what happened before us and root ourselves in understanding our past to ensure we don’t make the same mistakes. Using futuristic technology to preserve our past for future generations.”
Yolanda believes that the disruption in innovation in the Metaverse is at such a high level because people are tired of the IRL system repeating itself in the digital world. With inclusion by design, there is an opportunity to rewrite the future. For Yolanda, it comes down to leadership. In every corner of the digital world, women are leading the charge in leadership and innovation.
“Women are driving the future – and now is our opportunity. In the Metaverse, we’re already seeing how women’s leadership makes a genuinely inclusive impact. In the real world, we have an example of what we don’t want in the future and the digital world, and in the Metaverse, we have an opportunity to redefine a new sense of leadership.
“Once the gimmicky layers of this technology are shed, we’ll get to the real disruption of web3. How are we defining humanity through interaction, and what are we building in tech? This isn’t currently in tech. I’m looking forward to a future committee that will define morals and values. With the Metaverse, we can create magnificence. It is a unique opportunity to do something genuinely spectacular that’s not focused on our current generation, but firmly on the future.”
Yolanda says that women’s leadership can shape an existence that teaches empathy, emotional learning, and inclusion. Women’s leadership, according to her, creates belonging as the most impactful thing humanity can do right now. This opportunity to innovate stems from the highest degree of intentionality for the future, which drives action that creates deep-seated collaboration and impact for the greater good of humanity.
It circles back to the importance of weaving inclusion into technology. That starts with building bridges by helping companies and organizations introduce technology to communities in a responsible way that instils belonging. Inclusion applies to everything. She says inclusion must be woven into organizations and leadership. This benefits practices and strategies that drive collaboration and innovation in organizations. A lack of inclusion in an organization is a hindrance to innovation.
“People want to be part of something. I’m motivated by this question: what will bring people into the Metaverse? We must captivate audiences through music, storytelling, history, art, culture and heritage. We can take it a step further: what story are we shaping for the future, and what is the story of the Metaverse? How can we shape human experiences and stories? Much still has to be done, but with women’s leadership and inclusion, I’m inspired by the potential of this future.”
Website: reverexr.com
