Afrigather 
Judith Okonkwo describes herself as a ‘expertise evangelist’ with a profession that has minimize throughout banking, expertise growth and advisory for startups and SMEs. In 2016, she based Ìmísí 3D, an prolonged actuality (XR) creation lab on a mission to drive XR adoption in Nigeria and Africa. Okonkwo’s firm runs an XR lab in Lagos, Nigeria, the place guests can drop by and study in regards to the tech and potential of XR.
On this episode of My Life in Tech, she tells me about Ìmísí 3D’s core curiosity in expertise schooling and about her childhood curiosity that has led her to construct a startup for XR adoption in Africa.
This interview has been edited for size and readability.
First, is the identify Ìmísí an Igbo phrase for “inside the pinnacle”?
No. It means inspiration. It’s Yoruba, not Igbo.
Actually!
It means inspiring distinction and alter, and this new actuality. However then, going a step additional, it truly is about making the change actionable and actual.
Attention-grabbing. So, how did you get fascinated with prolonged actuality?
I used to be at all times tremendous fascinated with three issues: expertise, the longer term, and folks. Once I was a toddler, certainly one of my favorite toys was the View-Grasp. It seems to be like binoculars, and you’ll click on by these holographic photos in it. It’s form of like a digital actuality (VR) headset.
I used to be tremendous pumped when Oculus was acquired by Fb in 2014; that was a giant deal within the house. After which, after all, Google Cardboard got here out as properly, and rapidly, folks might begin to think about what was doable. Lots of people say that that’s not actually VR, however it’s like an entry level into it.
I keep in mind I used to be simply ready for the Samsung Gear VR to come back out—it had been introduced—and I acquired the primary one. As soon as I attempted it out, there was no going again.
What precisely does Ìmísí 3D do? What are you about?
To reply that query, one of many issues that can be helpful is to inform you the three classes of effort in what we do.
The primary is that we have now a mission to evangelise. We need to ensure on a regular basis folks know what the applied sciences are—you understand what AR and VR and blended actuality are; you don’t assume it’s one thing over there, you don’t assume it’s alien. We now have a lab, and it’s open-access. You possibly can stroll in, strive stuff out, and ask questions.
The second core function for us is: we imagine that if we’re ever going to grasp the potential of those applied sciences, then we have now to construct them ourselves; we have now to be the creators. We make investments closely in attempting to assist a creator neighborhood throughout the African continent. We do meetups, and run occasions, masterclasses and hackathons all throughout Africa. We now have opened labs in a number of states throughout Nigeria. Again within the day, we used to supply scholarships for VR nanodegrees. We do no matter we predict can assist folks begin constructing neighborhood. Our third class of effort is that we spend money on initiatives in sectors we predict have the best potential for important impression. For us, that’s doing work in areas like schooling, healthcare, storytelling, and digital conservation.
We now have spent 18 months engaged on an Africa XR report and try to get it out into the world.
Inform me in regards to the AR/VR Hackathon you’re operating in partnership with Meta.
The AR/VR Hackathon is our factor. We’ve been operating this hackathon for years. We ran our first hackathon in 2016. By 2018, we had taken the AR/VR Africa hackathon to seven African international locations. In 2020, we deliberate to do it bodily in 10 international locations, however then the pandemic occurred and every thing went haywire. So we made it a hybrid occasion wherein 28 international locations took half. We acquired volunteers from world wide to run workshops and masterclasses and provide mentorship classes; we had about 120 of these classes. We had a two-and-a-half-month boot camp the following yr (as a result of the hackathon began in December the earlier yr), which resulted in a demo day.
So this yr, with Meta’s deal with the metaverse, there’s undoubtedly much more curiosity from their groups on the continent to do stuff associated to this they usually approached us to ask, “What can we do?” They had been fascinated with doing one thing related. Prior to now, different Fb groups—not this explicit one we’re working with this yr—have supported our hackathons. So, this yr’s AR/VR Africa Hackathon remains to be our occasion, however this time, we’re working extra carefully with Meta to make it occur.
The hackathon is occurring in 16 international locations from mid-August this yr to April 2023. Will that be simultaneous?
The bodily in-person hackathon will occur throughout the first weekend in December, and that can be simultaneous throughout the 16 international locations. For people who find themselves not in these 16 international locations, they may be capable of hack just about, and they’ll be capable of try this on the finish of November. By the tip of the yr, we’ll announce the entire winners, after which the primary place groups from every nation will go on to take part within the boot camp.
So what has your funding journey been like?
What do they are saying right here in Nigeria—“sizzling tears”? What could be very best for people doing what we do is to have somebody say, “Here’s a bunch of cash so that you can run your factor or ecosystem growth initiatives for X period of time.” However what we’ve had is doing occasions and getting sponsorship for them. In between, we hope for the perfect!
Is that this as a result of XR shouldn’t be an in-demand answer; that it’s moderately area of interest?
The issue is that persons are not in a position to develop abilities on this area the way in which that they need to. One ought to be capable of get up and say, “I’m going to this institute or faculty the place I can study XR, the place there’s a completely functioning lab.” However there’s nowhere you will get that in Nigeria—by no means thoughts the gear.
And you must know that not one of the huge tech firms promote their XR {hardware} in Africa, which is ridiculously costly and difficult for us. You pay virtually double the RRP to get your arms on a Meta Quest. Microsoft has a blended actuality engineering group in Lagos, however its HoloLenses usually are not right here.
What conjures up you?
I actually imagine that if this work isn’t achieved, it will likely be catastrophic for the continent and the world. I hold pondering that when these applied sciences grow to be pervasive in 100 years and are available to outline virtually each facet of human interplay, what is going to folks [who haven’t prepared for this] do then? And, for me, the reply to that’s terrifying.
The opposite a part of it’s: there are some challenges on the continent that I don’t assume we’ll ever resolve conventionally. For a sector like schooling, even when Nigeria was to allocate its complete finances for subsequent yr to schooling, it nonetheless wouldn’t be doable, that we might snap our fingers and out of the blue there could be sufficient faculties constructed, or sufficient certified academics. If we’re going to have these infrastructures succeed, we should leverage applied sciences like this to enhance schooling, and issues like that.
My Life in Tech (MLIT) is a biweekly column that profiles innovators, leaders, and shapers within the African tech ecosystem, with the intention of placing a human face to the startups and improvements they construct. A brand new episode drops each different Wednesday at 3 PM (WAT). When you assume your story will curiosity MLIT readers, please fill out this form.
