How I started my new career in Augmented Reality

Leading technology for Burning Man kept me focused and busy for many years. Burning Man is innovative in lots of ways, but as a culturally oriented nonprofit with a huge global audience, our investments in technology infrastructure had to be resourceful and pragmatic. When I finally came up for air and peaked at technology outside my dusty corner of the world, it was hard to imagine what could be as exciting as the ride I was already on. What could check even some of the boxes for me as a cultural leader, computer scientist, software engineer, systems architect, telecommunications expert, photographer, event producer, logistics junkie, artist, costume addict, esoteric student and all around creative spirit? Let alone support my ongoing personal transformation and satisfy my need for music, spectacle and blinky lights?

Using that criteria as a lens, I became infatuated with augmented reality, virtual reality, immersive experiences, transformative technology and creative technology. I set out on a path of study and consumed every word, video and podcast I could squeeze into my brain. Technology had grown up, and things that once seemed science fiction fantasy had become reality while I had been off in meetings or working and playing in scenes like a Mad Max movie. With the emergence of spatial computing we can be freed from the tyranny of teeny screens or being forced to sit at our desks all day or engaging with 2D information. The human computer interface is being rehumanized through the use of gestures, eye tracking, haptics and voice commands. We have new tools available for powerful storytelling and immersive entertainment. People are using technology to support personal development and transformation. It's ironic, but now computers help us to get in touch with our bodies, and remind us to breathe and to take stretch breaks throughout the day.

What an amazing time to be alive. This is the technology I dreamt of so many years ago in college when I decided to study computers and the information sciences. We are entering the era when technology truly supports us as human beings and augments our lives rather than distracts us from living. This is when our superpowers and superwisdom can really come online.

So I had fallen in love with technology again, and I wanted to dive head first into the future. The questions was, with my unique experience and diverse interests, where might I fit in? Where was I even to start? As luck would have it, around that time a new augmented reality experience called The Unreal Garden opened up at Onedome, a new venue in San Francisco. I eagerly checked it out during their preview week. After drinking a tasty blue kava elixir and putting on a Microsoft Hololens, I was transported into an interactive digital fairy garden full of affirmative messages, sweet music and large-scale art. It was beautiful, like being out at night in the middle of Black Rock City with everything and everyone illuminated and in motion, swimming in a delightful surreal fantasy, but without any worry of being run over in the dark by flocks of bicyclists. My finger had powers of magic sparkles and illumination. I could touch power orbs or reveal information just by looking at it. I was a playful explorer experiencing awe and wonder in a creative new dimension. I was instantly hooked. Whatever this thing was, I wanted more of it, I wanted to know how it worked, and I wanted to bring my friends there to play and create.

That doorway cracked open a month later, when I discovered some dudes in Hololens’ tucked away in an empty room at the Transformative Technology Conference, and I learned they were responsible for the technology that made The Unreal Garden and all it’s magic possible. Those dudes were actually Ray Kallmeyer and Benjamin Jordan, the CEO and CTO of Enklu. That empty room was actually another digital playground and while I explored it, I dove right in and asked geeky fangirl questions about things like computational rendering costs, computer vision mesh algorithms, spatial scene design and digital asset management. As you might imagine, we hit it off.

Ray and I stayed in touch and over the next few months I came to understand that Enklu is much more than a just the engine behind that one experience. They have built a leading edge augmented reality creation and delivery platform, which is open source and uses scalable technology and mechanics they learned from the games industry. Enklu's easy to use design interface enables digital creators and storytellers to craft their own experiences and share them via their preferred augmented reality enabled devices such as mobile phones or head mounted displays like the Hololens. As more and more locations and experiences powered by Enklu come online, the entire augmented reality platform becomes a multiplayer, multi-location global immersive game supported by a digital asset exchange and collective commons. Translated into a Burning Man metaphor, that’s like being able to create an augmented reality immersive theme camp that others can download and experience anywhere, and being able to give or exchange digital gifts and costumes that travel with you wherever you go, all in a new digital dimension that is emerging around the world.

The possibilities of this new medium and platform are truly limitless and mind blowing. Enklu’s technology is years ahead of the rest of the augmented reality pack, who are mostly still stuck surfing the mobile or enterprise waves, or defending their walled gardens. That said, having focused on the core technology for so long, the team knew they wanted to round out their leadership and skills to help bring the platform to the people and the people to the platform. Apparently Ray and team were scratching their chins wondering where on earth they would find an individual who was creative and who could also understand technology, product management, experience design, cameras, event production, spatial planning, logistics, organization culture, growth, arts and cultivating a creative community. They thought they were going to have to hire 3 people. Imagine my delight and excitement (and admittedly a fair amount of girlish squealing) when Ray asked me join them and to help lead and grow Enklu as their new Vice President of Product. I knew if I didn't do it, I would regret it for the rest of my life.

So I accepted the offer, and now, after several months of careful extraction from Burning Man (though I am still supporting the transition a few hours each week and will be on playa building BRC one last time in 2019), I am diving further into this exciting digital dimension and I look forward to sharing some of my adventures with you here.