The Optimizing Podcast has launched its second season with Wits Universities’ Prof. Barry Dwolatzky in conversation with prominent guests in the digital sector.
A new curated content hub called The Grand Geeks has also been launched.
Professor Barry Dwolatzky believes that one can see history as a relay race. We each receive something – a legacy of some sort – from those that came before us.
We then run our race, not only carrying this legacy, but (hopefully) growing and enriching it. Eventually, we are ready to hand it over to the next runners – the next generation.
In this analogy, the legacy we receive and ultimately pass on is represented by the baton in a relay race.
In Season 1 of the Optimizing Podcast, Prof. Barry spoke about his own personal race, focusing on his work in the world of computers and digital technology.
Barry was born in the 1950’s which was the very dawn of the computer age. In the 1970’s, as an electrical engineering student at Wits University in Johannesburg, he began his fulfilling and exciting career working with computers as a researcher, lecturer, software engineer, innovator and entrepreneur.
Over the past 40 years, the baton in his hand has grown beyond the wildest expectations of his generation. In its current form the baton holds the promise to become something that is being called “the 4th industrial revolution”.
In the hands of the next generation this baton could be the key to humanity’s golden age, or the recipe for disaster and decline.
Which it will be depends on how we hand it over, and the wisdom of the next generation.
The Next Season
Season 2 of “Optimizing – Leading Africa’s Digital Future”, launched in September with weekly episodes. Each episode features a special guest who has lead Africa’s digital legacy and the conversation explores what is their “baton” and what will they pass on to the next generation?
In Season 2 Prof. Barry is joined by a handful of the amazing people he’s met in the course of his journey. Like he, each of them carries a baton with relevance to Africa’s digital future. Each episode will focus on one of these people.
Barry will again be joined by Kerryn Gammie, a young digital professional at the very start of her career. Kerryn and Barry will ask each guest to discuss 3 questions…Firstly, who are they and what have they done. Secondly, what have been their most significant discoveries and contributions. And thirdly, to give us a short list of the experiences and lessons that they would like to hand over to Kerryn and her
generation.
Featured guests include: Mark Harris, Tim Jenkin, Mteto Nyati, Cliff de Wit, Kent Beck, Xoli Mhlangu, Tshilidzi Marawala, Pieter De Villiers, Tiyani Nghonyama, Monica Singer and other inspirational role models.
Check out Optimize Podcast on Spotify and on iTunes.
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