Developer Communities : A Complete Roadmap(Kolkata Edition)
Why are they important?
Developer communities enable us to share, collaborate and learn with like-minded people in the community. It also provides new developers a place to learn, discover their interests and a support system for all the awesome work they want to do. Being a part of a developer community we stand to gain immense knowledge, skills and tips in order to be a better developer.
“I am super excited, but where to start?”
This is a question posed by a lot of newbies when they are introduced to the developer universe. For simplicity, we classify the developer communities into two categories- online and offline.
Online Communities
We have a number of online developer communities and forums where we can post questions, search for answers and gain knowledge about any topic under the sun. The most popular online communities are StackOverflow and Reddit. StackOverflow is hands down the best platform to post questions, view answers and is the go-to site whenever you get stuck on something.
NOTE: In order to have a developer profile on the Internet you must have:
1. A Github Account
2. A Twitter Account
3. A LinkedIn Profile
4. A StackOverflow Account
Offline Communities
If we go to any major city in the world, we will be able to find a community for just about every major developer platform. These developer communities arrange meetups to discuss what’s new in their fields, what challenges they face on a daily basis and different ways of doing things. The best advantage of being in such a community is we always learn something new and can collaborate with like minded people with similar interests. New developers can discover and learn about their interests and get advice on how to get necessary skills in order to pursue it. Moreover these communities organise frequent bootcamps, study jams and fests so that people with no prior experience can gain proficiency in their area of interest.
NOTE: All the communities mentioned henceforth are based in Kolkata,India. You can find similar communities in your city and/or campus.
Communities on a College/University level
Developer Student Clubs(DSCs)
Every major college in the world has a DSC or a Developer Student Club. These clubs are powered by Google Developers and for most newbies is the first place where they are introduced to the developer universe. There are 677 DSCs in the world and 202 DSCs in India as of now.
We have 6 active DSCs in Kolkata and all of the DSCs have amazing leads who contribute to the community immensely.
The 6 DSCs are:
1. DSC NSEC
2. DSC HIT
3. DSC TIU
4. DSC GCELT
5. DSC IEM
6. DSC University Of Calcutta
Know more about DSC: https://youtu.be/DcN_hcHXR_0
Find a DSC near you: https://developers.google.com/community/dsc/directory
DSC HIT’s Website: https://dschit.netlify.com/
DSC HIT’s twitter handle: https://twitter.com/dscheritageit1
DSC NSEC’s Website: https://dscnsec.com/
DSC NSEC’s twitter handle: https://twitter.com/dscnsec
DSC TIU’s Website: https://sites.google.com/view/dsc-techno-india-university/home
DSC TIU’s twitter handle: https://twitter.com/dsc_tiu
DSC GCELT’s website: https://dscgcelt.github.io/
DSC IEM’s twitter handle: https://twitter.com/dsc_iem
Communities on a City/Regional level
Google Developer Groups(GDGs)
Every major city in the world has a GDG or a Google Developer Group. They organise meetups and make sure that the developer community grows across the city. There are 936 GDGs in the world and 43 GDGs across India as of now. Our very own GDG Kolkata is one of the most active GDGs in India with amazing people at the helm of affairs. Every DSC works and collaborates with GDG to foster the growth of the developer community across the city. They focus on a range of platforms such as ML,AI,Web,Mobile,etc. They also organise annual DevFests which are community-led developer events hosted by Google Developer Groups around the globe. Recently GDG Kolkata hosted DevFest Kolkata with 650+ attendees and 20+ speakers. Learn more about it in this article.
NOTE: Meetup is a platform for finding and building local communities. It is the go to platform to know about various meetups across the city organized by different communities.
For Android: http://meetu.ps/2ZhSyb
For iOS: http://meetu.ps/2ZhShsFind a GDG near you: https://developers.google.com/community/gdg/directory
DevFest Kolkata Highlights: https://youtu.be/1pOBvkE1to0
GDG Kolkata Website: https://gdgkolkata.org/
Meetup link: https://www.meetup.com/GDG-Kolkata/
Twitter handle: https://twitter.com/gdgkolkata
Women Techmakers(WTM)
Google’s Women Techmakers program provides visibility, community, and resources for women in technology. It is an amazing initiative to empower and support women developers. Our own WTM Kolkata has amazing women who ensure that more and more women get associated with tech and contribute to the developer community.
Women Techmakers Program: https://www.womentechmakers.com/
Know more about WTM: https://youtu.be/fknJH4qyOIc
WTM Kolkata Website: https://wtmkolkata.in/
Meetup link: Meetups are announced in the GDG Kolkata group
Twitter handle: https://twitter.com/WTMKolkata
Facebook Developer Circles
Another community which has a worldwide presence is the Facebook Developer Circles powered by Facebook. They also organise frequent meetups on a range of topics and help grow the developer community.
Find a circle near you: https://developers.facebook.com/developercircles/find
Facebook Developer Circle Kolkata: https://www.facebook.com/groups/186924858495604/
We also have communities focussing on a specific platform. Some of the most active ones in Kolkata are:
GDG Cloud Kolkata
It focusses on GCP or the Google Cloud Platform. It also organises frequent cloud study jams on GCP and their adoption.
Know more about cloud study jams: https://youtu.be/FvWl7Ftz1uM
Meetup link: https://www.meetup.com/Google-Developer-Group-Cloud-Kolkata/
Kotlin Kolkata UG
Kotlin is a programming language developed by JetBrains and is Google’s preferred language for Android app development. It is a very active community and a very enthusiastic one!
Meetup Link: https://www.meetup.com/Kotlin-Kolkata-UG/
Twitter handle: https://twitter.com/KotlinKolkata
AWS Kolkata Group
AWS or Amazon Web Services is one of the best cloud computing services and is provided by Amazon. It is one of the most active communities in Kolkata and very recently hosted the AWS Community Day Kolkata which was a grand success.
Slack Invite: https://lnkd.in/frbGZB8
WhatsApp Invite: https://chat.whatsapp.com/KCZabhZdo5NBY1IgNLRwjr
Telegram Invite: https://lnkd.in/fQV5dz6
Meetup Link: https://lnkd.in/f9Ah2UW
Twitter handle: https://lnkd.in/f5RwCPy
Kubernetes and Cloud Native Computing Foundation(CNCF) Kolkata
Kubernetes and Cloud Native Computing Foundation is a group for all who want to learn and share experiences about Kubernetes and other CNCF Projects.
Meetup Link: https://www.meetup.com/Kubernetes-and-Cloud-Native-Computing-Foundation-Kolkata/
Telegram Invite: https://t.me/joinchat/IDPcPkol7XLClx9ziXVoHA
Twitter handle: https://twitter.com/k8scncfkol
Hyperledger Kolkata
Hyperledger is an open source collaborative effort created to advance cross-industry blockchain technologies governed by the Linux Foundation.
Meetup Link: https://www.meetup.com/Hyperledger-Kolkata/
Mozilla Kolkata
The community focusses on free and open source software(FOSS). Being a part of this community you can learn how to contribute to open source projects, how to learn programming in a efficient manner and also how to shed laziness of not contributing to open source projects.
Telegram Invite: https://t.me/mozillakolkata
Follow @dscheritage1 on twitter to get updates on Mozilla Kolkata
Flutter Kolkata
Flutter is Google’s UI toolkit for building beautiful, natively compiled applications for mobile, web, and desktop from a single codebase.
Know more about Flutter: https://flutter.dev/
WhatsApp Invite: https://chat.whatsapp.com/JtVOceW0jEnB6pn6wMadyc
The above listed communities are in my opinion the most active. Many more communities can be found on Meetup.
I will continue to update this post, so stay tuned for more.
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Hello World, I am Rupdeep, just a simple guy who hopes to make it big one day. You can connect with me on LinkedIn or follow me on Twitter if you wish to talk tech with me. Have a nice day ahead!
