#GDGSummit Hold it. We need to talk about Minna.
Minna the state capital of Niger State, Nigeria (I already like the rhythm). My home state so excited!!!, that’s not the only amazing fact, the name Niger State was derived from the famous River Niger, now you see why the names rhyme with Nigeria, so if you say the country’s Naming Ceremony was held at Niger State, you will not be far from the truth. This is also the Home to MxCliq, GDG Minna and two living former Head of States of this Country.
MxCliq Mx here means Minna the X is more of thing like the X-men but if you have any question of where the x came from in the name Minna these guys can clear your doubt, GDG Minna as in Google Developers Group Minna Oh you thought that was a political party’s name lol GDG Sai Gogo no this is GDG sai google, The picture above was taken after a Tech Meet Up on the 23rd Saturday September 2017 hosted by MxCliq in collaboration with GDG Minna in Minna!!! I am purposely emphasizing in Minna mark that phrase in Minna.
When I saw the event on twitter I had to apply, I was like may be this guy was talking about a wedding because it Saturday in Minna but then my phone did this.
Without hesitation I followed its instruction, We arrived at 8:40 AM and it wasn’t a wedding.
I can’t recall what I expected but everything was beyond amazing, you all agree that Tech trend is not a thing in Niger State, but hold on I have a few experience I will share with you then we will decide later. Let the show begins.
The host speaker talked about how they were a little community trying the build an ecosystem of Developers around Minna. Okay, I disagree, because this is not little or a community this is one big family with very little and giving back so much, one of them even said she used to travel from Minna to Abuja when she was learning to code, to me that was a descriptive image of internet in Nigeria during the era of cyber cafes.
Oh yeah first guest speaker was a woman, her topic was a very intriguing one #WomenInTech, like what else will she talk about, she is a woman in tech after all, but guys just join me and bury your heads in shame because this lady told me to my face… that all we have been building our apps on, was actually invented by a WOMAN some lady name Grace Hopper, who invent the first compiler in 1952, no be me talk am ooo although I googled it and I think she is right.
She continued on the role women are playing in the tech industry that at a point I almost burst into tears like shouldn’t we also have #MenInTech even in the attendance women were more than men. She even mentioned those AboCoders, who chose to only work with women.
Men it only talk, talk and gossip that we do all day. Oh wait that’s also women. Really…! is there anything we do!!! you can give comments below if you know one.
Now this next speaker was Google… not the search-engine but if Google was a man in Minna he will be this guy.
He briefed us about GDG and the history of, I was like no wonder you guys are in Minna, I will just list a few things he mentioned about the awesome group because I am sure this blog won’t take all. These are:
GDG is
- Run by passionate individuals in the developer community
- A place to learn about Google Technologies and Tools for developers.
- A place to see what local companies and developers are doing with these technologies
- Focused on developers and educational technical content
- Open to the public with a public membership
- A place to meet cool and smart people in tech :)
A GDG is NOT…
- Run by a corporation
- A place to hear a very salesy pitch at any time
- Focused on end users or consumer content
- A closed group
After that speaker I was giving the stage to talk, sorry if I didn’t mention I was suppose to speak also, well my topic was if you code, you should blog. That at least is straight forward.
The next speaker talked about Linux Kawai if you understand Hausa Language which has nothing to do with the name but if only you understand Hausa that word Kawai was what this speaker try to press on me, he literally told me ‘for those using MAC this is not for you’, I was like why this racism, this is hate speech of the highest order. Already I was looking for EFCC’s number they probably can handle this kind of case. I learned that the initial name for Linux wasn’t supposed to be Linux, but before you argue this is in the words of the speaker:
Linus Torvalds had wanted to call his invention “Freax”, abbrevation of (“free”, “freak”, Unix). During the start of his work on the system, some of the project’s makefiles included the name “Freax” for about half a year.
In order to facilitate development, the files were uploaded to the FTP server Ari Lemmke, Torvalds’ coworker, who was one of the volunteer administrators for the FTP server at the time, renamed the project “Linux” on the server.
Okay so this so cool name was all because another guy named a folder with the owner of the folder’s name, now I’m looking at the speaker and I’m just thinking of the nearest Court room, how was he going to deny me this cool knowledge.
Now after all the talkative have finished their blabbering, it was time for coding please bear with me because even I don’t have the words for the much fun we had during this session, I have pictures below though.
While you are going through the pics, please follow me on twitter @iNidAName I always follow back and if in anyway you like this post please clap for me, I can hear you clapping already but I was talking about to the clap button on the left of this screen, Yeah just hold on to the button for as long as you like.
These guys build a live responsive web page in just few minutes here is a link to that.
Now you can tell me why GDG Minna shouldn’t host the next #GDGSummit. They have all it takes. Comment below if you agree with reasons. Thank You (Kubetin)
If you want to know more about them and when they hosting a Tech Meet Up again visit www.mxcliq.com and minna.gdg.ng.
