I like the direction this is heading. I like the idea of it. I think that it can be innovative. I think once they react positively and actively to the feedback they get, this will be a success. I am cheering for this to be a success.
I saw that it was launched today on their social media. They did not say what the url was but I made a guess and it was there - dhub.mdt.gov.tt
I had watched Delving Deeper on TTT where they talked about the Developer Hub. One of the questions was about challenges. I think one (a big one) of the challenges would come from the selection of ideas/solutions. Some people might feel cheated that their ideas/solutions are not being selected. The Ministry might be accused of bias and favoritism and cronyism. I think what might help with this is that a component of the choosing of ideas/solutions has to come from public voting and scoring and also from other developers rather than solely from a few persons in the Ministry. The Ministry has to be open with scoring, criteria and selection.
Also, we are asking developers to come up with ideas and solutions to our problems BUT we don't have a central place where problems and solutions can be discussed in this country by the citizens. We are often disconnected from the problems faced by others. As a developer it would be nice if I could see a listing of the problems people are facing. If I know the problems then it is better for me to offer solutions. Maybe one of the first things that can be worked on by the developer hub is an open platform to discuss problems and solutions.
I wrote about this on my blog last year
We seem to be limited to a set of challenges that the ministry has decided on. These are a handful of solutions that the Ministry has decided on. I think they should make the hub distinguishable from bidding on projects. Show us how this is different from the government putting out 5 RFPs for solutions that they determined we needed.
I see two tools are available at the moment are Linux foundation courses and GitLab. I use Github at the moment and that would be my preference. But if Gitlab has paid features for free under an MDT arrangement then that would be a selling point. It would be nice if training could be in the form of a publicly available youtube channel and developer blog. That is a nice way to promote local voices and local content.
At the moment I am a tech blogger and hobbyist coder writing a book called "Learning to code again". At the moment I have this idea of building a web app that shows the max temp for the day. Also a map with temp readings and graphs with historical data. I am going to start with mock data and a mock api but it would be nice if I can use the developer hub to liaise with MET Office to get them to create the API that any developer can use. This would also fall under open data. I am interested in how the hub can help hobbyist coders or any coder who wants to build their own apps using government APIs.
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