Tag Archives: Google Developer Groups

Google Developer Groups & ecosystem partners bring Startup Success Days to 15 Indian cities

Posted by Harsh Dattani - Program Manager, Developer Ecosystem

The Indian startup ecosystem is thriving, with new startups being founded every day. The country has a large pool of talented engineers and entrepreneurs, and a growing number of investors, policy makers and new age enterprises are looking to back Indian startups.

Google Developer Groups (GDGs) in 50 key Indian cities with varying tech ecosystems across India have seen a healthy mix of developers from the startup ecosystem participating in local meetups. As a result, GDGs have created a platform in collaboration with Google to help early-stage startups accelerate their growth. GDGs across India are increasingly playing a vital role in assisting startup founders and their teams with content, networking opportunities, hackathons, bootcamps, demo days, and more.

We are pleased to announce Startup Success Days with the goal of strengthening how developer communities interact with startup founders, VCs, and Googlers to discuss, share, and learn about the latest trends like Generative AI, Google Cloud, Google Maps, and Keras.

Google Developer Groups Success Days August to October 2023

Startup Success Days will be held in 15 cities across India, starting with 8 cities in August and September: Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Indore, Chennai, New Delhi, Mumbai, and Pune.

The next event will be hosted at Bangalore on August 12, 2023 at Google Office. The events will be free to attend and will be open to all startups, regardless of stage or industry. The events will cover technical topics, focused on Google technologies, and will provide opportunities for startups to receive mentorship from industry experts, network with other startups, and meet VCs to receive feedback on their business models.

Learn more and register for Startup Success Days on our website.

We look forward to seeing you there!

Harsh Dattani
Program Manager, Developer Ecosystem at Google

Developers Share How They Built Their Careers: From Machine Learning to Cloud

Posted by Lyanne Alfaro, DevRel Program Manager, Google Developer Studio

Google Developer Student Club Alums Reflect On Their Journey To Google Developer Experts

Developer Journey is a monthly series highlighting diverse and global developers sharing relatable challenges, opportunities, and wins in their journey. Every month, we will spotlight developers around the world, the Google tools they leverage, and the kind of products they are building.

This month, we spoke with several Google Developer Experts to learn more about their path from being Google Developer Student Clubs leads to connoisseurs of their craft.

Suvaditya Mukherjee

Headshot of Suvaditya Mukherjee smiling
Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
Google Developer Expert, Machine Learning
Google Summer of Code Org Admin + ML Research Engineer Intern at Ivy
Research Intern at IIIT-Hyderabad

What are some key skills and knowledge you gained as a Google Developer Student Clubs Lead that helped you excel in your role as a Google Developer Expert?

Every day I spent as a lead was a learning experience, but what stood out to me was the holistic learning opportunities that the program brought. For example, as someone specializing in AI, I never found a need to learn Web Development until I had to help audit and create complex web apps for hosting competitions. Additionally, I learned how to absorb newer technical skills as quickly as possible, which proved to be incredibly valuable over time. I also learned the importance of soft skills, which helped me communicate better with my community. As an expert, it’s important to steward your community, and the leadership skills imparted by the program helped me build a deeper understanding of communication, logistics, and team-building.

What has been the impact of being part of the Google Developer Student Clubs community on your personal and professional growth?

As a Google Developer Student Clubs (GDSC) Lead, I benefited from participating in networking opportunities with like-minded folks and potential mentors who helped immensely in my journey. They helped shape my technical skills, and improve my soft skills. I also had the opportunity to speak in front of large crowds, develop content, manage teams, and closely understand what makes a community tick. As a GDE, it becomes important to have a pulse on the community's needs and requirements. The GDSC Program taught me how to measure these metrics at a grassroots level. I have had the privilege of working with the most skilled, dedicated, professional – and most importantly – humble folks as part of the GDSC Community. The program allowed me the privilege of communicating and building friendships with awesome people over time.

What Google tools have you used to build?

I have used quite a few Google tools in different projects and endeavors, including but not limited to Firebase, Flutter, and Android for hackathons. I have also made use of the Google Cloud Platform to develop and host scalable backend infrastructures during projects and internships in different places. But my most used tool is TensorFlow.

Which tool has been your favorite? Why?

As an ML Practitioner, TensorFlow and Keras have been a boon to simplify days of work into potentially hours or even minutes. The power it delivers to end-users in the most open and democratic way possible while constantly innovating for newer advances is something I have always appreciated. One of the biggest reasons I love Keras has to be the awesome community around it that welcomes everyone with open arms.

Tell us about something you've built in the past using Google tools.

I have hacked around a few projects over time. The most notable among them was an application I personally call TranscribeMate. Imagine you’re in an ongoing lecture and the professor is going quicker than usual, hindering your ability to take notes. TranscribeMate (built with Flutter, Firebase, and MLKit) allows you to use OCR technology to transcribe notes from simple photos of the classroom blackboard, allow newer annotations as a note-taking application, and save them for later use. This was an application I developed for a college course- but I ended up tweaking it a bit more and making use of it on my personal device as well for more general tasks too.

What will you create with Google Bard?

I have been using Bard for a while now; it has a permanent home on my browser. Bard helps me with random questions I have, and Python-related problems. Bard has helped me find solutions in seconds, compared to hours of work when done through traditional search methods. I have been using Bard's help on several projects I have been working on within my research, in projects at Ivy, and the Keras Team. Stay tuned for what comes next!

What advice would you give someone starting in their developer journey?

Seek new experiences to learn. No one can learn by working within a narrow niche. Having a working knowledge of different technologies at once allows you to have a diverse and multi-faceted approach to problem-solving. Optimizations in your systems become far more apparent, and you slowly end up learning how to write better code and design scalable systems with ease. Lastly, find a community. Find like-minded folks, talk to them, share notes on what you're building, and if you find yourself too shy to do so, then try anyway. Start by just showing up for one event near you. Then make it two. Then ask a question. The power of collaborative learning is immeasurable.

Veronica Putri Anggraini

Headshot of Veronica Putri Anggraini, smiling
Jakarta, Indonesia
Google Developer Expert, Android
GDSC Semarang State Polytechnic Lead Alumni (2017)
Google Developer Group
Women Techmakers Ambassador
Software Engineer Android, @ eWIDEPLUS

What are some key skills and knowledge you gained as a Google Developer Student Clubs Lead that helped you excel in your role as a Google Developer Expert?

Through GDSC, I learn a lot about Android technology, practice building Android projects, and do workshops for our members every week. This process improves my technical, writing, problem solving and public speaking skills at the same time. I started presenting as a student with a small group workshop of 5-10 people and grew to speaking in front of 1,000 people. This was also one of the necessary criteria to become a GDE.

Can you share some insights on the impact of being part of the Google Developer Student Clubs community on your personal and professional growth?

Exploring different resources while I was a student helped me develop sample app portfolios. I feel like I actually started my professional career as a curriculum developer and trainer for mobile development. I got an offer when I was a speaker at a tech event that discussed Android technology through the GDSC program. In fact, the CEO immediately offered the position after the event ended.

What Google tools have you used to build?

I have a lot of exploration with Jetpack Compose. I currently work closely with the CameraX, AndroidX Library, Google Analytics and Maps API.

Which tool has been your favorite? Why?

CameraX is one of my favorites, because it automatically manages camera resources and avoids unnecessary background work, so I got better performance.

Tell us about something you've built in the past using Google tools.

At my current company, we build a digital bank app product natively. This allows users to use Liveness as a verified onboarding process, QRPay, personalize promo campaigns, and other financial services that we build using Google tools.

What advice would you give someone starting in their developer journey?

Gain experience in dealing with issues in the stack that serve as a focus. Be consistent in learning, and don't give up easily when stuck. In other words, be the person that says: "Challenge Accepted".

You should know that learning together is more fun than learning alone, so join the community and learn everything you need and extend your network.

Anubhav Singh

Headshot of Anubhav Singh, smiling
Prayagraj, India
Google Developer Expert, Firebase
GDSC NSEC Kolkata Lead Alumni (2019-20)
GDG Cloud Kolkata Organizer & TFUG Kolkata Co-Organizer
Co-founder, Dynopii

What are some key skills and knowledge you gained as a Google Developer Student Clubs Lead that helped you excel in your role as a Google Developer Expert?

A major part of being a Google Developer Student Clubs Lead was to enable growth for those around me by learning together. I would often find myself guiding club members on various fronts – sometimes by taking knowledge-sharing sessions on technical topics, sometimes by diving deep into their projects’ code to help them overcome challenges they were facing and sometimes creating videos or written content for them to be able to follow along later.

Through partaking in these activities, I learned public speaking skills, mentoring, and how to be helpful to others experiencing roadblocks. These skills have proved important in my role as a Google Developer Expert.

What has been the impact of being part of the Google Developer Student Clubs community on your personal and professional growth?

Being a GDSC Lead helped me further steer teams with the same passion I have for building communities. As a GDSC Lead, you get to connect with a lot of amazing people. The community itself is highly diverse and vibrant. When I was organizing a workshop for the club during my time as a GDSC Lead, I was fortunate to meet two individuals who later became the co-founders of my startup. In that same club, three of our members became Google Developer Experts in the fields of their interest. Thus, being a GDSC Lead has had a very positive impact on both my professional and personal growth.

What Google tools have you used to build?

I’ve been working in the software development field for almost 12 years now and have used several Google tools over the years, including some that no longer exist. Some of the currently available tools that I most often work with are:

  1. Google Cloud Platform: Cloud Run, Cloud Functions, Cloud Firestore, Cloud Workflows, GKE, GCE, App Engine, Vertex AI and other AI based products, etc.
  2. Google Postmaster Tools, Search Console Tools, Analytics, Pagespeed Insights
  3. TensorFlow, Keras
  4. Google Maps API
  5. Firebase
  6. reCaptcha

Which tool has been your favorite? Why?

Firebase, hands down. As someone who loves building solutions that are useful to people, Firebase has been my go-to tool for prototyping solutions and MVPs rapidly. I’ve used it to build some simple tools which have been used by thousands of people over the years - all hosted for free and delivered with blazing speed! Even today, during my sessions as a GDE, I always use Firebase to build the UI part of the demo applications I present during the talk.

Tell us about something you've built in the past using Google tools.

I built Fireshort - a URL shortener solution running purely on Firebase. This project is completely open source and has been used by several companies as a base for their in-house URL shortening needs. I’ve been working on the next version of this project at Linkborg.

I’ve also built several real-time updating monitoring products using Firebase and Pub/Sub, mostly for enterprise clients.

As a proof of concept, I also built KolPay, which is a completely event-driven clone of EasyCard - RFID based payment wallet using Firebase, Pub/Sub, Cloud Firestore and Cloud Functions, along with hardware components like Raspberry Pi, RFID Reader/Card.

What will you create with Google Bard?

Building with Google Bard is an exciting prospect. It will be fun to no longer have to write the repetitive parts of code which I need whenever I am setting up a new project or a module within an existing project. Since I spend a lot of my day coding, I will be very happy to automate parts of it and having an AI do that would be amazing!

What advice would you give someone starting in their developer journey?

Starting a developer journey can be a daunting prospect - everyone’s talking about AI and everyone wants to build the next viral thing. If you are new to this field, step back, relax and start building a solution to any problem that has irked you for a long time. While you’re at it - read a lot of tech blogs about solving that problem, become a part of developer communities, either virtual or in person, and meet people who will share their insights about building similar products.

Kartik Derasari

Headshot of Kartik Derasari, smiling
Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India
Google Developer Expert, Google Cloud
GDSC Silver Oak University Lead Alumni (2020-2021)
Google Developers Group Cloud Organizer
Full-Stack Engineer at Persistent

What are some key skills and knowledge you gained as a Google Developer Student Clubs Lead that helped you excel in your role as a Google Developer Expert?

As a GDSC Lead, I’ve had the opportunity to collaborate with Googlers, Google Developer Experts, and Google Developer Groups Community Leads on various projects which helped me explore different technologies and choose what’s best for me. Knowledge sharing and public speaking is what I learned from the Google Developer Experts. Since then, I started my journey as a Technical Speaker where I share my learnings on Machine Learning & TensorFlow, Web, Firebase, and Google Cloud. I also had the opportunity to share my learnings across conferences like DevFest, Google Cloud Community Days, and GDSC WOW. These are some of the learnings that really helped me shape as a Google Developer Expert and excel in my journey.

Can you share some insights on the impact of being part of the Google Developer Student Clubs community on your personal and professional growth?

Being a GDSC Lead created a positive impact in my personal and professional journey. I came in touch with the tech community and I learned about Google Developer Groups & Google Developer Experts programs. I started volunteering for the GDG Cloud Ahmedabad chapter during my GDSC tenure and later I became one of the Community Organizers. I also started collaborating with Google Developer Experts on Web, Firebase, and Machine Learning projects and made some open-source contributions.

Everyone from the community was so welcoming and helpful. I’d highly recommend everyone join these developer programs by Google and get the best out of it. I also received mentorship from GDG Community Leads and Google Developer Experts for my professional career. They helped me connect with the right set of people and guided me to kick-start my professional career with MediaAgility, which is part of the Google Cloud Partner ecosystem. Since then, I have been working on Web & Google Cloud in my professional capacity and in my personal capacity as well.

I was motivated by the Google Cloud ecosystem in India and I cleared six Google Cloud Certifications, which created a huge impact in my personal and professional growth.

What Google tools have you used to build?

I started using Firebase as a Web Engineer. It has been very helpful when it comes to adding Authentication, storing application data in Firestore, and hosting web-app front-end static files over a CDN using Firebase Hosting. While building a set of web apps, I started exploring Machine Learning and used TensorFlow for building ML models for different use cases. Since then, I started using Google Cloud ML APIs and Cloud Functions for adding more functionalities to my web apps.

While working on these projects, I came across the Google Cloud Partner ecosystem and joined MediaAgility (now part of Persistent Systems) as a Full-Stack Engineer. Since then, I have been working on Google Cloud with Google Cloud PSO and enterprise customers.

Which tool has been your favorite? Why?

Cloud Run is something that I really like as an Application Developer. Since it’s a serverless compute platform, I can spend more time on building my application rather than worrying about my infrastructure. Firebase Authentication, Cloud Firestore, and Cloud Storage are also tools that I really love. They help me create full-stack apps and ship faster to production.

Tell us about something you've built in the past using Google tools. What will you create with Google Bard?

Since we’re in the wave of Generative AI right now, I have been working on building a number of apps using Google Cloud Run, BigQuery, Cloud Storage, Generative AI studio, Model Garden on Vertex AI and PaLM models. Recently, I built a chat application interface which provides insights from structured enterprise data warehouse and unstructured files, along with enterprise-grade data governance and security.

What advice would you give someone starting in their developer journey?

Be a consistent learner and a persistent explorer. It’s great to cultivate a learning habit, which will help you all the way in your personal and professional journey. This will not only help you explore new things, but it will also help you master something that you really love to do. As a beginner, it would be good to start with something that you find interesting, and then you can add a flavor of other things. For example, if you find building web apps interesting, try it. When you think you’re good at it, you can add a flavor of Machine Learning to it. That’s how you explore new things and experiment with what you know.

Google I/O Extended watch parties & upcoming meetups

Posted by Komal Sandhu - Global Program Manager, Google Developer Groups

On May 10, 2023, Google developer communities around the world gathered virtually and in person at watch parties to watch the live streamed Google I/O flagship event, where Google shares its latest developer solutions, products, and technology. The excitement continues during Google I/O Extended season, happening now.

Members of GDG Zurich having fun at Google I/O Extended Watch party.
GDG Zurich

Google I/O Extended is the community-led counterpart to Google I/O–a series of community-led watch parties and tech meetups, in which developers around the globe connect in their local communities to learn about new releases, share thoughts, and celebrate. At Google I/O Extended events, city-based groups of developers celebrate together, discuss their expectations and the opportunities that Google’s new technologies will bring, and make meaningful connections with other developers. It’s inspiring to see people with the same passion for technology meet, learn, and have fun together all over the world.

Panoramic photo of GDG Istanbul members having fun at Google I/O Extended Watch party.
GDG Istanbul

The Google I/O Extended season runs from May through August, so there’s still plenty of time to attend multiple events near you, and virtual ones. So far, we’ve reached about 5k developers at over 150 events worldwide. Google I/O Extended fuels local developer communities and inspires those who participate to continue exploring their tech career paths.

Members of GDG Grand Rapids having fun at Google I/O Extended Watch party.
GDG Grand Rapids

Google I/O Extended still has much more to offer, and we’re excited about all of the upcoming meetups taking place around the world. Google Developer Experts will join many of these events to bring Google I/O content to local audiences and help attendees learn about and dive deeper into Google’s products.

Members of GDG Cloud London having fun at Google I/O Extended Watch party.
GDG Cloud London

We thank everyone who has participated in Google I/O Extended so far and hope you continue to enjoy the season. If you haven’t participated in Google I/O Extended yet, we encourage you to join any of the events near you and take advantage of this opportunity to learn and connect! Find a nearby Google I/O Extended meetup here.

Members of GDSC Arab Open University - ElShorouk having fun at Google I/O Extended Watch party.
GDSC Arab Open University - ElShorouk

Road to Google Developers Certification: Google Cloud expert shares insight

Posted by Komal Sandhu - Global Program Manager, Google Developer Groups

Get insight into Google Cloud certifications and the Road to Google Developers Certification - Google Cloud program from Google Cloud engineer, and Google Developers Group organizer, Sebastián Moreno.


Among the many inspiring experts in the Cloud developer community is Sebastián Moreno, a Google Cloud engineer and Google Developers Group(GDG) organizer for GDG Cloud Santiago Chile. He helped organize a Road to Google Developers Certification - Google Cloud event, which had over 5000 participants. His expertise expands further while having 7 Google Cloud certificates. Read on to see Sebastián share his outlook on Google Cloud and helping developers prepare for Google Cloud Certifications.

FYI: Road to Google Developers Certification - Google Cloud is a set of community-run events, hosted by Google Developer Groups, for developers who want to prepare for Google Cloud certifications.

  • Instructor led workshops
  • Support from experts and other fellow developers
  • Access to Cloud Skills Boost
  • Additional learning material on certification content and exam questions.

This program will be available until June 31, 2022.

Tell us about yourself:

“My name is Sebastián Moreno, I am a Cloud Partner Engineer at Google. I’m a Google Developers Group organizer, former Google Developer Expert, and holder of 7 Google Cloud certificates. Also before joining Google I participated in multiple Google Cloud projects related to infrastructure modernization, data management and application modernization. I also wrote a book to prepare for the Professional Cloud Developer exam.”

What is your origin story? How did you get started in Google Cloud?

“I started my career as a developer in a Startup. In that Startup I learnt a lot of things related to frontend, backend, databases and mobile app development but at this time i didn’t know anything about cloud. “

After that I continue my career as a Technical Lead in a Global System Integrator where I started using some cloud providers.

I started learning Google Cloud when a challenge was offered by my company using Coursera and Qwiklabs. After getting Google Cloud certified I started helping my peers to prepare for the certification exams.

I wanted to share my experience and knowledge so I created the first cloud community in my country called GDG Cloud Santiago.

I joined Google in 2021 and started to help other Googlers to prepare for their certification exams.

Right now I’m an active collaborator with GDG Cloud Santiago de Chile, Google C2C community and I have a Youtube channel with more than 3.000 subscribers where I create content about Google Cloud.”

Why Google Cloud?

“Google Cloud is a leader when we talk about Networking, Data and AI. Google Cloud also has an amazing UX and a very good documentation portal. They also have modular solutions that work like a LEGO, so you can select multiple products and services to create your own solution.”

How has Google Cloud certificates helped you in your journey?

“Google Cloud certifications helped me validate my knowledge in the beginning of my journey. It helped me to understand which topics I should cover to start a role in Cloud and learn the best practices to deliver Cloud solutions. These certificates helped me understand real life applications, which is the most important.”

Can anyone take these certifications?

“In my opinion, everyone can take these certifications, but there are some recommendations for people that are starting their Cloud journey. I recommend starting with the Associate Cloud Engineer certification for people related to tech roles and the Cloud Digital leader for people related to sales roles. Then you can try the Professional Certifications focused on more specialized topics like Security, Networking, Machine Learning, etc. It just takes discipline and time to complete. That's all. ”

What's one( or however many) best practices that developers should know when preparing for a Google Cloud certification?

“ In my opinion they need to have the discipline to work through learning material consistently everyday. You learn easier by giving enough space and time to absorb the material.

But also learning with peers and getting help from experts. That's why the Road to Google Developers Certification - Google Cloud program was perfect for our community. Developers could help each other out and work together. Plus they had resources to learn materials like Cloud Skills Boost and a schedule they could just follow.”

Past experience with Road to Google Developers Certification - Google Cloud program:

“In 2022 we ran several Road to Google Developers Certification - Google Cloud events with more than 5000 participants. This year we already have more than 1000 participants and this is just the beginning.”

From your perspective what are the benefits of running a Road to Google Developers Certification - Google Cloud program for your community?

“The possibility to get access to the Cloud Skill Boost platform is one of the most important benefits for the participants. Cloud Skills Boost has amazing content that is both practical and useful for learning.”


Find a Google Developer Group(GDG) hosting a Road to Google Developers Certification - Google Cloud event near you.

Interested in preparing for a Google Cloud certificate with a GDG community. Find a GDG hosting a Road to Google Developers Certification - Google Cloud near you here.

Experts share insights on Firebase, Flutter and the developer community

Posted by Komal Sandhu - Global Program Manager, Google Developer Groups

Rich Hyndman, Manager, Firebase DevRel (left) and Eric Windmill, Developer Relations Engineer, Firebase and Flutter (right)

“Firebase and Flutter offer many tools that ‘just work’, which is something that all apps need. I think you’d be hard pressed to find another combination of front end framework and back end services that let developers make apps quickly without sacrificing quality.” 

moving images of Sparky and Dart, respective mascots for Firebase and Flutter
Among the many inspiring experts in the developer communities for Firebase and Flutter are Rich Hyndman and Eric Windmill. Each Googler serves their respective product team from the engineering and community sides and has a keen eye towards the future. Read on to see their outlook on their favorite Firebase and Flutter tools and the developers that inspire them.

===

What is your title, and how long have you been at Google?

Rich: I run Firebase Developer Relations,, I’ve been at Google for around 11 years

Eric: I’m an engineer on the Flutter team and I’ve been at Google for a year.


Tell us about yourself:

Rich: I’ve always loved tech, from techy toys as a kid to anything that flies. I still get tech-joy when I see new gadgets and devices. I built and raced drones for a while, but mobile/cell phones are the ultimate gadget for me and enabled my career.

Eric: I’m a software engineer, and these days I’m specifically a Developer Relations Engineer. I’m not surprised I’ve ended up here, as I like to joke “I like computers but I like people more.” Outside of work, most of my time is spent thinking about music. I’m pretty poor at playing music, but I’ve always consumed as much as I could. If I had to choose a different job and start over, I’d be a music journalist.


How did you get started in this space?

Rich: I've always loved mobile apps: being able to carry my work in my pocket, play with it, test it, demo it, and be proud of it. From the beginning of my career right up till today, it's still the best. I worked on a few mobile projects pre-Android and was part of an exciting mobile tech startup for a few years, but it was Android that really kick-started my career.

I quickly fell in love with the little green droid and the entire platform, and through a combination of meetups, competition entries and conferences I ended up in contact with Android DevRel at Google.

Firebase is a natural counterpart to Android and I love being able to support developers from a different angle. Firebase also supports Flutter, Web and iOS, Firebase, which has also given me the opportunity to learn more about other platforms and meet more developers.

Eric: I got into this space by accident. At my first software job, the company was already using Dart for their web application, and started rebuilding their mobile apps in Flutter soon after I joined. I think that was around 2016 or 2017. Flutter was still in its Alpha stage. I was introduced to Firebase at the same job, and I’ve used various tools from the Firebase SDK ever since.


What are some challenges that you have seen developers being facing?

Rich: Developers often want to get up and running with new projects quickly, but then iterate and improve their apps. No-code solutions can be great to start with but aren’t flexible enough down the road. A lower-code solution like Firebase can be quick to get started, and it can also provide control. Bringing Flutter and Firebase together creates a powerful and flexible combination.

Eric: Regardless of the technology, I think the biggest challenge developers face is actually with documentation. It doesn’t matter how good a product is if the docs are hard to find or hard to understand. We’ve seen this ourselves recently as Flutter became an “official” supported platform on Firebase in May 2022. When that happened, we moved the documentation from the Flutter site to the Firebase site, and folks didn’t know how to find the docs. It was an oversight on our part, but it’s a good example of the importance of docs. They deserve way more attention than they get in many, many cases.

image of Sparky and Dart, respective mascots for Firebase and Flutter
What do you think is the most interesting or useful resource to learn more about Firebase & Flutter? Is there a particular library or codelab that everyone should learn?

Rich: The official docs have to be first, located at firebase.google.com. We have a great repository of Learning Pathways, including Add Firebase to your Flutter App. We’re also just launching our new Solutions Portal with over 60 solutions guides indexed already.

Eric: If I have to name only one resource, it’d be this codelab: Get to know Firebase for Flutter
But Firebase offers so many tools. This codelab is just an introduction to what’s possible.


What are some inspiring ways that developers are building together Firebase and Flutter?

Rich: We’ve had an interesting couple of years at Firebase. Firebase has always been known for powering real-time data driven apps. If you used a Covid stats app during the pandemic there’s a fair chance it was running on Firebase; there was a big surge of new apps.

Eric: Lately I’ve seen an interest in using Flutter to make 2D games, and using some Firebase tools for the back end of the game. I love this. Games are just more fun than apps, of course, but it’s also great to see folks using these technologies in ways that aren’t the explicit purposes. It shows creativity and excellent problem solving.


What’s a specific use case of Firebase & Flutter technology that excites you?

Rich: Firebase Extensions are very exciting. They are pre-packaged bundles of code that make it easy to add new features to your app from Google and partners like Stripe and Vonage. We just launched the Extensions Marketplace and opened up the ability for developers to build extensions for their own apps through our Provider Alpha program.

Eric: Flutter web and Firebase hosting is just a no brainer. You can deploy a Flutter app to the web in no time.


How can developers be successful building on Firebase & Flutter?

Rich: There’s a very powerful combination with Crashlytics, Performance Monitoring, A/B Testing and Remote Config. Developers can quickly improve the stability of their apps whilst also iterating on features to deliver the best experience for their users. We’ve had a lot of success with improving monetization, too. Check out some of our case studies for more details.

Eric: Flutter developers can be successful by leveraging all that Firebase offers. Firebase might seem intimidating because it offers so much, but it excels at being easy to use, and I encourage all web and mobile developers to poke around. They’re likely to find something that makes their lives easier.

image of Firebase and Flutter logos against a dot matrix background
What’s next for the Firebase & Flutter Communities? What might the future look like?

Rich: Over the next year we’ll be focusing on modern app development and some more opinionated guides. Better support for Flutter, Kotlin, Jetpack Compose, Swift/SwiftUI and modern web frameworks.

Eric: There is a genuine effort amongst both teams to support each other. Flutter and Firebase are just such a great pair, that it makes sense for us to encourage our communities to check out one another. In the future, I think this will continue. I think you’ll see a lot of Flutter at Firebase events, and vice versa.


How does Firebase & Flutter help expand the impact of developers?

Rich: Firebase has always focused on helping developers get their apps up and running by providing tools to streamline time-consuming tasks. Enabling developers to focus on delivering the best app experiences and the most value to their users.

Eric: Flutter is an app-building SDK that is a joy to use. It seriously increases velocity because it’s cross-platform. Firebase and Flutter offer many tools that “just work”, which is something that all apps need. I think you’d be hard pressed to find another combination of front end framework and back end services that let developers make apps quickly without sacrificing quality.


Find a Google Developer Group hosting a DevFest near you.

Want to learn more about Google Technologies like Firebase & Flutter? Hoping to attend a DevFest or Google Developer Groups (GDG)? Find a GDG hosting a DevFest near you here.

Paul Kinlan shares his passion for web development and how to get involved at DevFest

Posted by Komal Sandhu - Global Program Manager, Google Developer Groups

“The pace of technology is changing so quickly that it’s impossible sometimes to know where to start and how. What are the things I need to focus on? It’s just too hard to work out. I’m motivated to give developers a clear direction that cuts through a lot of this challenge.”

Learn Chrome tools and tips from Chrome Lead, Paul Kinlan, and hear from him first-hand on how to get involved.


Among the many inspiring experts in the Chrome developer community is Paul Kinlan, a Googler who serves as the Lead Chrome & Web Platform Developer Relations team. Read on to see Paul’s outlook on his favorite Chrome tools and the Chrome developers that inspire him.

Tell us about yourself:

“My name is Paul Kinlan, and I lead the Chrome & Web Platform Developer Relations team. I’m in a very lucky position, in that I get to work with a huge range of people who are passionate about the web and put their whole careers into continuing to help the web thrive for decades to come. If you are interested, you can follow my site: paul.kinlan.me”

What is your origin story?

“I grew up on the Wirral in the UK, a peninsula located in North West England and part of Wales. I’ve been surrounded by computers since my earliest childhood memories, like watching my dad fix computers in the house (it's hard to count how many warnings I got to not touch the capacitor at the back of the monitor... but it looked fun).

I also was going to computer clubs and watching the demo and cracking scenes (I might have “loaned” some games from people) and was keen on finding friends in school who were just like me and liked games & computers.”

How did you get started in this space? Why did you get into Web technology specifically?

“When I was a kid, my dad tried to get me to program, but I just didn’t get it. Then, when I was about 12 years old and first saw the Street Fighter arcade game, it clicked. I got the concept of loops, reading joysticks, and getting things on the screen.

At the same time, my grandad was struggling to pick his lottery numbers, and I thought I could help him with some software. I fired up QBasic, read the manual and got started. I almost quit though, when I didn’t realize the US had a different spelling for colour... (I do wonder how life would have been different if I’d stopped there).

Jump forward a couple of years, and the web came about, and I was just tinkering, and I realized that I could build simple sites and applications with a bit of Perl and HTML. I was hooked, started a business, and went from there. Now I’m here, on the Chrome team, hoping that I can offer the same opportunities to developers that I had.”

What are some challenges that you have observed developers being faced with?

“Information overload. The pace of technology is changing so quickly that it’s impossible sometimes to know where to start and how. What are the things I need to focus on? It’s just too hard to work out. I’m motivated to give developers a clear direction that cuts through a lot of this challenge.”

What do you think is the most interesting or useful learning resource for learning more about Chrome & Web? Is there a particular library or codelab that everyone should learn?

“I’m biased, but https://web.dev/learn is a great resource that covers some core fundamentals of web development, and we’re always improving it with the latest guidance on how to do good web development.

I know most people aren’t like me, but I found engrossing myself in programming reference materials (combined with a lot of tinkering) was a great way to start, and if you combine MDN (Mozilla Developer Network) with sites like glitch.com or GitHub, you have the ability to quickly learn and test ideas without having to have any installed software. It’s a really incredible time to be a developer.”

What are some most surprising or inspiring ways developers and technologists are building together using Chrome and Web?

"Oh – amazing question! 

Right now, the intersection of Web and ML is incredibly exciting. People are building sites and apps that do things that we never thought were possible and are then able to give people access to it via a simple URL." 

"I was watching the folks over at Corridor Crew (Visual effects technologists), and they had this challenge to rotoscope a person out of a video, replace the background with a different video, and then put the person back on top - the fastest solution was built in the browser using ML. ?

At the same time, I also love that people are bringing Apps to the web that we never thought would be possible on the web, such as Photoshop and Audacity. People are now building full blown video editors on the web, enabling anyone with a browser to become a video producer. It’s amazing.

The web enables so much, and so much that I never thought possible, just at the click of a link. Every day, I see something that excites me, and that’s why I love it.”

What’s a specific use case of Chrome / Web technology that excites you?

“I’m personally very passionate about the Fugu (deep hardware) set of APIs because they enable entire classes of businesses to come to the web for the first time.

I’m also very excited about the new range of CSS and UI related APIs because they make once complex things incredibly simple. The Web is primarily a visual medium; however, the perception of quality has lagged what people get on other platforms (such as Android and iOS apps), and these new primitives and concepts will enable richer and more fluid user interfaces, with less work needed from the developer or designer.”

How can developers be successful building on Chrome & Web?

“It all depends on the stage you're at - if you’re an established site, then I would look to improve the user experience with things like Core Web Vitals.

If you are just starting, just start - there are so many tools that now let you start to prototype in the browser and get something that people can use incredibly quickly. In the past, you used to have to worry about the full-stack (Hosting -> Front-end), now that is getting less of an issue.”

What’s next for Chrome & Web Community? What might the future look like?

“Whatever I say will be wrong ? - But I like these questions, so I hope people will humor me.... It looks like it takes about 3-5 years for a feature launched in one browser to become available across Blink, WebKit and Gecko, so with that in mind, the near future probably looks a lot like right now, but more evenly spread (in terms of compatibility) - projects like Interop 202X are making it easier to build sites that work everywhere.

The further future though....? I made a talk years ago about the concept of “The Headless Web” - where I see a lot of opportunities for services or assistants like Siri or Google Assistant to make more sense of a web page and let you interact with it (and not just read it back).

At the same time, there are heaps of other platforms that are changing the definition of what the Web means. Facebook, WeChat, and others - are browsers and platforms in their own right, with hooks back into their own platforms. When I look at the billions of people that have come online in the last couple of years, as the world went mobile (and the billions more still to come online) - will they use the browser as we know it? Or will they use these ‘alternative browser’ platforms...

All I know is that we need to keep making the experience of the web better for everyone.”

What is the focus for Web & Chrome currently and why?

“Chrome is still focused on the principles that it set out at its launch: “a web that is Speedy, Simple and Secure.” - when you look at that lensing, so much of our work has been in service of these. Take, for example, “Core Web Vitals” - we worked out a set of metrics that could be used to determine if your site had a great user experience, and I believe it’s fundamentally changed the web. Or, on another axis, you look at technologies like WASM, which are enabling native code (e.g C/C++) to run safely in a sandbox in the browser, at speeds that are getting close to what you would expect an installed application to reach.”

How do Web & Chrome help expand the impact of developers?

“Universal access. The link enables this, and we need to fight to keep it open and accessible to all.’

Anything else you would like to share with the community of Google developers around the world?

“There is a lot of turmoil right now in the world; spend time listening to people, supporting them, and raising them up. When I got started, the community around me was so supportive and helped me more than I could help it - I use my time now to give people from all backgrounds the opportunities that I was fortunate to have access to. I hope that others can do the same.”

 

Find a Google Developer Group hosting a DevFest near you.

Want to learn more about Google Web Technologies and Google Chrome? Hoping to attend a DevFest or Google Developer Groups (GDG)? Find a GDG hosting a DevFest near you here.

Yasmine Evjen shares her passion for Android development and how to get involved at DevFest

Posted by Komal Sandhu - Global Program Manager, Google Developer Groups

“I would love to see more stepping out of our comfort zones, playing with technology, and bringing back that joy of what got us into Android development in the first place.”

Learn Android tools and tips from Android Community Lead, Yasmine Evjen, and hear from her first-hand on how to get involved.

Continue reading →

A Conversation with Android Developer and Community Builder, Ceren Tunay

Posted by Baris Yesugey - Regional Lead, Google Developers Turkey and Central Asia

We recently spoke with Ceren Tunay, a Google Developer Group Organizer in Edirne, Turkey. who notes, “while we were organizing events, I noticed people have a huge passion for tech. I asked myself, "what is that thing in tech that makes people so impassioned? And after that, I started to better understand the tech industry, thanks to the programs offered by Google Developer Groups. Then I decided to learn to code. After a while, now I know that I am where I want to be, and realized I have worked towards finding my dream job.”

Tell us about yourself


I am a mobile developer & community builder who aims to be a restless learner. I am strongly passionate about how innovation can help communities advance and grow. I engage in public speaking on topics like development, community, women in tech, and motivation. I am a co-founder & mentor for the Android Developers Group Turkey.

I serve as an organizer for the Google Developer Groups Edirne. I am also a Google Women Techmakers Ambassador - among all of these groups and the collaborations among them, we reach over 90 Google Developer Student Clubs chapters in Turkey and throughout Central Asia. In that spirit, I personally believe that more colors make a better rainbow in the tech community. My dream is to build a future where the lack of diversity is no longer an issue in the tech community.



What is your job, and how does it relate to the tech community?


My major is chemical engineering, and I am working as a community manager at a game development company called Game Factory. My community-facing role allows me to be a person who motivates and helps people to navigate the learning process on their journey to becoming a developer. I feel able to create inspiration because I have been through what others feel and experience when learning to code, so I can easily empathize with them.

How did you get your start in this field?


In studying the field of chemical engineering, I came across the Google Developer Groups (GDG) and I participated in the organizing team to help and support the organization. While we were organizing events, I noticed people have a huge passion for tech. I asked myself, "what is that thing in tech that makes people so impassioned?"

And after that, I started to better understand the tech industry, thanks to the programs offered by GDG. Then I decided to learn to code. After a while, now I know that I am where I want to be, and I have worked towards finding my dream job.

Can you tell me about how you became interested in technology? 


I got introduced to technology in this way through GDG. When I first participated in the community, I was actually only planning to improve my organization and project management skills. But I was lucky that I had the chance to watch people and see what they are doing in tech and in the broader industry. When I saw people's passion and curiosity in this space, I started to also be interested. But the moment that I wanted to learn to code is when I realized how people get to enjoy the time when they are coding and improve themselves altogether.


What is unique about your GDG community or developers in Turkey?


We are a community that remains close, supportive, and sensitive to each other’s needs. It is easy to reach someone on the other side of Turkey in the community. GDG as a program helps this cause because when people start to learn to code but have a problem, they can easily be demoralized, which might lead them to quit learning and never try again. But with the GDG community, they support each other and help to solve problems. If they realized that they do not like the language they are learning, it is so easy to switch to another tech. They become braver to learn and achieve with the GDG program.

With a goal of creating a space for learning new developer tools, we organize workshops, trainings, and icebreakers for our community, to strengthen its ability to connect people around technical concepts. We hold sessions on technical tools, community management, project management, personal goal setting, and many more topics. The events we host show the power of community. The important thing for me is that the programs and content remain open-minded, equal, and diverse.

What is a recent highlight from your community work?


We hosted an Android DevFest and received wonderful feedback from our participants. We wanted to do something and get together when events were starting to take place physically again. We organized an in-person event with expert speakers and various content.

An in-person gather for DevFest Android in Turkey

These speakers accompanied us with wonderful presentations throughout the event. We had fun conversations on many topics, from the Jetpack library and Compose to application architecture. We had a great day as people united by our passion for Android, having fun, drinking a lot of coffee, and bringing each other a lot of new gains.

What is the moment where you feel like everything changed for you or you "had a breakthrough" as a developer and mentor?


When I started to learn Android, I fell in love with the technology. When I started to feel like I knew it well enough, I, along with my teammate, organized an Android Bootcamp. This took two and a half months. At the end of this Bootcamp, I participated in an "I am Remarkable" workshop, which is an initiative empowering women and other underrepresented groups to celebrate their achievements in the workplace and beyond.

What is an example of community work you’re proud to share?


At the "I am Remarkable" workshop we hosted, before the workshop started, one man who was about 40 years old came up to me and thanked me for our community initiatives. At first, I did not understand what he was looking to ask me about, but then as he shared his story of impact, which made me proud.

He said that he was a teacher before our bootcamp and then changed jobs by attending our Android Bootcamp and other programs we led. During that time, he started to learn Android with us and began to complete all classes. Now, fast forward, and he is working as an actual Android developer! That represents the moment that I recognized that my life changed. This is because that was the moment I realized I was not only improving myself, but I was also growing and running with the community.
 
Ceren leads a “Why Kotlin” workshop for beginners and technologists in the community


What are some technical resources you have found the most helpful for your professional development?



What are your plans for the future, in your career as a GDG organizer?


I am still exploring, career-wise, but I definitely plan to remain in the tech industry and aim to have connections with people. Now, I am working as a community manager, along with my teammate Serkan Alc, who is a great team worker and supporter. We are building a community through GDG. So we can say for both domains of my work and community, the most exciting projects are creating Bootcamps and webinars that help and motivate people to take a step into the field of tech.

—

Want to start growing your career and coding knowledge with developers like Ceren? Then join a Google Developer Group near you, here. Learn more about upcoming DevFests here!

RandoTek: Traveling around Tunisia to share technical knowledge

Posted by Salim Abid, Regional Lead. Middle East & North Africa, Google Developers

Training young Tunisian developers in remote areas

On weekends, the volunteers would travel for hours to new regions, sometimes on bumpy roads and on crowded, rickety buses. Their purpose? To inspire others around the country and teach them about new technologies. When the members of two Google Developer Groups (GDG) in the Beja and Sousse regions of Tunisia came together to address the challenge that many of their fellow Tunisian citizens had limited access to technology. They decided to make a difference by launching Randotek, a program in Tunisia to help train young developers that gets its name from the French word randonne, which means to hike.

Many community members from these chapters, including Alaedeen Eloueryemmi of GDG Sousse and Yasmina Rebai of GDG Beja, support the initiative. Alaedeen, a software engineer, joined GDG Sousse in 2021, after graduating from university, where he co-founded the ESSTHS Google Developer Student Club. Yasmina joined GDG Beja at the suggestions of a software engineer friend.

Sharing technology knowledge and building community

The origin story for GDG RandoTek goes back to January 2022, when Alaedeen gave a talk at DevFest Beja. During his talk, he and the other members of the GDG Beja and GDG Sousse teams noticed many students couldn't follow his talk because of their lack of familiarity with Google technologies. Acknowledging that many of their fellow Tunisian citizens need more access to technology, the GDG RandoTek volunteers began teaching workshops in February 2022.

“We wanted to give others an overview of the community and the new technologies out there,” says Alaedeen. “We want to build a strong community of developers and allow people to achieve their dreams. In Tunisia, people don’t always have access to courses or materials, so we bring that to them.”

Positive impacts for the community

To date, the program generated positive impacts, in Tunisia including:

  • The organizers hosted nine sessions for over 412 developers in eight regions of Tunisia and five cities.
  • The community initiative has run many four-hour workshops on Google technologies including Flutter; Go; Angular; progressive web apps; AI and machine learning; TensorFlow; Google Cloud Platform; and DevOps.
  • Attendees expressed interest in learning more about specific technologies, like Flutter and Cloud, and in joining a GDG group.
  • GDG RandoTek members continue to be asked to give additional workshops, online and in-person, making it a powerful learning experience for them as well.

Building a tech community in Tunisia

The GDG RandoTek organizers note that as more young developers receive training on various technologies, they will feel inspired to form new developer communities in their own local area. The more of those types of groups there are, the easier it will be to reach even more people in Tunisia. “That’s what we want to spread in Tunisia–to have more than one GDSC in every region, and more than one chapter in every place,” says Yasmina. The RandoTek team remains motivated to share knowledge and expand the community with new members.

“What we wanted to do during this program is to share the knowledge,” says Alaedeen. “Share the spirit of community work and get together and learn stuff.” The organizers all seem to share a mutual admiration for helping others. “Seeing how the world evolves each day and the need for technologies in our daily life, I would advise anyone, especially students, to learn as much technology as possible because they’re going to use them someday, somehow,” Yasmina says.

What’s next for GDG RandoTek in Tunisia

For organizers like Aladeen, Yasmina, and their collaborators, the GDG community unlocks potential, creates leaders, and helps people relate to each other through technology. It creates a way to motivate others to become teachers and share technical knowledge and build skills.

“For me, if it wasn’t for GDG, I wouldn’t be the person I am today,” says Alaedeen. “It improved my career, my management skills, and my technical skills, and I want everyone to have that opportunity.”

Visit the Google Developer Groups page and find out how to join a Google Developer Community near you!

From Developer to Teacher, How a Computer Science Professor Found Career Support with Google Developer Groups

Posted by Kübra Zengin, North America Regional Lead, Google Developers

A Path to Programming

“I was hooked from the start,” says Jennifer Bailey about programming. Always interested in the way systems work, Jennifer, now an educator in Colorado, found her path to programming in an unconventional way. She first earned a General Educational Development degree, otherwise known as a “GED” in the United States, from Aims Community College, when she was only 15 years old.

Ever a quick learner with the ambition to excel, she then secured an associate’s degree, bachelor’s, and master’s degree in Applied Science. With degrees in hand, she taught herself C Sharp while working at a local firm as a software developer building desktop applications.

When one of her mentors from Aims Community College was retiring, the school recognized Jennifer’s programming expertise and hired her to teach computer science in 2011. The administration then asked her to create the college’s certificate in mobile application development from scratch. To build out a curriculum for her new assignment, she needed to find some inspiration. As Jennifer sought out resources to curate the content for the college’s new program in mobile development, she found a local Google Developer Group (GDG), an organization where local developers came together to discuss cutting-edge programming topics.

Finding a Google Developer Group in Northern Colorado

She attended her first event with the group that same week. At the event, the group’s leader was teaching attendees to build Android apps, and other developers taught Jennifer how to use GitHub.

“I went to that in-person event, and it was everything I was hoping it would be,” Jennifer says. “I was just blown away that I was able to find that resource at exactly the time when I needed it for my professional development, and I was really happy because I had so much fun.”

The community of welcoming developers that Jennifer found in GDG drew her in, and for the first time at a technical networking event like this one, she felt comfortable meeting new people. “That initial event was the first time I felt like I had met actual friends, and I’ve been involved with GDG ever since,” she says.

A Life-Changing Community

As time progressed, Jennifer started attending GDG events more often, and eventually offered the meeting space at Aims Community College where the group could gather. After she made the offer, the group's organizers invited her to become a co-leader of the group. Fast-forward to the present, and her leadership role has led to numerous exciting opportunities, like attending Google I/O and meeting Google developers from all over the world.

“By participating in GDG, I ended up being able to attend Google I/O,” says Jennifer. “This community has had a massive impact in my life.”

Ongoing Education

Jennifer’s local GDG provides support for Android that helps other learners while also remaining helpful to her teaching of computer science subjects and the Android IOS mobile developer certificate.

“What keeps me engaged with Google technology, especially with Android, is all of the updates, changes, new ideas and new technology,” she says.

Jennifer notes that she appreciates the Android ecosystem’s constantly evolving technology and open source tools.

  • After becoming fascinated with Android, Jennifer discovered that the more time she spent learning and delving into Android, the more she learned and gained expertise that she could apply to other platforms.
  • Jennifer’s Android expertise has also led to her becoming an author for Ray Wenderlich, for whom she contributed to Saving Data on Android and Android Accessibility by Tutorials and a video course on building your first app using Android and Kotlin. “I like Jetpack Compose a lot, and I’m very interested in Android accessibility, so I can’t wait to update that book,” she says.
  • She served as editor on an article about “Lazy Composables” on lists.

Positive Career Impact

In Jennifer’s view, involvement with Google Developer Groups positively impacted her career by exposing her to a local group of developers with whom she is deeply connected, providing resources and instruction on Android, and providing her with a leadership opportunity.

“I have met such a diverse sampling of people in Google Developer Groups, from all different industries, with all different levels of experience–from students, self-taught, to someone who’s been in technology longer than I have,” Jennifer says. “You never know who you will meet out there because GDG is filled with interesting people, and you never know what opportunities you will find by mixing with those people and comparing notes.”

If you’re looking to grow as a developer, find a GDG group near you. Learn more about Google Developer Groups and find a community near you!