3 Images You Need to See: Why a Developer Community Works for Enterprise Innovation

Posted by cbonner on March 06, 2012 @ 7:01 am

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cartoon hand making a 3 We hear it all the time. “Why do people join the TopCoder Community and compete?”. After all if they are that good at development, coding and design, wouldn’t they just go get a conventional job? We’ve written posts on the motivational factors our community generates and we’ve shared videos where our community members themselves describe why they choose to compete. The factors and motivations range from monetary gain, to simply enjoying the thrill of competing against the world’s best, to the opportunity and exposure becoming a top rated TopCoder can provide an individual and more. There is however one universal motivation that can help a community member accelerate towards these other goals. They all want to get better. They all want to leverage TopCoder, the access to shared knowledge within that exists in a transparent community, and they want to improve themselves. This is the biggest reason a developer community works so well for enterprise productivity & innovation. Technology does not stop accelerating. In a mature community, neither does the acceleration of the individual skill-sets that comprise the collective. As new skills are learned, tested & measured with careful rigor and shared with others, more individuals accelerate. If you develop digital assets through a community like TopCoder, every single day your access to knowledge and hyperspecialized skill accelerates alongside their growth.

3 Images You Need to See

At approximately 7:15 AM EST on 2/23, I saw a few tweets I thought really encapsulated the individual desire to better oneself. I noticed a few more the following day and wanted to share them with you.

TopCoder 5 Great Tweets

Couple this individual acceleration with sheer growth of community. From the moment I had the idea for this post – right after I saw the first two tweets above – until I had a free moment to commit the idea to blog form, the TopCoder Community grew by an impressive 818 new members. Of course, there is a certain percentage of these new TopCoder members who will never compete. Some may only choose to compete once or twice. But there is also certain percentage who will emerge as dedicated TopCoder competitors. With the skills and passion for development & design that they both bring with them, and learn via competition, the community continually grows stronger. If accessing hyperspecialized talent is of paramount importance for your enterprise, doing so through an “always-on” community positions you with a certain technological agility that brings with it benefits that can impact your speed to market and more over, your ability to innovate and adapt.

TopCoder Member Growth

Finally, you can have the largest community in the world but it doesn’t really matter if you can’t produce through it. Sheer volume, while impressive doesn’t tell the tale of whether or not the individuals within are exceptional and can produce extreme value outcomes for your enterprise. What better way to prove this point than to highlight who is sponsoring our annual event, the TopCoder Open. For those who may not know, the TopCoder Open is our earned invitation only, best of the best, live programming, algorithmic problem solving and design competition. Coders from around the globe descend on the TCO to compete for prize and for glory. So, who chooses to sponsor such an event … ???

TCO Goolge Facebook

What’s your opinion of Google & Facebook? Do you believe they understand what type of talent is exceptional? Did you know that Google makes the following suggestion to those interviewing for a software engineering role?

“If you are interviewing for a software engineering role then you may first want to visit the website www.topcoder.com. Please launch the “Arena” widget and go to the practice rooms where you can solve problems in the first and second division.”

You may not be able to attract & hire as Facebook & Google can, but it no longer means you don’t have access to the same type of disruptive and coveted talent. Through knowledge platforms you now have access. The question becomes: How will you choose to innovate with it?