Community Development Critical for IoT Success

The IoT has democratized product engineering and innovation. Increasing device connectivity and open APIs are enabling new types of organizations and developers to innovate in a world previously confined to engineers with highly specialized skill sets. While the traditional embedded ecosystem and its engineers will remain at the heart of the IoT device movement, this new cadre of potential developers and entrepreneurs comprise an important part of the creative base designing future IoT systems.

And from giant conferences to local maker fairs, the technology ecosystem has recognized the importance fostering the growth of this “citizen developer” community. In fact, VDC is involved in an upcoming developer tournament focused catalyzing innovation for the IoT – the Global Mobile Innovators Tournament. I will be serving as one of the judges evaluating submissions.

What is the Global Mobile Innovators Tournament?

IBM, 4YFN (4 Years From Now) and four global telecommunications companies have joined forces to bring you the Global Mobile Innovators Tournament (www.glovators.io). In a worldwide global effort to foster innovation in technology, this tournament empowers developers and startups to create mobile and cloud applications that provide innovative solutions for how businesses and individuals operate and interact with the world around them.

Centered around three Internet of Things topics, the tournament includes fifteen virtual challenges and five regional demo days, culminating with a grand finale on stage at the 4YFN (“four years from now”) conference in Barcelona in February 2016 (http://www.4yfn.com/landing/attend.html). 4YFN, the global conference for mobile innovators, is affiliated with the Mobile World Congress, which takes places concurrently in Barcelona.

This tournament runs on Bluemix (https://console.ng.bluemix.net/home/), IBM’s platform as a service software. The tournament fosters industry innovation, world-class skill development, and mentorship programs for developers and entrepreneurs.

Registration opened on September 16 for the virtual challenges that kick off the Tournament. Demo days will happen December 9^th – January 20^th and winners will be announced February 22-24^th at 4YFN 2016.

Please let me know if you have any questions about how to participate.