Developer Space (D-Space)

Work in Progress...

Developer Space is one of the main functions of the Prosperity 4 All platform.

Use Case/ Scenarios

To find the D-Space use cases/ Scenarios please refer to the GPII Wiki: http://wiki.gpii.net/index.php/Developer_Space

Comparative Analysis

The following analysis provides an overview of two different types of services that developers may use in their product development workflow:

  1. Closed Developer Platforms: They encourage developers using their products by offering variety of tools and services e.g. Apple, Microsoft, Google
  2. Open Developer Tools: They provide developers with tools, services and information to facilitate their workflow e.g. GitHub, CodeClimate

This analysis aims to reveal the components that must be incorporated within the D-Space as well as unique features to created added value for the D-Space

 

1. Closed Developer Platforms

PlatformToolsResourcesMarketing/ PromotionsCommunityMentorshipBusiness Model
Google Developers
  • Cloud credits to help developers build products (thumbs up) (Can we offer such credits or initial incentives?)
  • Early access to pre-release APIs and SDKs
  • Mix of Free/Paid Online courses both for the development and design
  • Featured talks and articles for design, development, distribution and monetizing (thumbs up) (Training modules to help developers market and sell their products)
  • Spotlight: Featured startups are shown here (first hand lessons, challenges and tactics) (thumbs up) (Featuring developer of the month gives them an incentive to participate and build products, etc)
  • Getting invited to the startup launch events around the world
  • Week-long bootcamps for early stage startups (Focused on the subject, Business oriented, practical tips, marketing and presentation skills) (thumbs up) (Interesting but maybe out of scope for P4A)
  • Mentorship from Startup Launch mentor network
  • UX reviews by Google Developer Relations and Startup Launch mentor for selected startup
 
Mozilla Developer Network
  • Libraries and APIs
  • Web Console
  • JS Debugger
  • Page Inspector
  • Style Editor
  • Profiler
  • Network Monitor
  • App manager
  • Simulator (thumbs up)
  • Remote Debugging (thumbs up)
  • Responsive Design View (thumbs up) (This feature can be useful for designers as well)
  • Settings
  • Layout Basics
  • Styleguides
  • Design Asset Library (thumbs up) (A link to asset libraries for different platforms)
  • Components guides
  • Publishing and Monetization guides
  • Developer Guide (CSS, Graphics, Wbe APIs, HTML, XML, SVG, UX, etc.)
  • Accessibility
  • Security
  • Demos
  • Featured Demos (thumbs up) (Showcasing selected products not just on the D-Space, but on the entire platform)
  • Hacks Blog
  • Feedback channels in Stack Overflow
  • Members can edit documentations and showcase their work
  • Contributors receive Mozilla gear, invitation to Mozilla related events and considered for internships (thumbs up)
  • TestDay: Global, virtual events to test a particular product or feature. Meant to teach people the skills necessary to contribute to Mozilla (thumbs up) (Maybe every month a particular product is selected for testing, and review by the community)   
  • All parts are created by an open community of developers. All services are free (You can find several pages that are not reviewed or completed)
  • Sustained through donations
Apple Developers
  • SDKs
  • Programs certificates (Xcode) (thumbs up) (Offering certificate for commonly used programs)
  • Programming language (Swift)
  • TestFlight Beta Testing (Inviting internal & External testers) (thumbs up)
  • Review and Follow Guidelines after submission to App Store
  • Bug Reporter
  • iCloud Design Guide
  • iOS & OS developer library (Guides, References, Release Notes, Sample Code, Technical Code)
  • Apple Capabilities guidelines and Framework Reference (WatchKit, Touch ID, Apple Pay, etc.)
  • Videos form Apple Worldwide Developers Conference
  • iOS & OS videos
  • Tech Talks
 
  • Developer Forums (Paid Service)
  • Annual Worldwide Developers Conference
 
  • Subscription fee for technical support & resources and access to pre-release software
Microsoft Developers Network
  • Free Cloud Services
  • APIs and SDKs
  • Visual Studio
  • Documentations for APIs and other references
  • Developer Code Sample
  • MSDN Library (Design & Development Tools and Languages, Mobile/Web/Office/Windows Development)
  • Customer Access Program: Connecting promising startups with mature ideas to the Microsoft's global customers (thumbs up) (Matching Products/Developers with an idea to the right backers, or customers)
  • Local Innovation Centers to provide resources and support for students, entrepreneurs and startups (Low or No cost training) (thumbs up)  (Interesting but maybe out of scope for P4A)
  • Microsoft Virtual Academy (Courses, Live Events, Top students) (thumbs up)   
  • Channel 9: featured videos, interviews and talks
  • Imagine Cup: Global Students Technology Competition (thumbs up) (For issues/ideas/questions that are raised by many P4A users)
  • Developer Blogs and Forums
  • Accelerators: for promising early-stage startups and first time entrepreneurs (3-6 Month mentoring/ technical guidance and connection to other startups)
  • Local Tech Advisers (thumbs up)   
  • Know it Prove it: a month long challenge to improve your skill and complete a set of required modules (thumbs up) (Leveling up your skills and turning consumers to producers)   
  • Subscription fee for some of the services
Amazon Developers
  • SDK Download
  • App Testing (simple drag and drop)
  • Live App Testing (App distribution in the app stodere prior to release to be tested by Amazon Testers)
  • A/B Testing on the fly (thumbs up) (Useful tool for startups and entrepreneurs)
  • Learning Center (videos, documentations, case studies)
  • Marketing tips (Distribution, Traffic, Trademarks) (thumbs up)
  • Amazon Coins Rewards to Customer to Improve Conversion
  • Enhanced merchandising to improve discovery
  • Free App of the Day (Featured merchandising)
  • Developer Promotion Console (Increasing sales, monitoring results, controlling pricing options) (thumbs up) (It's very interesting but I don't know how it can be used in the D-Space)
  • Events and Webinars
  • Amazon Blog
  • Amazon Forum
  • Amazon Developer Evangelist (thumbs up) (Based on the developer's acquired badges, reviews and participation level, s/he can be nominated as an evangelist)
 

 

2.  Developer Tools

 

Code Climate: Automated code review for Ruby, JS, and PHP.

  • Multiple ways of quickly understanding the state of code at a glance
  • Uses many visuals to convey status:
    • "A" to "F" scale to indicate the grade of a particular item
    • Up and down icons to indicate when something has improved or declined
    • "Hotspot" sidebar widget to show where important trouble spots are e.g. https://codeclimate.com/tour/feed
    • In dashboard view, security issues are called out for easy viewing.
  • Notifications for when status changes.
  • Project Feed to monitor any changes on the code base
  • Dashboard enables users to see multiple projects state at a glance
  • Easy Toggle between test coverage and code quality
  • List of all features

JS Hint: Scanning programs written in JavaScript to report commonly made mistakes and potential bugs e.g. syntax error, a bug due to implicit type conversion, a leaking variable.

  • There is a sidebar which summarizes the code and identifies possible issues. As you hover over the identified issues, the related piece of code is highlighted.

Travis-Ci: Continues integration service used to build and test projects hosted at GitHub.

  • Uses visuals to convey status:
    • Badges to show if the build is failing, passing, unknown or if there is an error
    • The items on the build history, pull requests and branch summaries lists are labeled to show the status of the pulled requests (started, passed, failed)
  • Easy option to download log

Bit Bucket: Private Code Repositories to host, manage and share Git and Mercurial repositories in the cloud.

  • Repositories can be shared with team members
  • Quick options to Merge, Decline or Approve changes
  • Commits are interlinked with JIRA and can be resolved from the Bitbucket
  • Capability to track your activity as well as your teammates


Google Code: Runs a project hosting service that provides revision control, an issue tracker, and a wiki for documentation.

  • It has the following 3 sections:
    • Project home: project info, features, members, links
    • Wiki: documentations, comments, change logs
    • Source: Browse (branches, tags, etc), Changes (revisions, affected files)

3. Other Sites

 

Reddit

  • A self-governed, community sourced news sharing site
  • Default view is a list of trending items from a select number of sub-reddits (or "Subs"). Trending items are based on the number of views / clicks / votes.
  • User can search and subscribe to Subs of a wide variety of topics
  • Reddit has multiple metrics and economies in place
    • Gold - gold tokens are awarded by other users to people to encourage more good behaviour and participation. Gold token can be purchased by buying a reddit subscription or by earning them through participation.
    • Karma - there are two types of karma a user can earn: link karma, and comment karma. Karma is awarded by other community members by "upvoting". Conversely you can lose karma through "downvoting".

(thumbs up) Community-sourced content with a micro-economy.

(thumbs down) What becomes most visible is often what is more popular. Popularity alone may not be a good metric.