The Practical Dev, created by Ben Halpern, is an online platform designed as a community for programmers to collaborate, exchange ideas, and grow in their knowledge of programming. The website is called dev.to. Ben is a guy who has been working on side projects throughout much of his professional career, but this is the first one that has really taken off. Just go to his website here http://benhalpern.com/ and you get a pretty good idea of the kind of person he is.
Dev.to is a great example of Johnson’s ideas of “liquid network” and “web” coming together. Halpern has created a positive, helpful, and creative environment that just begs for innovation to develop. It is filled with skills ranging from novice to experienced professional, making a great educational opportunity for young programmers. Primarily, though, it is an excellent online platform for collaboration. With so many programmers in just one site, it’s only natural for creative innovations to develop. It’s like a 24/7 brainstorm session for programmers, and it’s amazing how many people connect through the forum. I can’t wait to see what awesome programs end up coming out of The Practical Dev.
It’s cool to see how any group of people can get together online and absolutely smash a problem. Many hands definitely make lighter work, and when you have so many people together, if somebody has a problem, it’s almost guaranteed that somebody has a solution.