Join us at Index – the open developer community conference of 2018!

At the end of February, developer advocates Marije Ferwerda, Hans Boef and Edward Ciggaar will travel to San Francisco to join Index – the open developer community conference of 2018. So that’s what they say. Traveling from the Benelux, it’s quite a trip. So what makes it a ‘must join’? What can we expect at this community event? We interviewed Hans and Edward to get some first insights.

So, Index. It’s the first time we hear about it. What kind of event is it?

Hans: No wonder you hear about it for the first time – It’s the first edition of Index. It is an open developer community conference. In just 3 days you can advance your skills and develop you career by joining different sessions and workshops of the latest software development practices. And you know what makes it even more interesting to join? It’s a vendor neutral community event, so this means none of us will be talking about products, only about the technologies. And a lot of technologies will be presented: there are sessions around AI, machine learning, IoT, and even quantum computing. It doesn’t stop there, there are even futurist break outs, like: Flying a drone with your thoughts.

Edward: It’s just three full days of meeting other developers, learning from their challenges and update your own developer skills.

And that’s why you are going too?

Edward: Yes, exactly that! We will visit sessions of our favorite developers and besides that we also co-host some sessions ourselves. Two of our sessions are about blockchain. In the session that I co-host, you will learn the basics of blockchain and Hyperledger Fabric by building a simple blockchain application. Later that day Hans will co-host a workshop that combines blockchain with IoT. You will use real devices to create an asset tracker that uses blockchain to store location and environmental data. Using the data you can create dashboards and supporting analytics.

Hans: Next to the blockchain sessions I will also co-host a session using Node-RED to explore Watson APIs. We will show you how you can make use of the full capabilities of the APIs to create cognitive models and quickly make use of them in real applications with little coding.

Sounds interesting! Did you guys already plan your own schedule?

Hans: I’m looking forward to join the session of Steven Heidel: Controlling a Quantum Computer with Code. Quantum computing is for me the technology I further want to grow my skills. I’m curious to hear about the latest updates around the software for quantum computing. If you ask me, it’s THE technology of 2018! I’ve heard they are even considering to show a prototype of a quantum computer at Index. I can’t wait to see it in real life.

Edward: Yes that’s going to be an interesting one, I think I will join you Hans! I would also like to go to the session of Ravi Sarkar about FinTech innovation with blockchain. I’m curious to hear his view on the impact of blockchain implementations on FinTech industries. And there’s another one high on my list: a session given by IBM and Intel data scientists about deep learning at scale with BigDL on Apache Spark and IBM Data Science Experience.

So how can developers join you in San Francisco?

Hans: You can reserve your seat and find more details here

And once you’re at Index, try to find me… 😉

https://twitter.com/HansB001/status/956624865850806272

Join the sessions Hans and Edward are co-hosting:

• Build your very own Blockchain Application with Hyperledger Fabric and Hyperledger Composer
• Using Blockchain and IoT for a secure asset tracker
• Explore Watson on Node-RED

And these are the sessions Hans and Edward have on their own agendas:

• Controlling a Quantum Computer with Code:
• Deep Learning at Scale with BigDL on Apache Spark and IBM DSX
• FinTech innovation with Blockchain: Platform review, use cases & live demo