As more businesses start building and deploying Internet of Things applications and service, IoT platform providers are investing in rolling out and growing developer communities, demonstrating how their technology works, making it easier to use the software, applications, networks, clouds and devices than what their competition offers, and bringing together designers, engineers and innovators online.
Just as every platform is different, every community is different. Some are bigger than others, some offer more in the way of free code or services, some offer training beyond access to the docs and libraries, some encourage collaboration between developers, and some offer incentives including discounts and complementary professional services.
Communities also cater to different kinds of developers - some support large enterprise in-house developer and DevOps teams, some support start-ups, some bring in partners, some offer certification and some focus on specific differentiators (for example specific industry verticals, or specific protocols) and some are frankly better at attracting and retaining people. APIs and SDKs that make integration and development easier are at the heart of the most successful efforts. Gaining critical mass is important, as is generating enough visibility in the increasingly fragmented and vibrant world of IoT.
We’ve created this list of IoT developer communities (and would love to add any we may have missed, so feel free to contact me) with links to each landing page and each community’s brief description of what their communities are all about.
“We’ve seen dramatic growth of developer communities in the Real Time Communications (RTC) world over the last decade,” said David Walsh, co-founder of Kandy.io. “Empowering developers to build and commercialize innovations is the best way to drive adoption at scale, and we will continue to see these communities grow, especially in the world of connected things, and in the future of how people and machines interact with each other intuitively and contextually. It’s at the intersection of RTC and IoT where we’re seeing the most creativity and value being created in this new decade.”
There are numerous communities that developers can be a part of; some of the communities are listed here.
1. Advantech Community - https://iotforum.advantech.com/
Advantech is the global leader of embedded, industrial, IoT and automation solution platforms. Advantech is renowned for developing and manufacturing high-quality, high-performance hardware and software computing components as well as complete platforms that are focused on its vision of enabling an intelligent planet. Advantech is a subsidiary of Advantech Co., Ltd.
2. Amazon AWS - https://forums.aws.amazon.com/forum.jspa?forumID=210
Amazon Web Services (AWS) is the world’s most comprehensive and broadly adopted cloud platform, offering over 175 fully featured services from data centers globally. Millions of customers—including the fastest-growing startups, largest enterprises, and leading government agencies—are using AWS to lower costs, become more agile, and innovate faster.
3. AT&T M2X - https://m2x.att.com/
The AT&T IoT Platform Solution Provider program connects experts that specialize in AT&T IoT Platform with AT&T customers that need help designing and building IOT solutions.
4. Cayenne Community - https://community.mydevices.com/?_ga=2.103750016.1270794685.1583177036-28935889.1583177036
Cayenne community is a community where you can join other users that share your interests and explore the endless possibilities in the IoT space.
5. Clearblade Academy - https://clearblade.teachable.com/
ClearBlade’s IoT platform is empowering a new industrial revolution. Reliable, Scalable, Fast, and Secure. Get your things running in no time with our pre-built solutions and start outperforming the competition.
6. Collaborizm - https://www.collaborizm.com/
An online collaborative work-space for engineers/makers, aspiring entrepreneurs, creatives and other inspired people. A social collaboration community where people can network and share knowledge, globally, and establish their credentials.
7. Cypress Developer Community - https://community.cypress.com/community/partners/arrow
Arrow Electronics is a global provider of products, services and solutions to industrial and commercial users of electronic components and enterprise computing solutions. Arrow serves as a supply channel partner for more than 100,000 original equipment manufacturers, contract manufacturers and commercial customers through a global network of more than 460 locations in 58 countries.
8. DZone - https://dzone.com/articles/top-iot-developer-programs
Programming, Web Development, and DevOps news, tutorials and tools for beginners to experts. Hundreds of free publications, over 1M members, totally free.
9. EdgeXFoundry (Linux) - https://www.edgexfoundry.org/
EdgeX Foundry is a vendor-neutral open-source platform hosted by the Linux Foundation, providing a common framework for industrial IoT edge computing.
10. Fiware - https://www.fiware.org/community/
FIWARE goes a step further in the creation of a community to gather web entrepreneurs, mentors, investors, students, academia, industry and public sector innovators to keep progressing.
11. Gemalto - https://developer.gemalto.com/
The Gemalto M2M Developer Community is an extensive online source for tools, knowledge and community covering core elements of IoT.
12. Hologram - https://community.hologram.io/search?q=IoT
Hologram connects the internet of things by providing cellular connectivity, pre-certified hardware, and an IoT software stack. You can connect your IoT devices, capture device data, and manage your fleet with our full stack. We have hundreds of thousands of devices around the world using our cellular network and have thousands of customers building on the Hologram platform including hundreds of enterprises, small businesses, and start-ups.
13. IBM - https://developer.ibm.com/recipes/
Quickly find or produce step-by-step recipes that inspire millions of developers.
14. Intersystems Developer Community - https://community.intersystems.com/tags/iot
Our data platform and connected care solutions have received global industry recognition including the Leader position in the Gartner Magic Quadrant and Best in KLAS awards from KLAS Research, among other honors. InterSystems is privately held – enabling us to devote all our attention to our customers.
15. IoT Central - https://www.iotcentral.io/forum
IoT Central is your app platform—one location that connects you with devices, partners, app templates, and problem solvers. Get connected. Connect IoT devices to the cloud faster than any other platform. Stay connected.
16. Libelium - http://www.libelium.com/development/
Libelium designs and manufactures wireless sensor network devices for the Internet of Things (IoT), Internet of Things Platform Provider for M2M, Smart Cities, Parking, Water, Agriculture, and Industrial IoT solutions.
17. Microsoft - https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/internet-of-things-iot/ct-p/IoT
The space to share experiences, engage and learn from experts.
18. Particle Community - https://community.particle.io/
Discourse about Particle devices, the Particle cloud, and all things related to connected devices in the IoT era.
19. Predix - https://forum.predix.io/index.html?region=vpc&predix-email=
Predix is General Electric's software platform for the collection and analysis of data from industrial machines. General Electric plans to support the growing industrial internet of things
20. Smart Things - https://smartthings.developer.samsung.com/
Build connected IoT experiences for millions of SmartThings users
Join an open ecosystem of Samsung appliances and Works with SmartThings devices. Let's create the connected world of the future together.
21. Tek-Tips - https://www.tek-tips.com/threadminder.cfm?pid=1842
Professional forum and technical support for computer/IT pros for Internet of Things (IoT) General Discussion. Includes problem solving collaboration tools.
22. ThingsBoard - https://gitter.im/thingsboard/chat
ThingsBoard - Open-source IoT Platform
IoT device management, data collection, processing and visualization for your IoT projects.
23. Verizon Open Development - https://opendevelopment.verizonwireless.com/content/opendevelopment/English/home.html
Power your products on the Verizon network. Join our IoT developer community to get nationwide coverage and support your need to bring your idea from concept to market.
One of the biggest responsibilities for any platform trying to promote developer communities is being able to serve developers who need to keep up with the constantly evolving knowledge base and trends.
These developer communities are also becoming a powerful source of new partnerships and a key customer procurement channel. Developers who are experimenting with various IoT platforms will have their own preferences and will make recommendations to their business around which one to use when building an IoT solution.
Nearly every community leverages the extremely popular Github, a US-based global company that provides hosting for software development version control using Git. It is a subsidiary of Microsoft, which acquired the company in 2018 for US$7.5 billion. It offers the distributed version control and source code management functionality of Git, plus its own features, and is designed to attract and serve all categories of developers, including those working on IoT solutions.
We’d love to hear from you on other IoT developer communities we should continue to follow and soon will publish a related article with observations and insights from top leaders in this space.
Juhi Fadia is an engineer, analyst, researcher and writer covering advanced and emerging technologies.
Edited by
Ken Briodagh
