3 developer communities that reuse data

The world of technology and data is constantly evolving. Keeping up with the latest developments and trends can be a difficult task. Therefore, spaces for dialogue where knowledge, doubts and recommendations can be shared are important.

What are communities?

Communities are open channels through which different people interested in the same subject or technology meet physically or virtually to contribute, ask questions, discuss and resolve issues related to that technology. They are commonly created through an online platform, although there are communities that organise regular meetings and events where they share experiences, establish objectives and strengthen the bonds created through the screen.

How do they work?

Many developer communities use open source platforms known as GitHub or Stack Overflow, through which they store and manage their code, as well as share and discuss related topics. 

Regarding how they are organised, not all communities have an organisational chart as such, some do, but there is no parameter that governs the organisation of communities in general. However, there may be roles defined according to the skills and knowledge of each of their members.

Developer communities as data reusers

There are a significant number of communities that bring knowledge about data and its associated technologies to different user groups. Some of them are made up of developers, who come together to expand their skills through webinars, competitions or projects. Sometimes these activities help drive innovation and transformation in the world of technology and data, and can act as a showcase to promote the use of open data.

Here are three examples of data-related developer communities that may be of interest to you if you want to expand your knowledge in this field: 

Hackathon Lovers 

Since its creation in 2013, this community of developers, designers and entrepreneurs who love hackathons have been organising meetings to test new platforms, APIs, products, hardware, etc. Among its main objectives is to create new projects and learn, while users have fun and strengthen ties with other professionals.

The topics they address in their events are varied. In the #SerchathonSalud hackathon, they focused on promoting training and research in the field of health based on bibliographic searches in 3 databases (PubMed, Embase, Cochrane).). Other events have focused on the use of specific APIs. This is the case of  #OpenApiHackathon, a development event on Open Banking and #hackaTrips, a hackathon to find ideas on sustainable tourism.

Through which channels can you follow their news?

Hackathon Lovers is present in the main social networks such as Twitter and Facebook, as well as YouTube, Github, Flickr and has its own blog. 

Comunidad R Hispano 

It was created in November 2011, as part of the 3rd R User Conference held at the Escuela de Organización Industrial in Madrid. Organised through local user groups, its main objective is to promote the advancement of knowledge and use of the R programming language, as well as the development of the profession in all its aspects, especially research, teaching and business. 

One of its main fields is the training of R and associated technologies for its users, in which open data has a place. With regard to the activities they carry out, there are events such as:

• Annual conferences: so far there have been eleven editions based on talks and workshops with attendees with R software as the protagonist. 
• Local initiatives: although the association is the main promoter of the annual conferences, the feeling of community is forged thanks to local groups such as those in Madrid, sponsored by RConsortium, the Canary Islands, which communicates aspects such as public and geographic data, or Seville, which during its latest hackathons has developed several packages linked to open data.
• Collaboration with groups and initiatives focused on data: such as UNED, Grupo de Periodismo de Datos, Grupo Machine Learning Spain or companies such as Kabel or Kernel Analytics.
• Collaboration with Spanish academic institutions: such as EOI, Universidad Francisco de Vitoria, ESIC, or K-School, among others.
• Relationship with international institutions: such as RConsortium or RStudio.
• Creation of data-centric packages in Spain: participation in ROpenSpain, an initiative for R and open data enthusiasts aimed at creating top quality R packages for the reuse of Spanish data of general interest.

Through which channels can you follow their news?

This community is made up of more than 500 members. The main communication channel for contacting its users is Twitter, although its local groups have their own accounts, as is the case in Malaga, the Canary Islands and Valencia, among others. 

R- Ladies Madrid 

R-Ladies Madrid is a local branch of R-Ladies Global -a project funded by the R Consortium-Linux Foundation- born in 2016. It is an open source community developed by women who support each other and help each other grow within the R sector.

The main activity of this community lies in the celebration of monthly meetings or meet ups where female speakers share knowledge and projects they are working on, or teach functionalities related to R. Its members range from professionals who have R as their main working tool to amateurs who are looking to learn and improve their skills.

R-Ladies Madrid is very active within the software community and supports different technological initiatives, from the creation of open source working groups to its participation in different technological events. In some of their working groups they use open data from sources such as the BOE or Open Data NASA. In addition, they have also helped to set up a working group with data on Covid-19. In previous years they have organised gender hackathons where all participating teams were made up of 50% women and proposed to work with data from non-profit organisations.

Through which channels can you follow their news?

R – Ladies Madrid is present on Twitter, as well as having a Meetup group.

This has been a first approximation, but there are more communities of developers related to the world of data in our country. These are essential not only to bring theoretical and technical knowledge to users, but also to promote the reuse of public data through various projects like the ones we have seen. Do you know of any other organisation with similar aims? Do not hesitate to write to us at dinamizacion@datos.gob.es or leave us all the information in the comments.