Digital Transformation Ministry launches developers' hub platform

The Ministry of Digital Transformation has launched its developers' hub platform – D'Hub – to allow for new and upcoming developers and those interested in immersing themselves in the craft or getting the necessary training they were seeking.

The launch took place on Tuesday at Government Campus Plaza, Port of Spain.

The team who developed the space was made up of people in their 20s and one 30-year-old.

Line minister Hassel Bacchus said, after asking people to give the team a round of applause, "I wanted you to look and see all the milk in their faces and at how young they really are. That is the essence of what we are trying to do."

He said from the inception of the ministry less than two years ago, the Prime Minister advised him to ensure there were more young people involved in its operations. D'Hub is a platform meant to enable, support and host the collaborative efforts of local developers – individual developers, small development teams and micro-enterprises. Eventually, the services will be offered to secondary school students, but for now it is open to those 18 and older. Making the userface easily accessible for retired people is yet to come. D'Hub also does not include small, medium and large companies.

Feature releases of D'Hub are expected every three months. Once a member, more information inclusive of 24 Linux Foundation courses which usually costs between US$300-US$600 are offered for people to utilise. More courses will be made available soon.

The benefits are to boost economic growth and development; increase generation of foreign exchange and reduction of foreign exchange spend; job creation and expansion; reduced reliance on buying imported software solutions; enhancing TT's digital transformation journey; and improved government e-services. "This three-year programme will provide opportunities for creative, innovative and committed problem solvers to develop and enhance their software development competencies. It will support developers who are willing to propose and implement ingenious solutions and business ideas to address important governmental, social, economic and environmental gaps and challenges," said Bacchus.

He added that by 2025, a software development export company is highly anticipated in light of a the developers who would have evolved sufficiently with the help of D'Hub.