Facebook plans to roll out its Developer Circles initiative in four cities across South Africa, which serves to allow members to interact and learn about developing on the social media platform.
The free community-driven initiative will now be available to developers in Johannesburg, Cape Town, Durban and Pretoria, according to BizCommunity.
Developer Circles members meet up on a regular basis to discuss projects that they are working on, assist each other in solving problems and educating themselves on Facebook-related issues such as chatbots in Messenger.
With over 70 groups operating across the globe, the South African cities now join other African groups that are already operational in Cairo, Casablanca, Dakar, Harare, Lagos, Nairobi and Tunis, Htxt reports.
Each developer circle is led by a volunteer who arranges discussions and meetings in an offline setting, while they also manage their own dedicated Facebook group, where members continue conversations and share code.
The idea for the interactive developer community was conceived and launched at F8, Facebook’s Developer Conference, which was held in April.
In only a few months, the meetings have become popular around the world, prompting new area launches such as the South African cities, with Johannesburg serving as the African headquarters for the social media giant.
Proud Dzambukira, Facebook strategic product partner, platform partnerships, explained the importance of developer circles across the continent for the company.
“The developer community has played a large role in Facebook’s success to date, and is one we’re committed to investing in and growing, especially across Africa,” Dzambukira said, according to ITNewsAfrica.
“We see these groups as key in helping to drive forward Africa’s innovation in tech, and we’re extremely excited to welcome on-board teams from across key cities in South Africa to an ever expanding list of African Developer Circles,” Dzambukira said.
Through a partnership with online training platform Udacity, Facebook has also launched a bespoke training program for the Developer Circles community across the globe, which members can access via Developer Circles Facebook groups and on Udacity.
