GDG DevFest Brunei to help growth of local ICT industry

BRUNEI DARUSSALAM, Nov 10: With the rapid growth of ICT, people are always eager to adapt to the changing and emerging technologies, therefore there is a need to move beyond users – to being creators, developers and innovators.

The statement was shared by Deputy Permanent Secretary (IT and E-Government) at the Prime Minister’s Office, Awang Adi Shamsul bin Awang Haji Sabli in his welcoming remarks as the guest of honour at the opening of the annual Google Developers Group (GDG) DevFest Brunei 2013.

GDG DevFest Brunei 2013 is a two-day event run by Google Developers Group (GDG) Brunei, and is powered under a wider initiative by DST – under its corporate social responsibility programme called ‘Future Series’.

Earlier in his speech, Awg Adi Shamsul highlighted the efforts of DST and GDG to create such platforms to help in the growth of the local ICT industry and human capital development.

He said, such initiative “shows good public-private collaboration and initiative towards the growth of our local ICT Industry” and that these initiatives are aligned with the Brunei Vision 2035.

“One channel to make this happen is by having various initiatives such as this event to provide opportunity for people to learn outside their formal education and training, to gain more knowledge and learn new skills, to be more creative…more innovative.

“I hope this event will also be able to attract more people to be actively involved in the ICT industry, growing the industry and hence supporting the nation’s aim of diversifying the economy,” he said.

Awg Adi Shamsul cited various initiatives that have contributed to this development. DST particularly was commended for its corporate responsibility programme, ‘Future Series’, which has paved the way for various ICT platforms locally.

“The investment by DST in creating platforms to drive business opportunities and in return drive innovation and creativity will bring a positive change to society and the ICT sector as a whole. I look forward to DST’s continuous involvement in future ICT initiatives and commend them for their efforts.”

In her welcoming remarks, GDG Brunei Co-Manager, Rahimah binti Haji Mohd Yussof commented on the event’s attraction for a wider and diverse demographic, and highlighted the main purpose of GDG DevFest in spurring creative ideas.

“You don’t need to be an expert programmer to attend this event or any similar events in the future. What’s more important is your enthusiasm and willingness to commit, despite it being over the weekend, while keeping an open mind so as not to limit your creativity,” she said.

The GDG DevFest is a large, community-run worldwide event that offers speaker sessions across Google product areas, all-day hack-a-thons, seminar sessions, code labs and more. Every GDG DevFest organised worldwide is inspired by and uniquely tailored to the needs of the developer community that hosts it.

For Brunei, the DevFest Brunei 2013 will include seminar and code lab sessions for local developers, students, local startups and interested parties to learn the latest trends and technical knowledge in Android, Google Chrome, HTML5 and other Google Developer technologies and platforms.

The first day’s highlights included various seminars and presentations on Google technologies, including a session on Chrome’s Operating System led by Mohd Firdaus Zailani, Mobile Apps Development by Haji Azaman Haji Suleiman, Google Analytics by Jennifer Voon, BIG Data by Pengiran Izam Ryan, and Basics on Android Development by Timothy Lim Sheng Hwee.

There was also a sharing session on Google GLASS wearable technology by Haji Azaman bin Haji Suleiman and a briefing on the Hack-A-Thon competition by Md Firdaus bin Zailani. All the seminars and sessions are conducted by GDG Brunei members.

For the second day, participants will be able to register for the Hack-A-Thon competition, where participants can expand their perspectives on how to be innovative with their own data and get great ideas for useful applications.

There will also be a TechWomen Ladies session led by GDG Women Lead, Pg Sarimah Pg Hj Abd Latiff. Called ‘Python for Beginners,’ it will provide basic developer training for women on Python, a high-level programming language used as a support language for software developers and widely used in commercial and hobby game development. Simon Walker, a specialist in IT for over 20 years, will facilitate the workshop

Another anticipated event to end the second day is the KidsFest Session that gives opportunity for children between 10 and 15 years of age to compete in an Android Application Development competition using AppInventor software for children.

The event is expected to come to a close this afternoon with a final prize presentation ceremony to award winners of the Hackathon and KidsFest MADKids App Competition.

Also present at the event was Amir bin Pehin Dato Haji Hussin, Acting Assistant General Manager of Group IT and Multimedia Services in DST; Hajah Safrina binti Pehin Dato Haji Abdul Rahman, Manager of Group Corporate Communications at DST; senior government officials, personnel from higher educational institutions, DST management and participants.

 

 

source: Borneo Bulletin