Taking coding mainstream in 2014

One of my goals for 2014 at The Coder Factory, is to bring coding into the mainstream. I want people to see that coding is not just for geeks and nerds, everyone can learn to code and build apps that make their lives better.

My vision is for kids, grannies, hipsters, lawyers, accountants, doctors, tradies and chefs to be coding. There are so many possibilities out there where having the power to code, can improve your work and your life forever.

The year that was

The last year has been speeding us towards this time in history. Hardly a day goes by that I don't hear coding being talked about it the press or on tv.

2013 saw a homeless man learning to code and releasing apps. We marvelled at a 12 year old kid presenting a TED talk about his apps on the app store.

Just a few weeks ago, Code.org, the American organisation doing a great job of pushing the 'coding in schools' agenda, ran the successful Hour of Code. Over 20 million kids had a go at coding, more than the total number of kids to ever learn computer science before that week.

In November, I spoke at Ignite Sydney, a short format talk event. My chosen topic, "Teach the world to code" must have inspired President Obama because 3 days after the video of my talk was released on Youtube, Obama uploaded a speech encouraging all Americans to learn to code. :)

Strategy for 2014

To achieve my goal and make coding mainstream, I am making some plans and devising a strategy.

Javascript courses

To kick off, The Coder Factory is offering Australia's first Angular.js course. If you are a Rails developer (or other MVC framework developer) looking to take your web applications to the next level, come and learn Angular.

Javascript MVC frameworks are the future of front end web development. You have to be living with your head in a bag if you haven't noticed the increasing buzz and demand for Javascript skills.

Summer of Code

I will be announcing more Coder Factory initiatives every week during this #summerofcode. Look out, it's going to be a huge year for coding!

Enjoy the rest of your holidays and #learntocode!