It’s a tall order, but they believe they’ve done it. Connverg, pronounced “converge”, is a web based platform for developers to collaborate on code problems and work out solutions, in real-time.
Connverg, according to its creators, was designed to address the problem of getting answers to technical questions around code. The platform will also facilitate discovery and networking and connect developers to other programmers in their locales find and connect with other developers, code together, support, and learn from one another and solve code problems together, in real-time.
Connverg’s Live Center
Haven’t we seen this before? I’m certain we have. The value proposition of Connverg is as old as code itself. Programmers have always wanted to share code and learn from other programmers, and have been collaborating since the internet was available only at the speed of dial up. As the pipes widened into a true information superhighway, sharing and collaboration exploded, to the point that much of the technology that powers the internet and the web is open source.
From Stackoverflow to Github, there is no shortage of software and web platforms that allow programmers collaborate on code. So why create another place to converge? Why Connverg?
After speaking with Maja Taiwo, CEO of Swapspace systems, makers of Connverg, I get the sense that they’ve built this platform largely because they can. In the course of working with trainee developers, Maja said they found that the external resources and communities the trainees would consult on their own time did not quite cut it, because it was hard to get quality answers to technical questions. Posters to popular developer forums are known for putting up lots of half-baked answers just for the purpose of getting upvotes, karma, points or whatever gamified hook is in play.
Maja is right. But it remains to be seen if they’ve actually come up with an implementation better than anything that is out there. Connverg’s advertised features include social networking, realtime collaborative code-editing, messaging via text, audio and video and workspace customisations. But when the beta finally arrives, the first thing we’ll looking to see is if this trumps all the alternatives right out of the box, and is, like ST would say, a technical wonder. And even if that is the case, the next question is if being better is a great enough differentiator. I have seen this happen before, when Slack replaced Skype for internal messaging at BigCabal because it was just waaaaaay better at it, even while it was still in beta. But Slack is a unicorn.
Multiple collaborators can view and edit all the files in a project simultaneiously
If the early screenshots validate, Connverg promises to at least be a well designed product. It looks like something that could have been made in Silicon Valley. Maja says this is intended to be a global product, and was not built specifically for Nigerians. It is no vanity project either. Connverg will utilise a time-based pricing model after a free period during the early testing and user feedback phase. The beta, I am told, is live and will be released to the public any moment now. Of course, its users will be the ultimate judge of how good a product this is. And best believe, no user is more finicky than a developer.
Maja, Toyin, James and Bukola, in their Maryland, Lagos studio
Connverg is built for developers by developers. Three of the Swapspace team (two of whom are women) actively code. Bukola Makinwa is the lead developer and writes in PHP, Node JS, Javascript, Backbone.js and JQuery. Toyin Fari handles user experience design. Maja Taiwo is the self-described “sweeper” who looks into both code and design, while also steering the parent company. The guy stooping over Bukola’s PC is Babalola James, who does the company’s business development.
Altogether an interesting team behind an interesting product targeted at a global audience. No pressure, but Stackoverflow on steroids is a big promise. We’ll see if it can deliver.
Update: Connverg’s beta is now live here.
