GitHub Universe 2024 Day 2 Keynote: Building 1 billion developers

Opening remarks with Chief Operating Officer Kyle Daigle (0s)

• Kyle Daigle, the Chief Operating Officer at GitHub, opened the second day of the GitHub Universe 2024 event. (54s)
• He mentioned joining GitHub as a developer over 11 years ago and humorously noted that he has not been kicked out yet. (1m13s)

Lookback at past GitHub Universes (1m28s)

• Over the past 10 years of GitHub Universe events, there have been numerous groundbreaking product announcements and behind-the-scenes moments, reflecting the dynamic nature of software projects where things often come together at the last minute. (1m29s)
• The first GitHub Universe in 2013 did not feature a major product announcement, but it marked the beginning of a significant focus on security with the announcement of a partnership with Yubico for two-factor authentication. (2m0s)
• Six years later, GitHub announced the first version of GitHub Actions, an infinitely customizable development automation tool, which was initially built in about 60 days by a small team. The project required a quick pivot and adaptation, leading to a shift from HCL to YAML. (2m18s)
• Reflecting on software careers, memorable moments often include both successful launches and near misses, with experiences like database drops or outages being considered rites of passage for developers. (2m55s)
• Throughout the last 10 years of GitHub Universe and over 16 years of GitHub's existence, the developer community has been a driving force, providing support through onboarding, code reviews, and collaboration, which has been essential for progress and innovation. (3m16s)
• The evolution of technology, including new laptops, programming languages, frameworks, and architectural shifts between monoliths and microservices, has been driven by teams of developers working together across distances to achieve remarkable feats and advance human progress. (3m45s)

Black hole, NASA, Arctic Code Vault (4m9s)

• The first pictures of a black hole were captured thanks to Dr. Katie Bouman and her team, utilizing Python libraries such as NumPy, Pandas, and Matplotlib (4m9s).
• NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab, along with over 12,000 open-source contributors, successfully put a helicopter on Mars that completed over 70 flights (4m23s).
• GitHub's Arctic Code Vault was used to preserve the world's open-source code for future generations by storing 21 terabytes of code onto optical film, safeguarding the work for over a thousand years (4m34s).
• These achievements were made possible by the collective efforts of over 100 million talented developers worldwide (4m48s).

1 billion developers (5m2s)

• There is an aspiration to create a future with 1 billion developers, enabling more people to use code to solve problems and bring ideas to life collaboratively. (5m2s)
• Over the past 50 years, software has become more accessible, both in terms of access and the ability to write it, raising questions about the future of development. (5m18s)
• There is speculation about a future where 10% of the world can build software using their natural language and what such an event might look like in 10 years. (5m29s)
• The definition of being a developer is evolving, especially with AI breaking down barriers to entry, emphasizing creativity, problem-solving, and passion over a single path or background. (5m44s)

Kyle & Hubber developer journeys (6m2s)

• The developer's journey began with early exposure to coding when a home computer was brought home, allowing them to experiment with BASIC programming. (6m2s)
• In high school, they were tasked with creating a voter registration tool using Microsoft Access, which they later turned into a web app with PHP. (6m18s)
• Despite initial doubts about a career in software, they pursued lighting design in college while building web apps with Rails 1.0 to earn money. (6m45s)
• Financial constraints led to dropping out of college and joining a startup, where they realized the importance of problem-solving with code, eventually leading to a career at GitHub. (7m9s)
• At GitHub, they contributed to projects like web hooks, the API, GitHub Marketplace, and GitHub Actions, reflecting on growth by acknowledging past work as a learning experience. (7m28s)
• Many developers, including those at GitHub, have unconventional paths to software development, with diverse backgrounds such as art school or global life experiences. (8m10s)
• The rise of AI tools like GitHub Copilot has accelerated the growth of developers on GitHub, enhancing creativity and expanding the community. (9m3s)
• The community is encouraged to reflect on their own developer origin stories and to inspire the next generation of developers, aiming for a future where a billion people build with code. (9m34s)
• Developers are seen as capable of achieving significant advancements, from open source contributions to enterprise development, with GitHub serving as a supportive platform. (10m14s)

Octoverse (10m33s)

• The goal for all developers from the beginning has been to enable collaboration, innovation, and building the future together, with the Octoverse report serving as a yearly pulse of the community, covering topics such as popular programming languages and fastest-growing developer populations around the globe (10m36s).
• The Octoverse report reveals trends and projects that have resonated with developers, including the fact that Python is the number one language on GitHub, while JavaScript remains popular (10m59s).
• The report also highlights side projects that have grown significantly, such as those with thousands of contributors in a single year, which require dedicated maintainers, contributors, and a shared vision to manage and maintain large communities (11m32s).
• Building and maintaining large communities is a challenging task that goes beyond just coding, requiring a collaborative effort to bring projects to life (11m50s).
• The Octoverse report provides insights into the latest trends and projects emerging from the community, showcasing the impact of collaborative efforts in the developer community (11m23s).

Home Assistant (12m7s)

• Home Assistant is an open-source home automation platform that allows users to control various devices like lights, cameras, and thermostats, regardless of their platform or interoperability. (12m12s)
• The platform has gained significant popularity, with over 83,000 GitHub Stars and more than 5,000 users contributing to its development. (12m55s)
• Paulus, the founder of Home Assistant, started the project in 2013 after experimenting with smart lights and local APIs, which led to the creation of a system that could automate home devices. (13m41s)
• Initially, the code was shared on GitHub to enhance job prospects, but it unexpectedly grew into a large community-driven project as many people sought ways to connect and automate their smart devices. (14m11s)
• The growth of Home Assistant is attributed to its strong community, which has been instrumental in its development and direction, emphasizing the vision of an open home. (14m53s)
• Home Assistant allows for the integration of various devices and services across different ecosystems, enabling local home automation through its operating system. (15m58s)
• The discussion highlights the use of low-powered hardware like Raspberry Pi and plug-and-play devices such as the Home Assistant Green for home automation. (16m10s)
• Home Assistant is used to automate home decorations, with features allowing users to monitor and control decorations remotely, ensuring they are not left on unnecessarily. (16m29s)
• Users can customize their Home Assistant dashboard to display personal details like local temperature and weather, enhancing the user experience. (17m22s)
• A custom integration built by a team member named Jessica uses JavaScript, CSS, and GitHub's GraphQL API to extend Home Assistant's functionality, which will be made available for others to use. (17m53s)
• The platform is fully customizable, encouraging community contributions that allow developers to add new features and share them with others. (18m15s)
• Community involvement is central to the development of Home Assistant, with contributions empowering developers to implement desired features. (18m38s)
• The Home Assistant community is supported by Nabasa, a company established to focus on the project's development while keeping the community in control. (19m26s)
• Home Assistant is funded by the community through Home Assistant Cloud subscription and Home Assistant Hardware, rather than by investors, making it a win-win situation as these extras make it easier to use while funding development (19m41s).
• The Open Home Foundation, a nonprofit based in Switzerland, was created this year to which Home Assistant was donated, ensuring that Home Assistant will always be free and open source (19m55s).
• By giving people full control and empowering them to build, Home Assistant has grown one of the biggest and most awesome open communities on GitHub (20m23s).
• Being intentional about a community's wants and needs and giving them the platform to build is key to success (20m35s).
• According to this year's Octe report, Home Assistant had over 20,000 contributors, a significant number that indicates the community's growth (20m42s).
• The Home Assistant community invites others to join and build, but also encourages individuals to pursue their own passions and build on GitHub (20m56s).
• The community's growth is not yet complete, and there is always more work to be done to achieve its goals (20m48s).

GitHub Actions & Issues demo, Arm-hosted runners (21m13s)

• Home Assistant, a project led by Paulus and Frank, has attracted over 2,000 first-time contributors on GitHub, making it the second highest in this category for the year. (21m14s)
• GitHub's mission is to simplify software development, enabling developers to build impactful projects by providing free features such as discussions, issue tracking, and actions. (22m4s)
• GitHub Actions, launched in 2018, has been used for over 10 billion minutes this year to automate tasks, check code quality, and expedite shipping. It is available for free in public repositories. (22m32s)
• Starting next year, GitHub will offer ARM-hosted runners for free in public repositories to support developers working on embedded software, reducing the need for managing hardware. (23m1s)
• GitHub internally uses Actions extensively, including automating processes through chat commands and issue operations, which can trigger from various GitHub events beyond just pushes and pull requests. (23m20s)
• GitHub issues and actions are used by teams to automate work intake, assign triage scores, and manage deployments, with examples of automation demonstrated in the keynote area. (24m14s)
• GitHub Projects allows issues to be displayed in various formats, such as spreadsheets, timelines, and board views, aiding stakeholders and teams in understanding project status and dependencies. (24m52s)
• Teams can identify bottlenecks in their shipping process by analyzing the status of issues, including closing issues as duplicates, which is a common request among users. A new pillbox label will be added for issues closed as duplicates. (25m22s)
• Users can adjust views by filtering out issues that are in draft or already completed, and configure views by selecting fields, columns, and slicers. (25m52s)
• GitHub has introduced several new features in public preview, including sub-issues, which help manage projects by tracking smaller tasks within a hierarchy. This feature provides a visual representation of the progress of nested issues. (26m14s)
• The sub-issues feature allows users to expand and view the hierarchy of tasks, offering an overview of the team's work at various levels. (26m37s)
• GitHub is committed to continuously bringing new features to developers, enhancing their experience and productivity. (27m2s)

Security: Copilot Autofix, Security OSS Fund (27m11s)

• Significant investments have been made to enhance functionality for open source and public repositories, addressing the common issue of vulnerability alerts. (27m14s)
• GitHub is introducing Copilot Autofix, a tool that not only identifies vulnerabilities but also provides solutions and automatically fixes them, particularly benefiting open source maintainers. This tool is available for free for all public repositories. (27m42s)
• A new initiative, the Secure Open-Source Fund, is being launched to ensure that fixing vulnerabilities does not hinder project innovation. This fund offers access to GitHub Security Experts, security education, incident response support, and direct funding through GitHub sponsors. (28m29s)
• The Secure Open-Source Fund already has partnerships and over a million dollars in funding, with plans for continued growth. (28m45s)

Open source funding: GitHub Sponsors, Open Source Fund (28m58s)

• GitHub has been supporting open source since the launch of GitHub Sponsors in 2019, with nearly $60 million contributed to open source projects and maintainers (29m4s).
• Nearly 6,000 companies have participated in GitHub Sponsors, representing a 38% increase in the last year, with organizations such as American Express, Shopify, and Void Zero being part of this group (29m13s).
• GitHub Sponsors supports the maintainers of pivotal projects, including curl, the VM project, and Open Web UI (29m28s).
• The GitHub Fund invests in early-stage developer tool startups, such as Mermaid Chart, which simplifies the creation of engineering diagrams (29m39s).
• Other startups supported by the GitHub Fund include Moon Dream, which builds vision language models for AI applications, and UNS Sloth, which makes fine-tuning LLMs faster and more efficient (29m46s).
• GitHub aims to connect open-source developers to the resources they need to bring their projects to the world, whether they are maintainers or startups (30m0s).

GitHub Copilot for teachers, students and OSS (30m15s)

• Over 1 million students, teachers, and open source maintainers have used GitHub Copilot for free, highlighting its role as an AI pair programmer in software development. (30m23s)
• GitHub Copilot assists users by offering feedback on GitHub issues and pull requests, enhancing the functionality of GitHub workflows. (30m37s)
• GitHub is committed to empowering developers by providing modern, developer-friendly tools, aiming to make coding a joyful experience for all, including the next generation of developers. (31m5s)

GitHub Next (31m42s)

• The future wave of developers will include a diverse group of individuals from various backgrounds and age groups, ranging from 14 to 40 years old, some of whom are currently studying to become developers while others have no coding experience yet. (31m50s)
• GitHub Next is a team focused on the future of software development, responsible for innovations like GitHub Copilot and Copilot Workspace, and is now exploring ways to make learning accessible to everyone. (32m21s)
• Amelia, a principal research engineer at GitHub Next, discusses the team's focus on enhancing the developer experience by empowering developers to better understand code, rather than just generating more code. (33m7s)
• A new concept called "Learning Sandbox" is introduced, which allows users to create a bespoke learning environment tailored to their personal goals and daily work, facilitating a dynamic and interactive learning process. (34m10s)
• The Learning Sandbox enables users to specify their experience levels and desired learning topics, providing bite-sized learning modules linked directly to code, with references and exercises to reinforce learning. (34m35s)
• Users can explore different learning paths based on their curiosity or goals, and the sandbox provides guidance and code samples for questions that arise during the learning process. (35m21s)
• The tool aims to support hands-on learning for various concepts, helping developers navigate codebases and learn through practical tasks, with the ultimate goal of creating content for billions of unique environments and skill sets. (36m10s)
• Although currently a prototype, the Learning Sandbox represents GitHub Next's commitment to building an educational environment tailored to specific scenarios, with plans to explore further developments in the future. (36m46s)

GitHub Education (37m2s)

• GitHub Education collaborates with schools and universities globally to provide students with access to specialized tools and resources for teaching real-world software development. (37m21s)
• Campus experts and students work together to build strong technical communities on their campuses. (37m36s)
• There is a growing number of students and teachers using GitHub and GitHub Copilot, with over 7 million verified students worldwide, an increase of 1.5 million in the past year. (37m52s)

Hack Club (38m8s)

• Hack Club is a global nonprofit organization with over 40,000 teen hackers worldwide, providing a platform for students to connect, write software, build hardware, and engage in both online and real-life communities. (38m10s)
• During the summer, Hack Club hosted the Hack Club Arcade, a free program where 19,000 students participated, logging over 135,000 hours of coding and earning tickets for prizes such as Raspberry Pis and U keys. (38m40s)
• GitHub Education collaborated with Hack Club, spending time with students at their Vermont headquarters, showcasing projects like a weather balloon and an autonomous glider built by a 14-year-old named Charlie, and a Pomodoro Timer converted for group use by a 17-year-old named Man. (39m18s)
• Students at Hack Club work collaboratively, sharing and iterating on projects, and using a digital scrapbook to document their work. (40m16s)
• Aon, a student from Hack Club, organized a high school hackathon called Apocalypse, where 40 projects were created by 150 teams in Toronto. (41m6s)
• Hack Club is organizing a beginner-friendly game jam called Counter Spell in 200 cities worldwide, and has announced a new program, Hack Club High Seed, in partnership with GitHub, inviting over 40,000 students to build and share projects on GitHub, with free hardware provided for completed projects. (41m34s)
• A poll request was merged, and the workflow was checked to ensure all commits were correct, leading to the site "Club High Seeds" going live and open for registrations and donations. (42m28s)
• High school students can sign up for High Seas using a QR code, while others can sponsor prizes like Raspberry Pis, iPads, and laptops through a partnership with Ha Club. (43m19s)
• An invitation was extended to participate in GitHub's 12th annual Game Off, a month-long hackathon starting November 1, where participants can build games, collaborate, and share their creations. (43m44s)
• Attendees were encouraged to donate their hackable badges to a group of teenagers who are interested in using them, with a focus on sustainability and data privacy. (44m3s)

Closing remarks (44m38s)

• Over the last 10 GitHub Universes, the community of developers, students, and creators on GitHub has continued to grow year-over-year and accomplish things that were previously unimaginable, showcasing what's possible through code, creativity, and problem-solving (44m38s).
• The GitHub community has grown to the point where it's enabling over 3,000 employees to work on helping developers do their best work, whether it's solving tough challenges, starting new projects, or taking their first steps with a "Hello World" tutorial (45m7s).
• The goal is to have over 1 billion problem solvers and developers on the platform, helping tackle challenges for themselves and humanity on the biggest social coding platform in the world (45m26s).
• Everyone has their own developer story, including how they got started with software, their first failures, and their successes, and today, a new story is beginning for someone somewhere on GitHub (45m44s).
• A personal story is shared about learning to use a computer from kids in the neighborhood, being taught by an older brother, and building a first PC, which sparked a passion for developing and writing code (46m11s).
• This passion led to creating video games, contributing to Angular, and sharing a journey on social media, which changed the person's life and opened up new opportunities (46m53s).
• Becoming a programmer has shown how small things can compound into big things, and how the world is watching, inspiring others, including black women who reach out for guidance and support (47m14s).
• The GitHub community is a place where contributions matter, not who you are, and it's a legitimizing force that allows people to have fun and work with others while writing code for machines (47m40s).