What to expect from Pluralsight LIVE 2019
The Computer Weekly Developer Network (CWDN) team is fond of craft beer, Mormon temples, clean air and an opportunity to dig into cloud-based enterprise technology learning platforms.
That’s lucky then, because CWDN is off to Pluralsight Live 2019 in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Part of the burgeoning Silicon Slopes community in Utah, Pluralsight has helped the region to become known as the new-age cloud-native IT hotspot that wants to rival San Francisco’s techier realms.
The company describes itself as a provider of unified end-to-end learning experiences for businesses.
Stepping aside from that (above) arguably slightly marketing-speak influenced description, what Pluralsight actually does is to develop a subscription-based on-demand set of learning tools.
Platform-play
This technology (let’s afford it the term ‘platform’, because it can serve as the foundation for different core functions) includes adaptive skill tests, directed learning paths, expert-authored courses and interactive labs.
Pluralsight provides customers with on-demand access to a digital ecosystem of learning tools, including Pluralsight IQ, directed learning paths, expert-authored courses, interactive labs and analytics.
Pluralsight confirms that its knowledge base to comes from some 1,500+ expert authors feeding into what are over 6,500 learning courses.
“Pluralsight LIVE brings together our worldwide community of technology leaders and learners, our network of expert authors, and our partners to discuss emerging trends in technology and how technology skills development is mission-critical to support innovation,” said Aaron Skonnard, co-founder and CEO of Pluralsight. “Cloud is a top priority at every organization, big or small, and so, logically, it is going to be a key centerpiece of any strategic business conversation. With transformational change in cloud, comes the need for skill development in cloud… and that’s where we play such a pivotal role and why we plan to discuss it so deeply at Pluralsight LIVE 2019.”
Workshops this year (we picked just a handful from the agenda, quite randomly) include: Aligning skill development to real business goals; Blockchain for business growth: use crypto to increase revenue, efficiency, and consumer engagement; Getting started testing in data science… and the curiously named: The curious case of the coaching chatbot.
Product recap
Let’s recap some of Pluralsight’s core and existing products before looking forward to other future developments.
Pluralsight IQ measures a developer’s technology skills based on a percentile ranking for the skill area or technology. It consists of 20 test questions that developers can answer in roughly five minutes… and they can gain a Skill IQ on more than 60 skills, spanning languages, frameworks, tools and processes.
Announced last year, Role IQ is driven by Pluralsight’s machine learning algorithms in its Iris product, this is the follow up to Skill IQ.
While Skill IQ measures an individual’s proficiency in a specific software technology (e.g. Angular, HTML, Git, JavaScript, Python and so on), Role IQ measures a collection of skills an individual needs to be successful in his or her role. Based on the results of the Role IQ skill assessments, the developer receives a proficiency level ranking as Beginner, Level 1, Level 2 or Level 3.
We can also expect updates on Pluralsight’s work with the Pledge 1% movement through Pluralsight One . This is all about social impact and equipping ordinary people and non-profits with technology skills.
It’s GitPrime time
Pluralsight will also logically talk about its acquisition of GitPrime, a purchase which happened in May of 2019. Described as a developer productivity tool, GitPrime aggregates data from git repos, ticketing systems and pull requests and transforms them into easy to insights and reports.
GitPrime is connected to every major code repository in use today, including GitHub, Bitbucket, GitLab and others.
As a result of this coverage, GitPrime captures data around virtually every developer code commit, providing a clear and unbiased view of the application of their skills in real time. GitPrime also offers analytical insights around the efficiency and performance of software development teams.
Finally (for now) let’s also just note the glitz factor.
Pluralsight has pulled guest speakers including TV personalities Ellen DeGeneres and Trevor Noah as guest speakers. There’s also special effects man Adam Savage, professional ‘adventure’ rock climber Alex Honnold alongside Google VP of partnerships and Pluralsight board member Bonita Stewart.
Shouldn’t Pluralsight’s management have toasted all that with a rock band for the closing party? Oh, they did… it’s Weezer, well, Buddy Holly looked pretty chic-geek, he’d have been proud to know his spirit lives on.