Posted by Bill Moorier on Twitch
TL;DR: We are introducing twitch.tv/programming, a tent-pole channel for our Game Dev and Programming communities. To celebrate our new channel, we are streaming the CSforAll Summit live from the White House at 10 am PT.
A programmer’s experience
I was a software engineer for nearly 20 years before I started Twitch Creative. Programming has been my creative passion, but learning to be a better programmer hasn’t always been the easiest journey. In grad school, I remember learning a new language by watching lectures (on dial-up internet!). After each video, I would post questions to Usenet, and often wait days to get answers. When things clicked, I had nobody to share the excitement with. It was a lonely, frustrating experience — programming often is!
Things have changed so much since then. Video lectures on esoteric programming topics are everywhere. And forums, too, are full of endless threads. Yet I can’t help thinking something is still missing.
The experience of turning away from a video to look up answers on an unrelated forum is something less than it could be. Where do you go to watch a lecture at the same time as other people; to share the excitement of learning something new; to answer each other’s questions with a shared context of where they came from? Well, watching video synchronously is what Twitch is all about, be it Pokemon, painting, or starting now, programming.
A community for programmers
Today, we are launching twitch.tv/programming, a channel focused on bringing existing and emerging programmers together to learn, chat, and connect with each other over inspiring content. This includes lectures, tech talks, hackathons, and highlights of cool projects from our Game Dev and Programming communities.
CSforAll Summit live from the White House
We’ll be kicking off our channel at 10:00 am PT with the CSforAll Summitlive from the White House! CSforAll is an initiative aimed at empowering all kids, from all backgrounds, to learn about computer science and gain access to the skills they need to be creators in our tech-driven world. We couldn’t be more excited to support the effort.
Following the Summit, you can a drone live stream from Let’s Robot and highlights from TechCrunch Disrupt SF, including a talk from Twitch CEO Emmett Shear and the final hackathon presentations. A full schedule of upcoming content can be found here.
As an engineer, I am excited that we can provide a home for the next generation of CS talent to connect in a live manner, whether it’s for students to watch and learn from Silicon Valley’s finest, or for instructors to host collaborative office hours. I hope you’ll tune in and join us.
