The Rise of GitHub

While LinkedIn might be good at hogging all the headlines, especially in the wake of its high-profile multi-billion takeover from Microsoft, for many techies from around the world, GitHub is the professional web network that is changing the way they work.

GitHub is a cloud-based location with a large emphasis on web development collaboration that LinkedIn simply doesn't have. Its version control has been lauded as a revolution for multiple developers working on the same project, while a staging platform allows developers to build on each other's code.

Further to this, stakeholders other than the technology experts themselves have an incentive to sign up, as they are able to conduct 'test runs', checking on the progress of projects.

That has given GitHub something priceless on top of its social value - a purpose as a collaborative communication tool to get work done, rather than to simply talk about getting it done! This is done by sending a GitHub link and makes a nice alternative from working with bland mock-ups.

How does the magic work?

GitHub does the basics very well, such as its working directory which contains files that developers are working on in their ongoing states. There is also a repository which contains files and metadata, as well as a database with the different project versions.

Keeping it social

There are also aspects that are more akin to social media networks such as Twitter - you can have a look at trending repositories on GitHub, having a look at the work of fellow developers. A star system run by GitHub admins provides another way of ranking projects. Users are also able to 'star' projects, in the same way that tweets attract likes. 

Those repository files which are made public are made available as downloads to store locally as zip files.

LinkedIn has its uses, but it is clear that the social media needs of the technology community has outgrown it, and as such, GitHub is providing a platform which is more suited to their day to day tasks and requirements.