The human cloud can be put to use in a number of ways, but with managed and web-based services taking an upturn these past few years, we’re finding that the human cloud manifests its skill sets along several verticals.  Talentopoly, currently in private beta, is one of the latest to set its sights on the power of the human cloud, connecting programmers and designers to network and learn from each other.  It’s two interconnected groups that often need one another for various jobs and projects, so having a resource around fostering professional relationships is always a plus.

The trend extends beyond Talentopoly, with StackOverflow’s latest launch presenting an online resource for programmers as well.  On the connectivity side, we’ve seen Mavenlink going after new formats for professional networking, layering in web-based tools for managing projects as well.  Below is a brief Q&A with founder Jared Brown.

What’s talentopoloy all about, and why did you start the company?

Talentopoly is about programmers and designers having a place to meet and learn from talented peers.  Most programmers and designers aren’t lucky enough to work at a company where they’re surrounded by others that challenge them and introduce them to new concepts.  Often times they are working as freelancers on their own.  They go to meetups and code and coffee meetings to meet others but it’s more of a weekly source of inspiration and information rather than a daily one.  I created Talentopoly to be a source of daily information sharing and discussion for these people.

From a developer standpoint, what was the most important aspect/feature of talentopoly for you?

For me the biggest challenge has been in creating a site that has a culture.  Something that others want to become a part of.  It’s the same thing with why people like to go to Starbucks.  Besides the coffee it provides an atmosphere that you want to spend some time in, take out your laptop and camp out for a while.  This is the critical aspect of the site.  As far as a feature goes I’d say the most important feature is the link sharing.  It’s what drives the knowledge sharing that takes place on the site.

How does talentopoly tap into the human cloud to further the developer community?

The human cloud is a really great way to describe the community.  I’ve never thought of it in those terms.  But in essence you are democratizing the editorial task of finding and sharing links that people will find most interesting.  This allows the most popular links to float to the top each day.  There are so many talented programmers and designers out there and they never cease to surprise with the new content they find and generate daily.

What are the primary ways you engage developers to participate in another online network?

People discover the site in a variety of ways.  They may have seen one of the ads.  They might have seen a tweet where I linked to something on the site. Or they could have found the site while searching for something specific that we have a link or question about.  Interested users can request an invite on the home page.  I also will personally invite users I think represent the ideal user for the site.  I think people have the bandwidth in their day for another site if it can fill a void.  In this case we’re giving them a resource where they can keep up to date on the latest technology and techniques in their industry.

What features can we expect moving forward?

Development is really stable at the moment.  I’ve just completed the initial build out of core features and am iterating on that foundation.  At the moment I’m more focused on building out the community and running the site rather than feverishly adding to the feature set.  I currently release a few minor features each week.  That’s not to say that I don’t have some interesting features planned, but it’s not a main focus at the moment.

What’s next for Talentopoly?

I have some short term goals for number of users and user engagement that I’m working towards.  On the horizon I have some ideas for major new features.  Though instead of developing them in a vacuum before I release them I will propose them to the community and see which ones get backing from them first.  I’m a big believer in user-driven design.