I remember reading this quote on coin desk: “The MaidSafe project announced today it has 500 developers signed up to build applications for its decentralized Internet platform.” This was back in may
Do we know at this point how many people are working on the core code, and also how many active 3rd party app developers there currently are too?
There are (At the moment)
6 core devs in office, (5 + 1/2 really as this includes me)
4 Remote devs (maidsafe staff/contractors)
2 in office App devs (well one dev and 1 graphic design)
2 remote app devs (maidsafe contractors)
1 Web dev (remote)
2 In office Qa Engineers
3 Business staff in house
There have been some 3rd party commits to the core code so far and that is excellent. I think this will improve a lot when we get to the end of testnet2 and there are apps and an API, That will encourage app devs and allow those that are frustrated right now to participate. This then will give folks the confidence in core code to invest the huge effort in understanding that and helping out.
For us there is no short cut to getting more core devs as we thought there may have been as it is too hard and requires to much personal investment in an area that is not well enough known. So we need to launch the whole thing first really. We are heading for the minimum viable network though and then add on as we go along. This should encourage some of those hundreds of subscribers to the dev list to help out (over 900 now I think, but not all devs)
Been trying to convince my friend to get involved. He writes C++ and Python and is into the whole security thing but he’s lacks confidence as to if he’s able to write encryption well enough to not screw up the core project. He’s got the confidence to write apps but he’s a bit scared to contribute to the core of maidsafe. Personally I think he could if he’d just bone up on the project. sigh I think it’s just the newness of the project and the whole revolutionary aspect that’s making him hesitate. I just wish I could get him more involved.
We have tests and a CI system, it is hard to make mistakes that will not be found (or very soon will be the case, we are improving that right now) . If your friend forks the codebase then he can play around and add tests to begin with. Gently getting involved more and more, and the team are very humble and able to impart any knowledge they have in a manner that is the opposite of condescending.
Hi David,
could you please update this topic ?
Hey @Mendrit,
Here is an update on MaidSafe staff and contractors:
Head Office
3 Directors
2 Core Developers
1 Testing & Release
1 Customer Support
2 Graphic Designer / UX/UI Designer
6 Marketing/HR/Finance/Support/Admin
Chennai Office
1 Project Manager
3 Mobile App Developers
2 UX/UI Developers
1 JavaScript Developer
Remote
3 JavaScript Developers
9 Back End Developers
1 Community
This is a very sheepish prod 
because we have got so much lately, still I wonder when will we see more mobile apps?
Most likely I am confused, but I thought with these hires there would have been mobile apps surfacing.
The only reason I use a laptop these days is for work and to see whats happening on the SafeNetwork.
Everything needs to be mobile.
We have 3 mobile devs as of now. Two of them working on Xamarin and one on Android/Java.
It is a new team and hardly couple of months old (full time). I feel that they have understood on how Safenetwork works much faster than what I had anticipated. We have a c# nuget package released, which can be used for building xamarin mobile apps for iOS and Android. The guys are now focusing on the documentation of the APIs and improving the existing mobile Authenticator. Docs are quite important for devs to start building apps. We will have to get the docs updated in the devhub which could serve as a quick start for the devs.
At present we are also organising and structuring the process of development, because of which the speed of delivery might look to be slow. This is quite important as we streamline how we work. Bringing information under one place so that we get can more engagement from community and other devs.
On android, we have few blockers with JNI. We do mention about this on the dev updates too. However, we keep propelling other aspects of the development just to keep progressing. For example, the packaging of the JAR/AAR. Developing a sample app on desktop and figuring out the issues that we encounter. Though the APIs are same for desktop Java and Android, the JNI layer needs more refinement for Android. These blockers depend on the client libs team and they are also held up with their priorities. @nbaksalyar, is likely to look into these blockers this week. Once the blockers are resolved the libraries should be available soon. There is a lot of background work the guys keep doing and the results should be reflecting sooner.
We are also impatient as most of you are to see the mobile apps in action and also other devs using the libraries to build the mobile apps. We will have iterative releases and keep improving the libraries.
We also need a browser on mobile 
While we can focus on complex problems like browser and may be few apps in parallel 
, we hope devs from community will be able to create apps once the documentation is published for xamarin. Java to follow soon.
Hopefully we - and all the world - can see all the team and bio’s on the new website.
Will you update Join the Team | MaidSafe when you look for new developers?
I am a web developer, I can help build new apps in the network at least.