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CODERDOJO
R E P O R T
TURNING MILK BOTTLES INTO ROBOTS
Such work is part of the CoderDojo programme on which Accenture and Salesforce collaborate to help children learn about programming. It now involves 12,000 volunteers in 107 countries helping 58,000 children to discover the joy of coding.
DAVE SUMNER SMITH Having originally started as a motoring journalist, editor and magazine publisher, Dave went on to run business networks for The Sunday Times and The Daily Telegraph plus multiple LinkedIn groups for Oracle and The Wall Street Journal.
TURNING A MILK CARTON INTO A ROBOT IS NOT THE SORT OF WORK ONE WOULD EXPECT TO FIND AT ACCENTURE’S OFFICES AT THE DOCK IN DUBLIN. SEEING MECHANICAL HANDS BEING BUILT FROM STRAWS COMES AS A SURPRISE TOO. BUT THIS IS NOT IDLE TIMEWASTING: QUITE THE OPPOSITE.
It was just a ‘scrappy start-up’ with seven staff when Cyril Treacy came across the Irish not-for-profit organisation. CoderDojo had been set up by James Whelton and Bill Liao in Cork in July 2011. It caught the attention of the Salesforce VP of Industry and Solution Architects because Treacy wanted his two daughters to get interested in technology. “I.T is the best career in the market right now,” he explains, “but nobody was explaining that to children or encouraging their enthusiasm.” Treacy recognised CoderDojo’s approach offered something new by making learning fun. Instead of calling it a coding club, they used the Japanese word Dojo more commonly applied to martial arts clubs and referred to the young participants as Ninjas. But the fun terms couldn’t disguise the fact CoderDojo was burning through the funds provided from VCs. So Treacy helped CoderDojo use the not-for-profit version of Salesforce to track donations. He also tested the principles by recruiting 10 ‘mentors’ to run early evening Dojos for employees’ children in Salesforce offices. Having then attracted ninjas from disadvantaged homes in the surrounding area, the Salesforce team created an FAQ section and made other improvements to the coderdojo.com website. With ever growing demand for computing skills, he believes
it’s essential to encourage children from all backgrounds to learn about computing. “This is particularly true for girls,” he says. “Many girls are good at maths, so they will probably be good at coding. But their schools encourage them to pursue careers in finance or accountancy – despite the fact such professions will soon be done by bots. Instead they should be focused on the plethora of new jobs like ‘data scientist’
“Most of the girls’ parents would aspire for them to be a hairdresser or a beautician or to work in a supermarket,” he says with excitement. “ But we’re mentoring them in robotics!”
Treacy’s passionate campaigning for the ethos of making coding fun for boys and girls helped to secure $300,000 of early stage funding for CoderDojo, making Salesforce one of the leading sponsors. Even more important, Treacy believes, is the amount of time and effort invested by Salesforce staff, which amounts to more than 8000 hours in 16 countries. Salesforce brought CoderDojo to the World Economic Forum at Davos and also took the CoderDojo ‘Digital Girl of the Year’ to Dreamforce in 2014, attracting the attention of Marc Benioff and helping to secure further
