IT Community from Uzbekistan: The IT Community of Uzbekistan

Shavkat Karimov, Tashkent City, Head of IT Community of Uzbekistan, @cinedictum, itcom.uz

About the Community

IT Community of Uzbekistan is a group of people united with the goal of developing information technology and its usage, promoting the IT industry in Uzbekistan, improving the quality of IT products and services, exchanging experience and knowledge, popularizing IT in the country, and developing innovative technologies to improve people's quality of life.

Our community was established to unite IT specialists within the country and abroad. We strive to create world-class products.

IT Community of Uzbekistan plays a significant role in the development of the industry. We help develop professional connections and implement innovative technologies.

We were established in mid-January 2023 with the aim of uniting all IT specialists in the country, as well as those who wish to enter this field or are simply interested.
In a year and a half, we have become the largest and most popular IT community in Uzbekistan and have implemented several innovative projects. I will gladly tell you about them below.
Our team consists of over 300 volunteers working on a voluntary basis to develop the IT sector in Uzbekistan. This is an association of talented enthusiasts who enjoy working together towards a common goal!

Our main goals include supporting IT education, placing specialists, helping startups and freelancers, developing scientific and technical initiatives, and strengthening cooperation between various market participants.

IT Community of Uzbekistan presents itself as part of the global IT community; therefore, we are present in LinkedIn, the international professional network with over a billion users.

The main tasks of the IT community include:
— Developing the IT industry: improving the quality of products and services, developing new technologies and solutions, as well as supporting and training community members
— Exchanging knowledge and experience: we are a place where people can discuss various technical topics, share advice, and solutions to problems
— Supporting and developing technologies: our task is to assist in the development of technologies, develop new solutions, test them, and provide feedback to developers
— Developing new technologies: we strive to develop innovative technologies that improve people's quality of life; the development of artificial intelligence has been particularly interesting;
— Training and skill development: we offer various courses, workshops, master classes, educational materials, webinars, and other resources that help participants develop IT skills
— Career and business support: we help university graduates and young specialists develop their careers in the IT sector, as well as support their freelance activities or the launch and development of their startups.

In our community, you can learn new things, share knowledge and experience, gain experience and develop your career, build connections and teams, discuss ideas and create technological products, and receive help, investment, and advice. The interesting part is that all of this is free.

Community Participants

The IT community includes and welcomes IT specialists and those who wish to become IT specialists:
— Students and schoolchildren
— Junior developers
— Experienced specialists, as well as those interested in this field. Our doors are open to everyone.

The IT Community of Uzbekistan already has over 11,000 members, ranging from the Minister of Digital Technologies and the Director of IT Park Uzbekistan to large entrepreneurs, top managers of various IT companies, rectors of almost all IT universities and other educational institutions, their students, schoolchildren, and various IT specialists.

These include developers, project managers, designers, copywriters, project managers, marketers, business developers, team leaders, entrepreneurs, and others.

To join our community, it is sufficient to join our group on LinkedIn.

Events for Community Members

We have held a number of events, conferences, and hackathons, including:

— The GPT Hackathon in Uzbekistan, and possibly the world's first, along with a unique series of workshops Learn 2 Learn
— A two-day IT eco-festival that gathered 8,000 participants
— An eco-hackathon with a prize fund of 45 million soums
— A two-day Hacknovation 2024 hackathon involving over 100 teams and over 450 participants, with a prize fund of $4,000
— A nine-hour Design Science conference-marathon with hundreds of participants from Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Russia, and other countries.

Additionally, we participate in ESG projects, such as cleaning the Botanical Garden, plogging, and donating blood on "Blood Donor Day."

All our public events—professional conferences, hackathons, educational programs, meetings, as well as quality content—are free for all participants, and anyone can take part.

How the Community Supports Development

As part of our IT Girls project, we trained 200 girls in a three-month intensive course on frontend programming in collaboration with Albison Group and Amity University.

In collaboration with Alena Vladimirskaya and IT Park Uzbekistan, we have already conducted two three-month courses on IT recruiting, training 30 people. Almost all of our graduates were employed.

We held master classes for our volunteers with leading specialists in their fields, such as Toraxmat Toraxmetov, Igor Kim, and Ivan Doronin.

We also produce our own IT Talks podcast. We released 34 episodes featuring the most interesting people in Uzbekistan's IT sector, as well as our compatriots working at the world's most famous technology companies like Microsoft, Amazon, and Google, Stanford University students, successful IT entrepreneurs, and other heroes.

We share knowledge and information through our LinkedIn group and page, as well as Telegram and YouTube channels. During this time, we have published nearly 800 posts, which have been viewed a total of 1,300,000 times.

Successful Projects

In 2024, in collaboration with BRB Bank, Amity University, and Yandex, the Fintech Hackcelerator competition was held with a prize fund of 300 million soums.

Plans

From October 2024 to March 2025, we are implementing the six-month IT Community Roadshow project. We will travel through all 14 regions of our country with master classes and workshops. Universities and organizations that support our initiative to provide quality education are welcoming us.

Additionally, we are preparing for a major educational project; in collaboration with a large Japanese fund, we plan to train 10,000 people.

In collaboration with IT-Bilim and Epam Uzbekistan, we are launching the IT Intern project, designed for 10,000 users.

In August, we successfully launched the IT Kids experimental podcast and, together with Yandex and U-ENTER, held a conference on starting a career in the IT sector.

We are expanding our Ambassador program; we have already introduced it in each region and in many universities where IT courses are taught, and we are actively working with them.

This year, we launched Future Leaders, an internal professional development program aimed at volunteer development. We also have conferences, hackathons, meetings, IT debates, master classes, and courses planned. We are proud of what we have achieved so far, but this is just the beginning!

For those who wish to join the community or propose cooperation, contact details are available on LinkedIn, Telegram, and itcom.uz.