Last week, we rolled out our latest feature designed to help tech industry leaders engage more directly with the developer community. In a partnership with Strangeworks, Stack Exchange launched the Quantum Computing Q&A site at the SXSW Convergence Keynote in Austin, TX. During his Keynote, Strangeworks Founder and CEO William “whurley” Hurley discussed how quantum computing will forever change the computing landscape with advances in fields like artificial intelligence and next-gen cryptography. To say that quantum computing will fundamentally change how we think about computers is an understatement. "Stack Overflow is excited to partner with Strangeworks as the patron sponsor for our Quantum Computing community,” said CEO Joel Spolsky. “This partnership will help grow this energized community and expand the knowledge base in this emerging technology." The site launched last week to 468 users, answering better than 93% of the questions posted. Access to this growing collaboration will help the next generation of developers usher in these advancements in technology. “We believe that quantum computing information should be democratized and available to all. We want to create something that can last far past us. We want to build a lasting, meaningful forum for developers”, whurley said. One of Strangeworks’ main goals is to revolutionize technology by guiding companies through the confusion and chaos of quantum computing. What Are Sponsored Sites on Stack Exchange? The idea of a company sponsoring a Stack Exchange site has stirred up quite a bit of interest in our existing communities, according to Robert Cartaino, our Director of Community Development. Some of these project teams have sizeable communities of their own, so it would be amazing if we could engage these organizations to actively support our current sites — along with the financial resources they bring to finally make our Q&As more attractive for active development again. A sponsorship generally entails enabling ads relevant to the subject and affixing a small "sponsored by..." logo in the upper-right corner. We've modeled this program after our "tag sponsorship" feature.
Strangeworks chose Stack Overflow as a launch partner because of the community aspect. “We wanted to build a community for quantum computing that wasn’t beholden to just us—to provide a voice that’s not tied to a specific platform. Stack Overflow is a community by developers, for developers, which is just what we were looking for. A vibrant, active community of the world’s developers”, whurley said. This brings the realities of a quantum future into the present, helping readers understand and prepare for the coming age of quantum computing. You can read more about the site in last week’s meta announcement or join our Quantum Computing community!