Top 5 Slack Communities for MLOps

So you're thinking of an analytics career, huh? Cool! We're fairly certain that you haven't heard of many of the Slack communities we talk about in this guide. Are you tired of subscribing to posts in all your favorite open-source MLOps packages (don't have a favorite MLOps Package? Head over to Top 10 Python Packages for MLOps) and wondering why nobody has created a Slack community for you yet? If so, this blog post is for you (and it turns out, there are five different ones out there).

You may be facing this very dilemma after getting into the field of MLOps! Google throws at you about 10,000,000+ results when you go and search about Communities to join for Machine Learning, a figure that is about 5,000,000+ for DevOps! What about the field that lies at the intersection of it?

Over the last month, I have perused and observed the workings of the top results for Slack Communities for MLOps, so that you don't have to. Let us look at some of these communities and what all grabbed my eye and is sure to light up yours!

DataTalks.Club

A global community of Data Enthusiasts, DataTalks.Club operates on very simple thinking, i.e. "The Place to Talk about Data". This quote is evident the moment you enter the server. It's one of the highest gatherings of ML Enthusiasts I have seen since the PyCon!

Home to 12,000+ data enthusiasts, the server serves as a very resourceful hub of ideas and practices involving data and subsequent fields of AI and ML. These ideas are often presented in form of events and seminars which can be accessed through their events page.

Comprising about 45 channels, with great emphasis on knowledge exchange and acquisition, the server features a wide array of Community based learning exercises. "Book reading club" and "Career Questions" to name some.

Join the Alex Grigorev, Founder of DataTalks.Club and Principal Data Scientist at OLX Group, to experience the community and build your place among the masses.To join the server, follow this link: Click Here

MLOps Community

To fill in the swiftly growing need of sharing real-world applications of MLOps techniques and practices MLOps Community was one of the most active servers I came across.

With new and new enthusiastic people joining the community, consisting of almost 8,200+ curious minds looking for new and upcoming ways in DevOps to deal with every challenging trope and theme Machine Learning pipelines give rise to.

With over 102 Channels to provide a medium to any and every topic, you may have, the server also serves as a platform to deliver interesting and interactive sessions every week in form of "Meetups" and "Coffee Sessions", you can also tune in with their schedule.

However, if you are out of the learning phase and looking to implement your learnings, the community website comes with its section to both look and post for roles you may be looking for!

You will be welcomed into the community by a very cool bot by Demetrios Brinkmann, the Community Manager of the MLOps Community. The frequent dialogue with the bot is sure to guide and walk you through the server to use it to its full potential! This isn't the only Community Demetrios has left a mark on, we will be looking at something else he has worked on later in this blog!

To join the server, follow this link: Click Here

CD.Foundation

CD Foundation is an Open-Source community to figure out DevOps for teams and how to use Open-Source to achieve that. With special channels serving as a platform for DevOps in Machine Learning pipelines, the server acts as a medium for MLOps related discussions.

Standing at a very respectable milestone of about 1,000+ members, the server sees new enthusiasts joining the threads every day. With the server divided among various channels which individually stand for the different "Special Interest Groups", you are sure to find your desired place in the community, as I did!

One of the most interesting approaches the foundation employs to maintain and celebrate these Special Interest Groups is through their GitHub. Divided into individual repositories for each group, GitHub serves as a very efficient archive for their talks, discussions, resources, and roadmaps. These repositories are sure to help you garner knowledge, but also alongside introduce you to the challenges of Markdown and Documentation in the world of Open Source.Working on the bare bone characteristics of a community, the foundation also accepts applications for becoming members, ambassadors, and project proposals, which are sure to wake up your gray cells and collaborate with new people! Founded as an Open-Sourced platform the community is managed by a small team of 4 staff members, which are then greatly aided by the community members to grow and function! To join the server, follow this link: Click Here

Data on Kubernetes

An earlier initiative of Demetrios Brinkmann from the MLOps Community, Data on Kubernetes was founded in mid-2020. The server exists to share and talk about various patterns and concerns about how to build, operate and maintain data-centric applications on Kubernetes.

With over 2,000+ members with inclined interests, the server may not be the ideal place for professionals but rather learners! With a special focus on beginners and starters in the field, with channels helping them find resources and earlier employment opportunities, the server may be the best place to apply what you learned from the previous communities.

Quoting their website, "DoKC is an openly governed group of curious and experienced practitioners, taking inspiration from the CNCF and Apache Software Foundation. Our aim is to assist in the emergence and development of techniques for the use of Kubernetes for data.", this aim and vision reflects in the members of the community.

Myself, being a fresher to the field, I was taken aback by the sheer amount of resources the archives of the community store. With close to over 120 talks and Panels volunteered by Industry Experts, anything and everything about Data on Kubernetes could be found over here.

One of the most interesting reports that are sure to help all the Entrepreneurs out there, experimenting with deploying their Machine Learning pipelines through Kubernetes is their "Data on Kubernetes 2021" report, which compiles "Insights from over 500 executives and technology leaders on how Kubernetes is being used for data and the factors driving further adoption".Currently being managed by Bart Farrel, an ambassador for the Cloud Native Computing Foundation, continues to keep up the vision passed down from Demetrios BrinkmannUnderline, and be the ideal platform for new entrepreneurs and learners in the field of MLOps!To join the server, follow this link: Click Here

Data-Centric AI Community

Curated and maintained by YData, the mind behind "Pandas Profiling", Data-Centric AI is an open-sourced community purely focussed on the Data-Centric approach to Machine Learning pipelines instead of going for the Model-Centric approach to the same. A concept that was initially coined by Andrew Ng.

With a member strength just short of 500, the maintainers are still able to attend to each new member with small 15 minutes calls to sync up and introduce themselves and the community.

Specializing in the talks and discussions driven by this very idea, the server is a treasure trove of topics such as Synthetic Data Generation, Data Profiling, and Data Labelling, closing the gap between data understanding and improvement.

As mentioned in the "Ultimate Guide to MLOps", "Location, location, location is the game's name for real estate. On the other hand, machine learning is all about data, excellent data, and even better data! Machine learning algorithms rely on data for training and what you put is what you get (WYPIWYG).", a major fraction of your compute resources, development, and deployment can be optimized with a well-organized data-centric approach to the problem.To join the server, follow this link: Click Here

Everything MLOps

Now that you have perused through the "Top 5 Slack Communities for MLOps" according to us, we would like to invite you to join our very own Community, which aims to reach professionals and learners in the industry and endorse the best techniques and practices in the world of MLOps.

Hosted on Discord, "Everything MLOps", is NimbleBox.ai's very own initiative to bring together professionals and learners in the field of MLOps, Machine Learning, DevOps, Data Analytics, and more, to a platform where they can exchange ideas, learnings, and practices!To join the server, follow this link: Click Here.