Book Image

Developer, Advocate!

By : Geertjan Wielenga
Book Image

Developer, Advocate!

By: Geertjan Wielenga

Overview of this book

What exactly is a developer advocate, and how do they connect developers and companies around the world? Why is the area of developer relations set to explode? Can anybody with a passion for tech become a developer advocate? What are the keys to success on a global scale? How does a developer advocate maintain authenticity when balancing the needs of their company and their tech community? What are the hot topics in areas including Java, JavaScript, "tech for good," artificial intelligence, blockchain, the cloud, and open source? These are just a few of the questions addressed by developer advocate and author Geertjan Wielenga in Developer, Advocate!. 32 of the industry's most prominent developer advocates, from companies including Oracle, Microsoft, Google, and Amazon, open up about what it's like to turn a lifelong passion for knowledge sharing about tech into a rewarding career. These advocates run the gamut from working at large software vendors to small start-ups, along with independent developer advocates who work within organizations or for themselves. In Developer, Advocate!, readers will see how developer advocates are actively changing the world, not only for developers, but for individuals and companies navigating the fast-changing tech landscape. More importantly, Developer, Advocate! serves as a rallying cry to inspire and motivate tech enthusiasts and burgeoning developer advocates to get started and take their first steps within their tech community.
Table of Contents (36 chapters)
34
Other Books You May Enjoy
35
Index
36
Packt

The knowledge needed to advocate

Geertjan Wielenga: Although you can't know everything, is there a cut-off point for how much you should know to do this job?

Reza Rahman: You should know more than 80% of your audience. As long as you know substantially more than most of your audience, you're okay. It depends on your audience too. It's one thing to go and talk about computer science to somebody at school, but if you're talking to some Ph.D. students about a big data topic, you have reason to be concerned about how much you know. It's all relative.

Geertjan Wielenga: Doesn't it also depend on what kind of topic you're presenting? If you're presenting your journey into the cloud, for example, that's going to be a very personal story.

Reza Rahman: That's also true. You can present a different perspective on just about any topic. It depends on what the value would be to the audience. Nobody wants to hear about the last time you went to Cancú...