Debating job titles
Tim Berglund: This is a perennial discussion: we always talk about it. 10 years ago, I was involved in a meetup for software architects.
The first 50% of the meetup was about what it means to be an architect and then the other 50% was something useful.
In our line of work, we all do the same thing. I don't think there is a difference, especially if you stack up all the people who do this type of work and arrange them by title. When they talk about titles, some people say, "They're so different because a developer advocate is working for the developer and an evangelist is just trying to make something look good." That's not true.
This discussion does bring out some interesting aspects of our work. There are some ethical issues, such as who are we really fighting for? That said, I'm almost completely uninterested in the distinction. I usually say I'm a "tech evangelist" and at my company, we use the word "evangelist...