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

Mary's background

Mary Thengvall: I fell into developer relations and I say that a little facetiously. I have a journalism background, but I grew up around tech. My dad used to bring computers home for us to try out, but he wasn't a developer and wasn't involved heavily in code.

I taught myself how to create a website when I was in middle school and the Yahoo! plug and play websites were around, but that was about it. I graduated from college with a journalism degree, but at that time, here in the U.S., many of the newspapers were letting their editorial staff go. I was trying to figure out what was next for me and I ended up taking a public relations job at O'Reilly Media.

I was writing about technical topics and having been a journalist, I like to know what I'm writing about. I did a lot of research into Drupal, Python, and Java as I was writing press releases for the books. I was soon asking, "How do we know that these are the topics that people want us...