Comparing advocacy to evangelism
Geertjan Wielenga: How do you feel about using the "developer advocate" title versus the "tech evangelist" title?
Simon Ritter: "Tech evangelist" seems to have fallen from favor as a title in the last few years. People don't call themselves "evangelists" now: they're all called "developer advocates." That's fine; it's the same job, just a different name.
The way I'd describe it is that the idea of developer advocacy is a little bit more toned down. It's more about talking about the tech and explaining the tech, rather than trying to convert people into using the tech, which is what the evangelism thing tends to indicate.
"Advocacy is not so much about conversion."
—Simon Ritter
Evangelism has this idea of a belief system and trying to convert people to your beliefs, whereas advocacy is more about promoting what's good about your tech to people...