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

Kirk's experience of technical glitches

Kirk Pepperdine: I had one failure where I just couldn't get the screen to work on my laptop and I had all my demos set up on it. It was a very demo-heavy talk, so it was a real problem.

We had a late start and then things just went downhill from there, and there was nothing I could do about it at that point. It was just a case of apologizing to the audience. That was a bad one. I had another one where we just couldn't get the projector to recognize my laptop. I had no slides and they were working really hard trying to fix it. I said, "Okay, I'm just not going to have enough time for this talk if it keeps going this way."

"Everyone was sort of upset when the projector started working and I could return to slides!"

—Kirk Pepperdine

I talked without the slides. I was hand-waving and making shapes. I actually got a lot of positive feedback on that one. Everyone was sort of upset when the projector...