Developer Program Membership Reaches All-Time High

Evans Data Corp Press Release, SANTA CRUZ, CA. April 23rd, 2018

The number of developers who are in a formal developer relations program reached 83%, the highest level to date, according to the Evans Data’s recently released Developer Program 2018 survey report. Rising from just under 50% in 2008, developer program memberships have been steadily climbing. Today, 38% are in a free program, 22% in a paid program and 23% are in both a free and a paid program.

“The rise of app stores and the app store economy gave a huge boost to developer programs starting about 10 years ago,” said Janel Garvin, CEO of Evans Data Corp, “Since then we’ve seen both free and paid program membership climb, but there’s more to it than app stores. Today companies from every industry are opening up APIs to share with the development community and those APIs need the support of a focused program.”

Two-thirds of developers in programs are relatively new to them, having been in their programs five years or less, while 15% have been in their programs for 2 or fewer years. Less than 5% have been in a program for 16 or more years.

The new Developer Programs 2018 survey has a margin of error of 4.5% and is exclusively focused on developers’ perceptions of and receptivity to various elements of developer programs.

The 156 page reference covers topics such as; Industry perceptions, Program membership, Participating in Communities, Developer Outreach and Social Media, Training, Technical Support, Accelerators and Incubators, APIs and SDKs, Program resources, and much more.

See the complete Table of Contents and Methodology here: Table of Contents

 

 

About Evans Data Corporation

Evans Data Corporation provides regularly updated IT industry market intelligence based on in-depth surveys of the global developer population. Evans’ syndicated research includes surveys focused on developers in a wide variety of subjects.

Copyright 2018 Evans Data Corporation. All other company names, products and services mentioned in this document are the trademarks and property of their respective owners.

 

Are Hackathons Losing their Appeal?

Evans Data Corp Press Release, SANTA CRUZ, CA. April 10th, 2018

The number of developers who attended a hackathon declined significantly in 2017 according to the newly released Evans Data Developer Marketing 2018 survey report. The survey showed that 70% of developers in 2017 had gone to at least one hackathon, which is a significant 19% decrease from the 83% that went to at least one in 2016. At the same time, those who went to only a small number of hackathons increased while those attending many hackathons showed a marked decrease.

Of those who attended hackathons, 46% said they went to one sponsored by a commercial vendor while 42% attended one sponsored by a local developer organization, and 37% went to one sponsored by a school or university. On the other hand, three-quarters of the developers had gone to at least one meetup. As this was a new question, no trending exists for meetup attendance.

“One has to wonder how long the hackathon phenomenon will go on in its current state,” said Janel Garvin, CEO of Evans Data Corp, “Hackathons have become key for many developer marketing professionals but while they are good for getting grass roots support for platforms or tools, they are also labor intensive for marketers, they involve cost, and by their very nature are extremely parochial and thus limited in reach.”

The survey, with a margin of error of 4.2%, examined many factors related to developer marketing. A few other findings: 84% of developers think robots will enhance life for humans in a positive way; 69% of male programmers think there should be more women in the field while 78% of women think this.

The new Developer Marketing 2018 survey is exclusively focused on tactical marketing outreach efforts and understanding developers. The 221 page reference covers topics such as; Demographics, Firmographics, Psychographics, Purchasing Authority, Outreach Vehicles, Motivations, Using Social Media for Recruitment, Training, Conferences and Hackathons, Encouraging Participation in an Online Community, Using Search Engines for Marketing and more. Margin of error is 4.2%.

See the complete Table of Contents and Methodology here: Table of Contents

 

Developer Relations Survey 2018

About Evans Data Corporation

Evans Data Corporation provides regularly updated IT industry market intelligence based on in-depth surveys of the global developer population. Evans’ syndicated research includes surveys focused on developers in a wide variety of subjects.

Copyright 2018 Evans Data Corporation. All other company names, products and services mentioned in this document are the trademarks and property of their respective owners.

Next Week: Evans Data Developer Relations Conference 2018 – Guy Kawasaki, live focus group and more

There’s less than a week until the start of the 14th Annual Evans Data Developer Relations Conference in Palo Alto California (March 25-27). With 6 keynote speakers, break out sessions, workshops, a Sunday boot camp, round table discussions and loads of time for networking, this year’s conference will be a spectacular opportunity to move your developer program to higher levels of success. There are only a few seats left for this one of a kind conference focused on developer relations best practices, developer program excellence and optimal developer outreach.

Reserve one of the final seats!

Here are a few of the “can’t miss” things that are happening during the conference.

Keynote Speakers

Janel GarvinEvans Data Corp – Founder and CEO
Hot Topics in Software Development 2018
Janel will draw on multiple recent Evans Data development surveys to give a broad overview of the current development landscape spanning Cloud, Big Data, AI, Machine Learning, Mobile and IoT.

Paul CutsingerAmazon – Head of Alexa Voice Design Education
Anatomy of an Amazon Alexa Evangelist
Who are they? What makes them tick? What do they accomplish? In this session, you’ll get a behind the scenes look at how the Alexa evangelism team operates and what we strive to achieve.

Jonas JacobiIBM – Head of Developer Advocacy, Worldwide
IBM and The Developer Economy
Jonas will discuss how IBM has, in less than 12 months, changed its developer engagement strategy, changed the senior executive teams perspective of the developer economy, and rallied the entire company behind the mission to become the most trusted and respected technology company in the World.

Guy KawasakiCanva – Chief Evangelist
Developer Relations “Fireside” Chat
David Intersimone (“David I”), Evans Data’s Vice President of Developer Communities, will host a conversation with Guy Kawasaki covering developer relations best practice and experiences. They’ll also take questions from conference attendees. Kawasaki was chief evangelist of Apple and David was chief evangelist for Borland/Embarcadero Technologies’ Developer Tools Group.

Roger ChandlerIntel – Vice President & General Manager, Developer Programs & Initiatives
Co-Designing the Future with the Developer Ecosystem
For decades Intel has partnered with software developers around the world to define, deliver, and improve their products. Learn how Intel co-designs user-focused platforms with the software ecosystem, makes it easier for developers to better harness the capabilities of Intel products, and helps ISVs to better sell their software products. This talk will provide specific examples from IOT, Artificial Intelligence, PC Gaming, and Virtual Reality to make it all fit together so that end-users are delighted and developers can grow their business.

Sam RamjiGoogle – Vice President of Product Management for Google Cloud Platform
Open, cloudy, platform-shaped: developer relations for a new normal
Open source is ascendant. Digital platforms are shaking up the Fortune 500. Cloud is eating the glass house. As stewards of the profession, we share an awesome responsibility to define new best practices for developer relations in a changing world. This presentation shares what we’ve learned at Google on the journey we all are on to the future of Dev Rel.

Expert Panel, Round Table Discussions, Live On-Stage Developer Focus Group

Future Directions for Developer Relations and Developer Technologies
Our panel of experts will discuss the future of developer programs and how new technologies are reshaping the features, conversations and deliverables for every developer community.
Moderator: David Intersimone (“David I”), Evans Data – Vice President of Developer Communities
Panelists:
Michael AgliettiThingWorx – VP of Developer Relations
Mithun DharHERE – General Manager Developer Relations (Evangelism, Marketing, Engineering, and Product Management)
JJ KassDropbox – Head of Developer Programs
Andrew LeeAirbnb – Business Development and Developer Relations
Lothar SchubertGE Digital – Director, Developer Relations

Hot Topic Round Table Discussions

Join your colleagues for in-depth roundtable discussions on topics that matter in Developer Relations, including: Measuring ROI and Metrics, Utilizing Social Media to Attract and Engage Developers, Scaling a DevRel Team, Running Hackathons and Events, Effectively Communicating with Developers, API success factors, Educating and Training Developer Communities, and the Art of Internal Evangelism.

Live Onstage Developer Focus Group – This is your chance to ask developers what you want to know – a panel of developers answer the questions you submit.
Moderator: David Intersimone (“David I”), Evans Data – Vice President of Developer Communities

Workshops

Kristen SchevenAngelHack – Chief Marketing Officer
Sustainable Growth Marketing: Building a Developer Ecosystem that Lasts
People throw around the term growth hacking often, but very rarely does it lead to community growth that lasts. During this workshop, we’ll build a marketing action plan that focuses on creating a sustainable and diverse developer foundation through content marketing, email drip campaigns, developer outreach and complementary innovation programs.

Michael RasalanEvans Data – Director of Research
Benchmarking Developer Program Offerings and Quantifying User Satisfaction
To accurately target the developer market for your tools and services, segmentation is vital. This is commonly done by classifying developers by the types of applications they create. This typology is valuable and delivers results focused on developer targets, but sometimes you might want to look at developers by other segments. This interactive workshop looks at how various ways to segment the developer population and provides a jumping off point for examining developers that will allow you to expand your reach.

Yolanda Fintschenko, Ph.D.Fixate IO – Co-Founder and Chris RileyFixate IO – Co-Founder
The A to Z of Practitioner Content Marketing
In this workshop, we will define practitioner content marketing and how it compares to public relations, demand gen, and influencer marketing. We will then build a practitioner content marketing strategy with workshop participants.

Matt SchmidtDZone – President
Building the Ideal Developer Community
A key component of a mature developer relations strategy is the effective use of community. How do devs on your team communicate and collaborate? What is the average amount of time it takes them to get answers? What if you could reduce the amount to time your team spends hunting down resources and resolving issues? A productive and engaged developer community can help your company reach its goals faster and cheaper, but it doesn’t happen overnight. Attend our workshop for a hands-on planning workshop that walks attendees through the process of launching an online developer community that is sure to be a success.

Breakout Sessions

Cliff SimpkinsMicrosoft – Director, Azure Developer Marketing
Virtual Event ROI: Experiments and Learnings 

Larry McDonoughVMware – Director, Product Management
Beyond the Portal: An Innovative Developer Engagement Approach

Desiree MotamediFacebook – Head of Developer Product Marketing
Developers and the Future of Technology

Mike GueretteRed Hat – Global Developer Program Manager
Starting a Developer Program Begins with Data

Lothar SchubertGE Digital – Director, Developer Relations / Product Marketing
Building Sticky Relationships with Developer Experiences

Marie HuweDocuSign – VP, Developer Programs and Evangelism
Developer Market Segmentation: Who are developers and what do they want?

Kris ChantSalesforce – Developer Relations Director
Using Community to Grow your Developer Program

Scott BurnellFord Motor Company – Global Lead, Business Development & Partner Management
WIIFM?

Michelle LittleEvans Data Corp – Analyst
Digging Deeper: Understanding Developer Motivations.

Julie AndersonHP Inc. – Developer Outreach Program Manager
Outreach in the Enterprise: Using Hackathons to Create Culture Change at HP Inc.

Sunday Boot Camp

The Evans Data Corporation’s Developer Relations Boot Camp provides a solid foundation on which you can build or enhance your developer program. Concentrated sessions in this one-day instructional program provide the insight and actionable information you can use to build your brand and establish strong relationships with your developer community.

After each session Boot Camp attendees will break into teams to work on projects related to each topic. Each team will report back to all attendees and discuss their findings and solicit feedback.

Boot Camp Faculty:

David Intersimone “David I” – Evans Data Corp – Vice President of Developer Communities
Michael Rasalan – Evans Data Corp – Director of Research
Scott Burnell – Ford Motor Company – Global Lead, Business Development & Partner Management
Michael Aglietti – ThingWorx – VP Developer Programs

Date: Sunday March 25, 2018
Time: 9am – 5:00pm

https://evansdata.com/drc/2018/bootcamp.php

 

Evans Data Developer Relations Boot Camp – Sunday March 25, 2018 – Palo Alto, CA

The Evans Data Corporation’s Developer Relations Boot Camp provides a solid foundation on which you can build or enhance your developer program. Concentrated sessions in this one-day instructional program provide the insight and actionable information you can use to build your brand and establish strong relationships with your developer community.

The boot camp takes place on the Sunday before the two day 14th Annual Evans Data Developer Relations Conference.

New Interactive Workshops!

After each session Boot Camp attendees will break into teams to work on projects related to each topic. Each team will report back to all attendees and discuss their findings and solicit feedback.

Benefits of attending the Boot Camp

  • Grow your developer community with the right members
  • Use best practices to drive business success
  • Reduce your DevRel costs and Increased your Program’s Scalability
  • Improve developer experiences on your Community site
  • Leverage developers to increase business value
  • Satisfy developer pain points

 

Boot Camp sessions

  • Program Strategy, Getting Buy-In and Framework for Success
  • Essential Developer Program Basics
  • Know Your Developers: Developer Personas and Segmentation
  • Crafting a Win-Win-Win Strategy for your Developer Program
  • Best Practices for Successful Developer Relations Programs
  • Effectively Communicating with Developers

 

Developer Relations Boot Camp

 

Accelerated Learning Workshops at the Evans Data Developer Relations Conference

In an event unlike any other, developer relations experts from leading companies in the software, telecom and web markets will come together at the 14th Annual Evans Data Developer Relations Conference, March 26-27 at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Palo Alto California, to discuss best practices and reveal the techniques behind their success!

New this year: Interactive Workshops

In addition to six keynote presenters and multiple breakout sessions, this year we have also scheduled four interactive workshops during the conference. Each conference attendee will choose to participate in two of the four workshops being held on Tuesday, March 27 at 9am and 10am.

These four workshops will provide accelerated learning for conference attendees to work together to:

  • Build a marketing action plan that creates a sustainable and diverse developer foundation
  • Craft a practitioner content marketing strategy
  • Learn how to segment a developer population that will allow you to expand your reach
  • Plan the launch of an online developer community that is sure to be a success

 

Workshop Sessions, Dates/Times, and Leaders

Here are the four workshop sessions, the date/time when they take place on Tuesday March 27th, and an abstract that describes the workshop in more detail. You can also click on the workshop leader’s name to see their biography.

Workshop: Sustainable Growth Marketing: Building a Developer Ecosystem that Lasts

Date/Time: Tuesday March 27 – Track 1 Room – 9:00am
Workshop Leader: Kristen Scheven, AngelHack – Chief Marketing Officer

Workshop Abstract

People throw around the term growth hacking often, but very rarely does it lead to community growth that lasts. During this workshop, we’ll build a marketing action plan that focuses on creating a sustainable and diverse developer foundation through content marketing, email drip campaigns, developer outreach and complementary innovation programs.

Workshop: The A to Z of Practitioner Content Marketing

Date/Time: Tuesday March 27 – Track 1 Room – 10:00am
Workshop Leaders: Yolanda Fintschenko, Ph.D., Fixate IO – Co-Founder and Chris Riley, Fixate IO – Co-Founder

Workshop Abstract

In this workshop, we will define practitioner content marketing and how it compares to public relations, demand gen, and influencer marketing. We will then build a practitioner content marketing strategy with workshop participants.

Marketing is moving from using a megaphone to creating targeted conversations. Developers do not respond well to traditional marketing, but they also do not want to be the last to know about features, functionality, and techniques. They look for vendors that can impart technical value with each piece of content they put out and ignore obvious product promotion pieces unless they include content that makes tool or technique adoption easier.

Having these targeted technical conversations requires a new strategy — practitioner content marketing. Practitioners who sit outside your organization but are willing to put their name on content for your organization is more credible, results in better quality leads, and increases your company’s share of voice in conversations important for your industry segment. Practitioner content market is a way to let the market, prospects, and customers know that you speak their language and can provide value beyond features and functionality.

Workshop: Benchmarking Developer Program Offerings and Quantifying User Satisfaction

Date/Time: Tuesday March 27 – Track 2 Room – 9:00am
Workshop Leader: Michael Rasalan, Evans Data – Director of Research

Workshop Abstract

To accurately target the developer market for your tools and services, segmentation is vital. This is commonly done by classifying developers by the types of applications they create. This typology is valuable and delivers results focused on developer targets, but sometimes you might want to look at developers by other segments.

This interactive workshop looks at how various ways to segment the developer population and provides a jumping off point for examining developers that will allow you to expand your reach.

Workshop: Building the Ideal Developer Community

Date/Time: Tuesday March 27 – Track 2 Room – 10:00am
Workshop Leader: Matt Schmidt, DZone – President

Workshop Abstract

A key component of a mature developer relations strategy is the effective use of community. How do developers on your team communicate and collaborate? What is the average amount of time it takes them to get answers? What if you could reduce the amount to time your team spends hunting down resources and resolving issues? A productive and engaged developer community can help your company reach its goals faster and cheaper, but it doesn’t happen overnight.

Attend our workshop for a hands-on planning workshop that walks attendees through the process of launching an online developer community that is sure to be a success.

Additional Conference Links

 

Register for the Conference to Reserve your Place!

See you at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Palo Alto for this one of a kind conference that brings together developer ecosystem strategists, developer marketing, and developer relations professionals to meet, exchange ideas, forge partnerships, and share insights on developer ecosystem development.

Six and Half Million Developers Now Using AI or ML in Their Projects

Are the developers in your community using AI and Machine Learning (ML) in their projects? Does your company provide AI and ML technologies and products for developers to use? According to recent developer research by Evans Data Corporation, software developers are adopting and using artificial intelligence and machine learning by the millions, according to Evans Data’s newly released Global Development and Demographics Study. Twenty-nine percent of developers worldwide, or 6,452,000 in all, are currently using some form of AI or ML and an additional 5.8 million expect to within the next six months. Others expect to incorporate AI or ML techniques later in the future, with only 18%, or slightly less than 4 million, having no plans to ever use these technologies. The Asia-Pacific region is the strongest with almost 3 million developers currently using these technologies.

At the AWS re:Invent conference last November, Amazon and Intel announced DeepLens – “The world’s first deep learning enabled video camera for developers.” According to Amazon, “AWS DeepLens helps put deep learning in the hands of developers, literally, with a fully programmable video camera, tutorials, code, and pre-trained models designed to expand deep learning skills.” Developers can pre-order the camera and SDK now for delivery in Spring of this year.

Six and Half Million Developers Now Using AI or ML in Their Projects

The Global Developer Population and Demographic Study, now in its 25th edition, is the definitive developer population estimate, updated every six months. The result of extensive secondary research, the study finds 22 million developers worldwide with projections to reach 26.1 million within five years. Global survey data laid atop the population estimates show technology adoption figures worldwide as well as by region.

“There’s been a huge uptake for AI and ML technologies by developers.” said Janel Garvin, CEO of Evans Data Corp, “Not only have the tools and frameworks multiplied and matured and made adoption much easier, but the developers themselves show a great deal of excitement about using them and enhancing their applications with these new capabilities.”

Population trends and estimates cover many different types of development in the most recent study. Additional points discovered in this edition include: 9.9 million developers involved with optimizing security solutions in their organizations, with 1.8 million developers focused on this in North America, and 16.5 million developers working in organizations having a formal DevOps strategy. In DevOps both the APAC and EMEA regions top North America for number of developers.

The new Global Development Population and Demographics Study provides developer population estimates by region and for major countries within regions as well as worldwide estimates and growth projections. Demographic estimates include age, gender, years experience, education and more. Technology adoption estimates include Host and Target Platform Adoption and Migration, Development Methodologies, Tool use, Tech adoption, High Performance Computing, and other topics.

See the complete “Global Developer Population and Demographic Study” Table of Contents and Methodology here: Table of Contents

About Evans Data Corporation

Evans Data Corporation provides regularly updated IT industry market intelligence based on in-depth surveys of the global developer population. Evans’ syndicated research includes surveys focused on developers in a wide variety of subjects.