by David I | Nov 13, 2017 | DevRelate, Webinar |
During the DevRelate November webinar we’ll be covering Part 2 of our series focused on Developer Marketing and Developer Relations Best Practices. In this blog post you’ll find additional information and links for topics covered in the webinar. Bookmark this page and come back during November for additional updates.
Webinar Agenda
- Reasons for Joining and Staying in a Developer Program
- Developer Relations Best Practices Part 2
- Q&A
Best Practices Areas Covered in Part 2
- Events & Activities
- API Sandboxes, Virtual Labs, Cloud Instances
- App Stores & Application showcases
- Community Chat Systems
- Training & Certification
- Popular Blogging Topics
- Programming Languages to Support
Popularity of Programming Languages
- Tiobe Index – Updated once a month, the Tiobe Index is calculated by using multiple search engines looking for the number of skilled engineers, courses and third party vendors. You can read more about how the Tiobe Index is computed on their website.
- Redmonk Programming Language Rankings – The Redmonk ranking appears bi-annually and appears on Stephen O’Grady’s blog. The latest version, “The RedMonk Programming Language Rankings: January 2017” appeared on his blog on March 17, 2017. The ranking is based on code on GitHub and discussions on Stack Overflow. The ranking correlates programming language discussions and usage on these two popular sites.
- PYPL: PopularitY of Programming Language Index – This index is created by analyzing how often programming language tutorials are searched using Google. The index page says “If you believe in collective wisdom, the PYPL Popularity of Programming Language index can help you decide which language to study, or which one to use in a new software project.”
- Indeed Job Trends – Using the Indeed search system you can get some trending results for Job Postings and Job Seeker Interest. Using the interface, you can string together a query based on adding a series of programming languages.
- Programming Languages used in Elementary and High Schools – In the US the College Board’s AP Computer Science exam uses the Java programming language. Previously programming languages including C++, Modula-2 and Pascal were used. You can also find other programming languages used in secondary education to prepare students for college and work force placement. The languages used in elementary and high schools can often depend on the skills of the teachers and will normally include the use of Python, Scratch, JavaScript, Alice and others. The ACM Model Curriculum for K-12 Computer Science gives guidance for schools but does not push a specific programming language.
- Programming Languages Taught in College Computer Science – Different college computer science departments choose programming languages that are used as the first course and some focus on a language in the core computer science classes. Stanford University used to teach Java but recent news articles report that Stanford has moved from Java to JavaScript for their introduction to programming course. While C++, Java, JavaScript and other programming languages are taught in schools, most universities also cover a wide range of programming languages, algorithms, data structures and technologies to help prepare graduates for their move into industry, research and teaching.
OPENAPI and Swagger
With the Swagger YAML and/or JSON files you can use Swagger’s CodeGen tool to create bindings for more than 20 server side languages and more than 40 client side languages.
Evans Data Tactical Marketing Reports
Evans Data reaches out to its global developer panel to produce two annual tactical marketing reports: Developer Marketing Survey Report and Developer Relations Survey Report. The Developer Marketing Survey contains software developers’ attitudes about marketing tools and programs used to promote and sell products to them. This report provides invaluable insight for your developer marketing campaigns. The Developer Relations Survey examines issues and elements of developer programs. This report provides invaluable insight for your developer program and advocacy.
by David I | Sep 28, 2017 | APIs, DevRelate, Webinar |
There are many aspects related to a developer’s API adoption and a company’s decision to open their APIs to developers. These aspects can include: API features, Documentation, Developer Support, Reasons for joining and staying in a program, ROI and Developer Program Measurement, Developer Outreach, Training, Spurring Participation, Developer Resources, and App Stores.
This blog post contains information and links for the many aspects of successful API adoption, developer program features and developer marketing best practices that lead to a successful partnership between your company and developers.
Evans Data Tactical Marketing Reports
Evans Data reaches out to its global developer panel to produce two annual tactical marketing reports: Developer Marketing Survey Report and Developer Relations Survey Report. The Developer Marketing Survey contains software developers’ attitudes about marketing tools and programs used to promote and sell products to them. This report provides invaluable insight for your developer marketing campaigns. The Developer Relations Survey examines issues and elements of developer programs. This report provides invaluable insight for your developer program and advocacy.
The Ten Success Factors
- Provide the 4 T’s – Tools/SDKs, Technical Information, Technical Support, Training
- Give Developers a “Runway” – your developer members lead times are often as long as your engineers development time
- Prepare your Partners – you’ll need your technology, training, consulting, MVPs and through leaders ready for your releases
- Version & Deprecation Reality – developers cannot always move quickly to the latest version or react to deprecated APIs
- Developers Love Videos – developers learn new technologies, programming steps, how to use a product
- Understand your Developers – your developers are real people and not stereotypes
- Show Quantifiable Benefits – give measures of improved code quality, increased productivity, business/financial possibilities
- Compelling Marketing Tools – use developer speak (not marketing/sales speak) in your technical newsletters, engineering blogs, testimonials
- Developer Success Stories – show how developers architect solutions, list the tools/methods used, provide learned tips, tricks and traps
- Handle Bad News Well – if you have to shut down an API/Service provide advanced notice and transition/migration plans
The Twelve C’s
Remember to keep in mind the twelve C’s when you are using the top ten success factors.
- Community
- Content
- Code
- Communication
- Collaboration
- Contests
- Champions
- Conversations
- Cooperation
- Contribution
- Certification
- Celebration
For more on the twelve C’s check out my abridged version blog post. I bet you have additional C’s that are on your list!
by David I | Sep 11, 2017 | Developer Marketing, Developer Relations, DevRelate, Webinar |
Today more than 80% of developers belong to one or more developer programs. Sixty-two percent of developers, in a recent Evans Data Developer Program research survey, say they don’t use APIs that aren’t supported by a Developer Relations program. What motivates a developer to want to adopt a particular technology or tool? What motivates them to recommend and/or buy a technology, tool, framework, etc.?
The answers to these questions are crucial to the success of API marketing efforts. In order to sell a product, companies must be able to first, reach developers, second, provide a clear and unique message that emphasizes the particular value and functionality of their tool or platform, and finally, convince developers that these offerings can benefit them and/or the company they work for. Knowing what the primary influences are in the developer world is critical.
Evans Data reaches out to its global developer panel to produce two annual tactical marketing reports: Developer Marketing Survey Report and Developer Relations Survey Report. The Developer Marketing Survey contains software developers’ attitudes about marketing tools and programs used to promote and sell products to them. This report provides invaluable insight for your developer marketing campaigns. The Developer Relations Survey examines issues and elements of developer programs. This report provides invaluable insight for your developer program and advocacy.
There are many aspects related to a developer’s API adoption and a company’s decision to open their APIs to developers. These aspects can include: API features, Documentation, Developer Support, Reasons for joining and staying in a program, ROI and Developer Program Measurement, Developer Outreach, Training, Spurring Participation, Developer Resources, and App Stores.
In this DevRelate webinar, you’ll learn about the many aspects of successful API adoption, developer program features and developer marketing best practices that lead to a successful partnership between your company and developers.
Agenda
- Developer adoption motivations
- Developer recommendation/purchase motivations
- Aspects of successful API adoption
- API Features and Developer Marketing Best Practices
- Q&A
Dates/Times
Thursday, September 28, 2017
- 7am PDT (Santa Cruz) | 9am CDT (Chicago) | 10am EDT (New York) | 2pm GMT | 3pm BST (London) | 4pm CEST (Frankfurt)
- 10am PDT (Santa Cruz) | 12noon CDT (Chicago) | 1pm EDT (New York) | 5pm GMT | 6pm BST (London) | 7pm CEST (Frankfurt)
- 1pm PDT (Santa Cruz) | 2pm CDT (Chicago) | 3pm EDT (New York)
- 5pm PDT (Santa Cruz) | 8am CST (Beijing Friday, September 29) | 10am AEST (Sydney Friday, September 29)
Register Now to Reserve your Seat: https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/rt/6630659132606705922
Note: The webinar repeats on multiple days and times. Choose the date and time that fits your schedule.
Who Should Attend
- Managers & Directors of Developer Programs
- Technology & Developer Advocates
- Business Development Managers & Directors
- Product Marketing Managers & Directors
- Marketing Managers
- Product Managers
- Research Managers
- Corporate Communications Managers
- Heads of Developer Marketing
- ANYONE who deals with developers!
Note: The webinar repeats on multiple days and times. Choose the date and time that fits your schedule.
Presenter
David Intersimone “David I”, Vice President of Developer Communities, Evans Data Corporation
by David I | May 19, 2017 | APIs, Developer Outreach, Developer Relations, DevRelate, Programming, Programming Languages |
Every developer has their own swagger based on their background, education, coding style, programming language used, etc. In this blog post I am talking about a different kind/type of Swagger.
When developers are interested in using an API provided by a operating system, platform, service, cloud, or device vendor, I’ll bet that one of the first things they will search for is to see if there is an API binding for their favorite programming language. Or, maybe your developer program members are the type of developers who just need the REST/JSON calling information? Where possible, I like to use client and server language bindings, components or frameworks for my development projects. Wouldn’t it be great if all APIs included great documentation and also YAML and/or JSON files for the APIs?
Swagger to the Rescue
With the Swagger YAML and/or JSON files I could use Swagger’s CodeGen tool to create bindings for more than 20 server side languages and more than 40 client side languages. That would be awesome. With Swagger supporting a range of tools, both the API developer creator can build their APIs using their programming language of choice and the API developer consumer can use their favorite programming language.
My one simple statement is “If your API supports REST and JSON then you can Reach out to Every Developer“. The text statement on the Swagger site say it succinctly – “Swagger is the world’s largest framework of API developer tools for the OpenAPI Specification(OAS), enabling development across the entire API lifecycle, from design and documentation, to test and deployment.” While most developer program APIs support some common languages including Java, C++, C, C#, JavaScript, PHP, Ruby and Python, there are many other programming languages that also support REST and JSON web services. Why would you intentionally make it harder for developers that use other programming languages?
REST/JSON based APIs work with just about every programming language
My REST/JSON and APIs blog post on the Evans Data DevRelate community site includes links to REST/JSON supporting information for additional programming languages. It’s time for more developer program APIs to make it easier for developers, using all programming languages, to build applications.
The statement on the Swagger CodeGen tool site says it so well – “Build APIs quicker and improve consumption of your Swagger-defined APIs in every popular language with Swagger Codegen. Swagger Codegen can simplify your build process by generating server stubs and client SDKs from your Swagger specification, so your team can focus on your API’s implementation and adoption.”
Do your Developer Program APIs include Swagger support?
Do you provide you developer program APIs with Swagger YAML and/or JSON files? Send me an email if you do and I’ll be very happy to pass along the word to developers.
David Intersimone “David I”
Vice President of Developer Communities
Evans Data Corporation
davidi@evansdata.com
Blog: https://devnet.evansdata.org/
Skype: davidi99
Twitter: @davidi99
by David I | May 9, 2017 | APIs, DevRelate, Webinar |
It used to be that only a very few specialized software companies cared at all about developers – and usually because they were selling programming tools or platforms. Now every company needs to be connected and to work interactively with their clients, their partners, their suppliers, and their customers and to do that they publish APIs. Twenty percent more developers now report publishing APIs for external use than six months ago, for a total of 9.2 million. A recent preliminary report on “The Impact of APIs on Firm Performance” by Boston University Questrom School of Business reports that “API adoption leads to a 12.7 percent increase in market capitalization”.
“Today companies need to be interconnected and to take advantage new innovations. This often means they need to publish APIs and once you publish an API you have a platform. Once you have a platform you need developers, and that means you need a program to support them”, said Janel Garvin, CEO of Evans Data. “We see the proliferation of developer programs throughout all places and industries.”
In this webinar, David gives an overview of how a Developer Relations program participates with an engineering team to inform, educate, and support community members for the lifetime of an API. During the webinar David covers preparations for the release of an APIs, when and if to open up new APIs, types of technical content required for an API, versioning impacts for APIs, and how to help your community members get ready for deprecating and shutting down APIs.
Agenda
- Developer Relations and APIs
- Digital Assets required to support an API
- API release planning
- Dealing with API deprecation and shutdown
- Q&A
Webinar Dates/Times
The webinar repeat on multiple days and times. Choose the date and time that fits your schedule.
Wednesday, May 31
- 7am PDT (Santa Cruz) | 9am CDT (Chicago) | 10am EDT (New York) | 2pm GMT | 3pm BST (London) | 4pm CEST (Frankfurt)
- 10am PDT (Santa Cruz) | 12noon CDT (Chicago) | 1pm EDT (New York) | 5pm GMT | 6pm BST (London) | 7pm CEST (Frankfurt)
- 5pm PDT (Santa Cruz) | 8am CST (Beijing June 1) | 10am AEST (Sydney June 1)
Thursday, June 1
- 7am PDT (Santa Cruz) | 9am CDT (Chicago) | 10am EDT (New York) | 2pm GMT | 3pm BST (London) | 4pm CEST (Frankfurt)
- 1pm PDT (Santa Cruz) | 2pm CDT (Chicago) | 3pm EDT (New York)
Register Now to Reserve your Seat: https://register.gotowebinar.com/rt/8738824242095005699
Who Should Attend
- Managers & Directors of Developer Programs
- Technology & Developer Evangelists
- Business Development Managers & Directors
- Product Marketing Managers & Directors
- Marketing Managers
- Product Managers
- Research Managers
- Corporate Communications Managers
- Heads of Developer Marketing
- ANYONE who deals with developers!
Presenter
David Intersimone “David I”, Vice President of Developer Communities, Evans Data Corporation
