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.

DevRel Best Practices Part 2 – Webinar Information and Links

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

  1. Reasons for Joining and Staying in a Developer Program
  2. Developer Relations Best Practices Part 2
  3. 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.