Issue 32 September 6th 2018

Welcome! 👋

If you've known me for any amount of time, you know that I'm passionate about preventing burnout. Part of my "prevention arsenal" is learning to let go and allow others to step in and help, which is what these last few weeks have been about. I've let go of the reins temporarily so that when I return from vacation, I feel refreshed and ready to hit the ground running.

It's not an easy thing to do, that's for sure! It takes asking others to step up and sometimes seeking out specific individuals when people don't volunteer. It takes trusting someone else with your pet projects and knowing that they'll be able to provide value for your community, even if you're not at the helm. It's also about acknowledging that pit in your stomach that says someone else might do it differently, or even better.

But without a break -- without an opportunity to rest -- you'll simply be wearing yourself down until you're not able to provide true value anymore. Trust me; I've been there! So allow others to step up. Allow yourself to take a step back. Allow for the possibility that others have ideas that might succeed! And allow yourself to invest in something non-work-related for a time. Chances are, you'll come back more refreshed and ready to go, with new approaches and energy for your projects.

I'll be back next week with a round-up of the top tweets, articles, and information from the past three weeks, but in the meantime, I'm spending a bit more time reflecting, making plans, and getting some much-needed rest.

This week, I'm grateful for four amazing community leaders who have stepped up in my absence: Emmy McCarthy, Naomi Hattaway, Hod Greeley, and Manil Chowdhury. They've each taken the time to gather a few of their favorite DevRel and community-related links and share a little bit about their personal interests as well.

I'm also grateful to DevRel Weekly's newest sponsor: Samsung NEXT! If you're interested in data science, you'll want to check out their Deep Learning Developer Evangelist role.

Interested in sponsoring DevRel Weekly? Whether you want to feature your product, a recent job listing, or an upcoming event, I'd love to chat with you! Check out the Sponsorship page for available opportunities and more information.

See you soon!
-Mary, @mary_grace

Events 📆

Developer Relations Events

Still need to attend a Professional Development conference before the end of the year? Take a look at these upcoming events related to DevRel and community building.

Jobs 👩‍💻

Deep Learning Developer Evangelist

Samsung NEXT’s MissingLink product team is in search of a Developer Evangelist with a deep passion for Data Science and Deep Learning. MissingLink.ai has built a platform that accelerates the development and research around AI. Our platform automates most of the day to day tasks that Engineers and Data Scientists have to take to develop incredible AI machines.

Senior Developer Advocate, Java Ecosystem

Docker is hiring a Senior Developer Advocate to help developers and operations professionals move their applications to the Docker platform. You’ll be a leader in the field of building, deploying, and managing applications. You’ll use your expertise to help developers outside of Docker understand how to build and administer applications using the platform and will work out in the community, through conference appearances, participating in social media, blogging, writing technology guides and producing videos. If this sounds like a role for you, we’d love to hear from you!

Jobs 👩‍💻

Developer Relations Jobs

Looking for a new job as we head into fall? Check out this position from DevRel Weekly's newest sponsor, Samsung NEXT! And be sure to look at all the other awesome opportunities listed in this collection.

Guest Post 👫

Emmy McCarthy and Naomi Hattaway

First up in this week's collaborative issue are Emmy McCarthy and Naomi Hattaway, whose blogposts I've mentioned in past issues of DevRel Weekly. They like to joke that they are one brain split over two continents. After “meeting” on a podcast about community building they quickly realized that not enough people who actually steward thriving communities were talking about how they build and grow communities. They also realized how much they had to say about that. Emmy and Naomi believe that every individual is capable of making an impact on society but they often lack the support and information on how to do so.

Through #RedefiningCommunities, Emmy and Naomi hope to open up the conversation on the communities we are building, gather together the people creating impact through action, and provide a space for learning and growing together. Find them on Instagram (@redefiningcommunities) and Medium.

Here are a few of their favorite resources, including one of their own pieces!

The Good Company Issue No. 1

The Good Company Issue No. 1 from Grace Bonney has us positively giddy! You can find it Amazon, Target, Barnes & Noble and other locations. Both of us have our own company, on different continents, and the value they have packed into this first issue is astonishing. The breadth of diversity that is showcased in the pages is beautiful and the content is deep. Our favorite articles are from Grace D. Chin (No one does it alone) and the piece on the changing face of stock photography. We can't wait to see what's next from The Good Company, but to be honest, we'll be still diving into this issue on community for a long time to come.

What good is community when someone else makes all the rules?

This article is a really thought-provoking look into the evolution of communities in the digital age and how the word 'community' is being used. We personally have believed it to be overused and quite frankly, a bit abused in the past years, but feel there is space to redefine the word, instead of ceasing to use the term.

Leadership as a Verb: How community requires leadership

We have been on a journey to identify and define community, as we think it deserves to be used as we continue towards a need for belonging (both online and in person), and along with that comes a need to also examine the leadership of today and the past, and in this article, we discuss our thoughts on leadership, as a verb.

Hod Greeley

Next up is Hod Greeley, who I met years ago through the Community Leadership Summit. Hod currently works for Couchbase, a NoSQL database company, focused on their mobile product. He previously led the US Developer Ecosystem group at Samsung, which is where he first got into developer relations. Hod loves dev rel because of the variety of skills it requires. He also gets a huge kick out of seeing what people create.

Hod spends his spare time hacking the real world in various ways (starting a small orchard, fixing whatever breaks, woodworking) and enjoying his family. Feel free to connect with him on LinkedIn or Twitter.

How an online community can measure its growth and development

These two sources feel like hidden gems I've found, a bit off the beaten path (although in dev rel it often feels more like a vague trail in the brush). The first is Why Your F# Evangelism Isn’t Working and the second is about how an online community can measure its growth and development. I like the practical advice on metrics and "jumping the chasm". Beyond that, underlying I feel both give insight into empathizing with your community.

Manil Chowdhury

While I've never met Manil in person, I'm incredibly thankful to him for reaching out when I first asked for volunteers to help out with the newsletter! His passion for developers is contagious, as you'll soon see. I'll let him introduce himself:

Hey hey! My name’s Manil. I develop software, community, and open source. DevRel to me is an extension of my making software. One day it hit me that all this could be one role. I work at Digitalist Global as a Software Developer.

Share stuff with me on Twitter! I’m @keywordnew. Right now I’m taking tips on making better tea. That’s the last cup I’ll burn!

He pulled together a few links around the theme of Advocating for Developers 101 💛 that I'm sure will hit close to home for all of us!

Like any other movement, we need solid foundations on which to build. This is a short list of three articles, all of which I find speak directly to what Developer Advocacy really is.

What is Developer Advocacy? by Ashley McNamara

As mentioned in Issue 30, Ashley wrote up an excellent preface to developer advocacy. Whether I'm new to something or not, I find that grounding myself in the roots of why I'm doing it always helps focus my efforts. I like the reminder that "We're perpetual learners", but I'd highly recommend the whole read.

A Developer Relations Bill of Rights by Anil Dash

It’s been said before: I like lists. And this Bill of Rights is a master list for Developer Advocacy. Anil’s article is short. But each of the ten Rights links to a fully formed recommendation. I’d personally start with No. 3: A structured way to impact product or platform.

How to Build a Strong Dev Community by Jasmine Anteunis and Emily von Hoffmann interviewing Amanda Folson

Amanda shares a treasure trove of advice in this interview-style blog post! It’s all gold and I particularly heart the section on fuzzy metrics. If I spent a whole day at a conference only asking Developer Advocates for their best tip, I may come up with just a quarter of this.

Developer Avocados 🥑

Avocados are in Favor of Rest & Relaxation

Avocado mask anyone? While I'm not spending time at a spa this week, I approve of the use of avocados for rest and relaxation, even if that's simply adding them to your favorite recipe. I hope you're able to find some time to rest and relax this week amidst your busy schedule!