This document provides a history of Google's Developer Relations program from 2006 to 2011. It discusses how DevRel was originally founded in the US in 2006 and has since expanded globally. Key events discussed include the launches of Android, Google Maps API, and Google I/O conference. The document outlines DevRel's mission to make Google platforms the ecosystem of choice for developers and describes the roles of Developer Advocates, Engineers, and Program Managers. It also summarizes some of the programs DevRel runs like IO, Developer Days, GTUGs, and Developer Labs.

1. Introduction to
Developer Relations
Patrick Chanezon
Developer Advocate
chanezon@google.com
http://twitter.com/chanezon London, June 2011
2

2. P@ in a nutshell
• French, based in San Francisco
• Developer Advocate, Google Cloud & Apps
• Software Plumber, API guy, mix of Enterprise and
Consumer
• 18 years writing software, backend guy with
a taste for javascript
• 2 y Accenture (Notes guru), 3 y Netscape/
AOL (Servers, Portals), 5 y Sun (ecommerce,
blogs, Portals, feeds, open source)
• 6 years at Google, API guy (first hired, helped
start the team)
• Adwords, Checkout, Social, HTML5, Cloud

3. DevRel’s Mission
Make Android,
HTML5, and the
Google developer
platform the
ecosystem of
choice for the
global developer
community

4. Google Developer
Products History

5. Google APIs Grandfather: Vint Cerf
Chief Internet Evangelist
5

6. Google APIs Pioneer
Nelson Minar
Created APIs at Google
Search API 2002
AdWords API 2005
2006, blog post
“Why SOAP Sucks”
http://tinyurl.com/ykdy32
6

7. Google APIs RESTful Standardizer
“'Google Data APIs
Protocol' is a horrible name.
You can tell that ex-
Microsoft employees had a
hand in this effort. :)”
Dare Obasanjo
(Microsoft)
Adam Bosworth on a bike
7

8. Google APIs MapMaker: Bret Taylor
Created the Google Maps API in 2005
Starting the trend of Ajax APIs:
• Ajax Search
• Ajax Feed
• Ajax Language
• OpenSocial
+ + =
+ =
8

9. Google APIs Godfathers: Chris DiBona and Greg Stein
http://code.google.com/opensource/
Google Open Source Program office
• Summer of Code
• Project Hosting
• Over 1M lines of Google code open sourced in more than 100 projects
9

10. Google APIs Guide: Hal Varian
“Standards change competition for a market to competition within a
market”
• Network Effects
• Lock-In and Switching Costs
• Standards
10

11. Google Developer Platform VP: Vic Gundotra
Innovation in the Open
11

12. Google Developer Relations Director: Michael Winton
12

13. History: 2006
• DevRel was founded (US-only)
• Developer Support Engineers
• Checkout, Ads, GWT, GData APIs
• Geo Developer Day

14. History: 2007
• DevRel expanded to EMEA and India
• OHA and Android SDK launched
• First Google Developer Day
• features mashups, gadgets, GWT, gears
• 24 hours of around-the-world events

15. History: 2008
• DevRel expanded to APAC and LatAM: 7
locations, 4 countries, 3 continents
• Developer Advocates
• First Google I/O
• features OpenSocial, GWT, App Engine,
and an Android phone demo
• First DevFest APAC events

16. History: 2009
• Continued global and partner outreach
• Developer Program Managers
• GTUG program launched
• 2nd Google I/O
• features Android, Wave

17. History: 2010
• DevRel expands globally
• 164 GTUGs in 58 countries
• 3rd Google I/O
• features HTML5, Android, Google TV,
App Engine

18. History: 2011
• Tech Writers join DevRel
• 4th Google I/O
• features Android, Chrome

19. Where are we now?
Current and pending starts through end of 2011

20. We’re hiring Worldwide
https://sites.google.com/site/googdevreljobs/

21. Current Priorities
• Highest: Android, Chrome, HTML5, Social
• High: Ads, Google TV
• Medium:
• Enterprise Platform
• Cloud Platform
• Geo
• YouTube
• Commerce

22. Our Challenge:
Crossing the Chasm
Help Google Developer Products Cross the Chasm
Picture from Wikimedia Foundation http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Technology-Adoption-Lifecycle.png

23. Another way to look at it
Reach the Plateau of productivity
Gartner Hype Cycle

24. When are we done?
• When there’s so much energy and
momentum that developers just assume
they’ll use our platform.
• When there’s a thriving ecosystem of tools,
consultants, trainers, and others that we’ve
never even spoken to.
• When the voice of unpaid advocates for our
platform is so strong ours isn’t needed.

25. We provide 2-way
communication
In addition to being advocates to developers,
we are advocates for developers internally
• Critical bugs, feature requests
• API design, consistency, and stability
• Strategies, roadmaps, timelines
• Transparency

26. What are our roles?
• Developer Advocates
• Developer Programs Engineers
• Developer Program Managers
• Technical Writers

27. Developer Advocates
create momentum
through “poster child”
competitive wins

28. Developer Advocates Are
• Developers themselves
• Trusted faces of Google in the community
• People who care about developers’ needs
• Deeply passionate about the products they
represent

29. Developer Advocates
Are Not...
• Biz Dev or Sales
• Developers don’t trust Biz Dev
• They definitely do not trust Sales
... and platform decisions in IT are made by developers

30. Ahhhh... So they are
“Evangelists”?

31. It’s in the Name
“Evangelist” (noun)*
1. a writer of any of the four Gospels
2. a person who evangelizes
3. an enthusiastic advocate
* Merriam-Webster’s Online Dictionary (http://www.merriam-webster.com)

32. It’s in the Name
“Advocate” (noun)*
1. one that pleads the cause of another
2. one that defends or maintains a cause or proposal
3. one that supports or promotes the interests of another
* Merriam-Webster’s Online Dictionary (http://www.merriam-webster.com)

33. Names change the tone
Dion Almaer summarized it the best
“Then you put it together: Developer Advocate and a
funny thing happens. What does that mean? At first
people think that you are advocating to developers,
but it is also very important to think about the other
connotation.You think about being an advocate of the
developer”
Developer Advocate versus Technical Evangelist; When names change the tone
http://almaer.com/blog/developer-advocate-versus-technical-evangelist-when-names-change-the-tone

34. Developer Advocates
create momentum
through “poster child”
competitive wins

35. A “Poster Child” is...
• Compelling, core use case
• Best in class
• Recognized name
• Has a large user base
• Press darling

36. What Do We Want
Them to Do?
• Launch their app!
• Even better, launch it at our event
• Talk to the press & analysts
• Tell the world how we enabled their success!

37. Developer Advocates
create momentum
through “poster child”
competitive wins

38. Tell These Stories
• Use them as examples in our talks
• Bring these developers on stage with us
• Talk about them in blog posts and tweets
• Feed the stories to our PR team and press
• Get them to tell the world themselves!

39. Developer Programs
Engineers grow and
support the community

40. They’re engineers
• DPEs actively develop code samples,
libraries, and reference apps
• DPEs engage internally with the Eng
product teams
• DPEs engage in deeply technical, thorny
problems with external developers

41. Developer Programs
Engineers grow and
support the community

42. They’re involved and
supportive
• DPEs are involved with the community
online - in our forums and across the web
• DPEs engage with developers at GTUG
events
• DPEs support developer through posts and
tickets

43. Developer Program
Managers run global,
scalable evangelism and
support programs

44. They’re Program
Managers
• Developer PMs organize, prioritize, analyze,
and provide infrastructure
• Developer PMs optimize: they make sure
initiatives execute smoothly and efficiently
• Developer PMs connect: they bring together
people, resources, and ideas

45. Developer Program
Managers run global,
scalable evangelism and
support programs

46. The programs are
global and scalable
• Developer PMs tackle programs that cut
across multiple products
• Developer PMs lead initiatives that have
world-wide reach and leverage massive
community support
• They focus on programs that reach the
most people with the fewest resources
• They’re global - from China to Africa to Tel
Aviv to Brazil, and everywhere in between!

47. Technical Writers
create content to
support Google's most
strategic APIs and
developer products

48. They love to write!
• Technical writers focus on the written
word as their means to educate developers
• They write reference docs, articles, how-to
guides, tutorials, books, and presentations
• Technical writers focus on the user, making
complex technology easy to understand

49. Technical Writers
create content to
support Google's most
strategic APIs and
developer products

50. Writers provide
strategic, proactive
support
• Technical writers provide great bang-for-
the-buck by scaling out support proactively
to users globally
• Our most strategic developer products are
only useful if developers understand how to
use them

51. What programs
do we run?
• Tons! We focus on highly-scalable programs
that can be run with minimal resources
• Scrappy, but touches tens of thousands of
developers
• Work closely cross-functionally with other
groups across Google

52. Example of our shared
ecosystem of programs:
• External developer IO
events are key to driving
momentum and adoption Google
• We share responsibility Developer
Days
with Marketing (IO and
GDD) and with the DevFests and xDLs
external community
GTUG and community

53. Google IO

54. Google IO

55. Google IO Extended

56. Google IO Extended

57. Google Developer Days

58. Google Developer Days

59. DevFests
• Global, scrappy events of a few hundred devs
• Single track, focuses on a handful of products
• Engagement from community volunteers for
execution and speaking

60. Google Devfests

61. Google Devfests

62. GTUGs
• Google Technology User Groups:
independent, community-led groups of 10s
to 1000s, holding regular in-person events
• 253 chapters in 77 countries held 483
events in the past 6 months, 2+ events per
day

63. GTUGs

64. GTUGs

65. GTUG London

66. Developer Labs
• Single-product labs with targeted attendees
(for example, ADL = Android Developer
Lab)
• Global reach, involves partner companies
and high-profile developers

67. What can we do for you?
• Technical help
• Trusted Testers Programs
• Marketing: blog, videos, events
• Connections

68. Technical Help & Early
Access
• Provide Technical help
• Direct relationship with a Developer
Advocate
• Architecture recommendations
• Involve you in Trusted Tester programs
• Early Access to features and products
• We want your feedback

69. Technical Help & Early
Access

70. Marketing
• Blog / video interviews
• Case Studies
• Press contacts
• Invite you to speak at our events
• Or do joint talks at 3rd party events

71. Marketing

72. Marketing

73. How to Reach us?
http://code.google.com/team

74. Twitter @GoogleCode

75. Devrel in Europe

76. Work with US!
Devrel Circa 2010, Credits Bill Luan

77. Google Cloud Services

78. Google's Cloud Offerings
1. Google Apps
2. Third party Apps:
Google Apps Marketplace
SaaS 3. ________
Google App Engine
PaaS
Google Storage
IaaS Prediction API
BigQuery
Google Developer Day 2010

79. Google's Cloud Offerings
Your Apps
1. Google Apps
2. Third party Apps:
Google Apps Marketplace
SaaS 3. ________
Google App Engine
PaaS
Google Storage
IaaS Prediction API
BigQuery
Google Developer Day 2010

80. Build and Buy all your enterprise cloud apps...
Buy from Google
Google Apps
for Business
Enterprise Application Platform
Enterprise Firewall
Enterprise Data Authentication Enterprise Services User Management
Google Developer Day 2010
79

81. Build and Buy all your enterprise cloud apps...
Buy from others Buy from Google
Google Apps Google Apps
Marketplace for Business
Enterprise Application Platform
Enterprise Firewall
Enterprise Data Authentication Enterprise Services User Management
Google Developer Day 2010
79

82. Build and Buy all your enterprise cloud apps...
Buy from others Buy from Google Build your own
Google Apps Google Apps
Marketplace Google App Engine
for Business
Enterprise Application Platform
Enterprise Firewall
Enterprise Data Authentication Enterprise Services User Management
Google Developer Day 2010
79

83. Google App Engine
- Easy to build
- Easy to maintain
- Easy to scale
80

84. App Engine Growth
2008 2009 2010 2011
App Engine Launch Batch write/read Java Task Queues Blobstore Multitenancy Hi-Replication
Python Https DB Import XMPP Appstats Instance Console Datastore
Datastore Status- cron incoming email cursors Always On Channel API
Memcache Dashboard Mapper hi-perf imag Files API
logs export 10 min tasks Remote API
Prosp Search

85. By the Numbers
100,000+
Active Developers
per Month

86. By the Numbers
200,000+
Active apps per week

87. By the Numbers
1.5B+
Pageviews per
day

88. By the Numbers
Official Royal Wedding on App
Engine
On Wedding day, served:
• Up to 32k requests per second
• 37.7 million pageviews
• 13.7 million visitors

89. Questions?