[2024-07-11] APAC & EMEA Building DevRel Foundation Community Call

[anajsana]

Agenda

👋 Intros - If we have a large group we'll use chat
🧹 Housekeeping

• Code of conduct
• Intro to roles: facilitator, moderator, scribe, crier

🤔 What we're doing in this call
The DevRel Foundation mission:
The mission of the DevRel Foundation project is to elevate the professional practice of developer relations and increase awareness of it as a driver of business value

Identifying open questions about the formation of a DevRel Foundation and how you hope something like a foundation may help you with your DevRel challenges. Include what challenges you hope a foundation would address.

Steps

1. Everyone adds questions under STEP 1 independently (below)
2. Collectively we'll group together similar questions
3. We'll vote on which ones to tackle, as well as make sure there are owners

🙋 What's next

Volunteers interested in certain questions will work to find answers!

Essential Information

• 🕛 Thursday 11, 13:00 - 14:00 pm CEST
• 📝 g.doc agenda

Frequency	Duration	Zoom link	Join Discord
Weekly	1 hour	Here	Join

[anajsana]

Meeting Notes

STEP 1: Everyone adds questions independently (please add topics below)

• DevRel is a business action, how can we have a good relationship with LF (OSS)?
• How can this organization collaborate with existing communities in each country in DevRel?
• What else can this organization contribute to the definition and education of DevRel?
• [Aditya] Does the foundation plan to focus on education about DevRel for non-DevRel professionals (adjacent teams like Engg., Sales, Marketing, etc.)?
• [Raul] How will the foundation help connect people with similar professional backgrounds, like types of companies, approaches to the discipline, ...? (for good discussions)
• [Aditya] Is there a defined tangible value addition that the foundation intends to create for DevRel professionals? (additionally to having a community of DevRel pros)
• [Aditya] Are there any specific reasons or factors that have led to the interest of LF in supporting this initiative? How vested is LF in this?
• DevRel is defined differently in each country and each community. Are we aiming for a manifesto that encompasses the whole?
• [Nadia] Since 2021, I’ve been organizing the Dev.Together Summit in China, which is all about DevRel and DevMarketing. We have clearly felt that DevRel is receiving increasing attention in China, but it is still a niche field. So, How should we define DevRel? How do we distinguish DevRel from DevMarketing and developer ecosystems? In China, there is still no common answer to these questions. Last year, SegmentFault, together with Huawei, conducted a developer relations report. We tried to define what developer relations means, but I believe there is still no consensus. I hope the DevRel Foundation can come up with a glossary to help everyone understand the concepts better.
• [Nadia] What's the value of DevRel, especially in terms of business value? During tough economic times, many DevRel professionals are facing layoffs. Marketing folks focus on getting sales leads for the sales team, and the sales team brings in revenue. But DevRel folks are often seen as a cost center. How can we change that?
• [Nadia] Also, for the teams and individuals who already get the value of DevRel, how can we help them do even better? The Dev.Together Summit aims to be a platform for sharing experiences. If the DevRel Foundation is interested, I can help donate the Dev.Together Summit brand to the foundation. Plus, could we create a DevRel Tool Landscape to gather all the great tools that can help DevRel pros?
• {javier] Would it be fair to say that in the same way that “development” is a spectrum and there are many different types and styles of developers (for lack of a better name, as of course devops, data scientists, and even developer advocates would fall under the “developer” umbrella term), we should also acknowledge that DevRel is not a single thing and there are potentially many different ways of doing developer relations? In this forum I find it specially relevant, so we don’t try to reduce the variety of DevRel to a single uniform thing.
• [javier] Should we have some kind of standardized names for different functions in DevRel? As in, Evangelism (or similar) for speaking at events in one-way talks (both in person and with videos), community management, which might include champions programs, event organising, or presence at event booths, inbound feedback for when we actively get the developer’s voices, user experience, product, documentation, building demos, creating sample repositories and integrations… I often have the feeling when speaking about DevRel many people focus on outbound content (talks, videos and blog posts, mainly) and on community management, and the other functions are less visible.
  How can we avoid the cycle of DevRel teams hiring and firing. Hiring when DevRel is trending and firing as soon as the trend ends or cuts need to be made?
• [Cherish Santoshi] How can we position a multi-disciplinary role like DevRel as specialized and critical?
• [Cherish Santoshi] Why is the median work experience of a DevRel with one company less than 3-4 years? What can we do to improve it?
• [JonathanVila] Is this initiative already having buy-in from industry leaders (CTOs, CEOs ) that can give the outcome a solid reputation?

STEP 2: The table below is reserved to group the questions that are raised

Foundation Value Proposition	Collaboration with existing communities across countries / local ambassadors	DevRel Definition / DevRel glossary / Education Materials	DevRel Value / Sustainability Support	Why LF / LF  Position	Support from industry leaders outside DevRel
+PL +AO  +RJO +JR +Atsushi + CS	+AJS +Atsushi +PL+Nadia + Yu	+AJS + RJO +Nadia + Yu + +JR+XY	AO+Nadia +PL+XY+JR	+AJS +AO +Atsushi	+XY
Vote: 6	Vote: 5	Vote: 6	Vote: 5	Vote: 3	Vote: 1
Is this initiative already having buy-in from industry leaders (CTOs, CEOs ) that can give the outcome a solid reputation?	How can this organization collaborate with existing communities in each country in DevRel?	How will the foundation help newcomers who are just entering the DevRel field and want to be DevRel specialists? Are there any recommended resources to read or groups to join?	How can we avoid the cycle of DevRel teams hiring and firing? Hiring when DevRel is trending and firing as soon as the trend ends or cuts need to be made?	Are there any specific reasons or factors that have led to the interest of LF in supporting this initiative? How vested is LF in this?	Is this initiative already having buy-in from industry leaders (CTOs, CEOs ) that can give the outcome a solid reputation?
How will the foundation help connect people with similar professional backgrounds, like types of companies, approaches to the discipline, ...?	Since 2021, I’ve been organizing the Dev.Together Summit in China, which is all about DevRel and DevMarketing. We have clearly felt that DevRel is receiving increasing attention in China, but it is still a niche field. So, How should we define DevRel? How do we distinguish DevRel from DevMarketing and developer ecosystems? In China, there is still no common answer to these questions. Last year, SegmentFault, together with Huawei, conducted a developer relations report. We tried to define what developer relations means, but I believe there is still no consensus. I hope the DevRel Foundation can come up with a glossary to help everyone understand the concepts better.	Does the foundation plan to focus on education about DevRel for non-DevRel professionals (adjacent teams like Engg., Sales, Marketing, etc.)?	What's the value of DevRel, especially in terms of business value? During tough economic times, many DevRel professionals are facing layoffs. Marketing folks focus on getting sales leads for the sales team, and the sales team brings in revenue. But DevRel folks are often seen as a cost center. How can we change that?	DevRel is a business action, how can we have a good relationship with LF (OSS)?
Does the foundation plan to focus on education about DevRel for non-DevRel professionals (adjacent teams like Engg., Sales, Marketing, etc.)?		Would it be fair to say that in the same way that “development” is a spectrum and there are many different types and styles of developers (for lack of a better name, as of course devops, data scientists, and even developer advocates would fall under the “developer” umbrella term), we should also acknowledge that DevRel is not a single thing and there are potentially many different ways of doing developer relations? In this forum I find it specially relevant, so we don’t try to reduce the variety of DevRel to a single uniform thing.	How can we position a multi-disciplinary role like DevRel as specialized and critical?
Is there a defined tangible value addition that the foundation intends to create for DevRel professionals? (additionally to having a community of DevRel pros)
What else can this organization contribute to the definition and education of DevRel?
DevRel is defined differently in each country and each community. Are we aiming for a manifesto that encompasses the whole?

STEP 3: Vote on which ones to tackle + make sure there are owners

Additional Notes:

PL: DevRel definition, devrel value and foundation value proposition seem to be the top topics that catch more the attention
RJ: my fear or concern is that we are approaching devrel from many angles that it is difficult to get a consensus of a common definition. I feel that other definitions are also valid. How can acknowledge these definitions too?
AO: a lot of focus on defining devrel. How can avoid reinventing the wheel with that? As we define the roadmap I feel is important to note that and ask if we are repeating topics that has been raised among other foundations in the past

Attendees:

• Phil Leggetter - Hookdeck, DevRel / fav devrel/general tool PostHog
• Aditya Oberai (Appwrite)
• Ana Jiménez Santamaría (LF)
• Raul Jiménez Ortega (Esri)
• Atsushi Nakatsugawa (MOONGIFT)
• Nadia Jiang (Ant Group & SegmentFault)
• Xiaoya Xia (Ant Group)
• Javier Ramirez - QuestDB
• Yu Liu (01.AI) - DevRel in China