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What is the Developer Advocate Program?

Background:

As the Cardano ecosystem continues to expand and evolve, there is a growing need for dedicated support and advocacy to nurture developer talent, foster collaboration, and drive innovation. Intersect, a member-based organization within the Cardano ecosystem, recognizes the importance of engaging developers and empowering them to contribute effectively to the ecosystem's growth.

To address this need, Intersect is launching a Developer Advocate Program as an extension of its open-source office (OSO). This program aims to incentivize and support developers who actively participate in various initiatives, working groups, and community-building activities within the Cardano ecosystem. By compensating developers for their contributions and providing them with resources and opportunities, Intersect seeks to create a vibrant and thriving developer community within Cardano.

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What is a Developer Advocate?

Definition:�A developer advocate is a technical liaison, typically employed by a technology company or organization, who represents the interests of developers within the broader community. Their role involves advocating for developers' needs, providing support, creating educational resources, and promoting the adoption of the company's technology or platform. They often engage in activities such as writing code samples, giving presentations, hosting workshops, and offering technical assistance to developers. Overall, developer advocates serve as a bridge between developers and the company, fostering a positive and collaborative relationship while helping developers succeed with the technology.��The Developer Advocate Program is a strategic initiative launched by Intersect to empower and incentivize developers within the Cardano ecosystem. It serves as an extension of the open-source office, focusing on fostering collaboration, providing support, and driving innovation among developers.

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What will this achieve?

At its core, the program aims to achieve the following objectives:

Incentivizing Participation: By offering compensation on a quarterly basis, developers are motivated to actively engage in working groups, attend bi-monthly meetings, and contribute to the ecosystem's development.
Supporting Onboarding: Developer advocates play a key role in onboarding new developers to Cardano and Intersect. Through workshops, educational resources, and mentorship, they help newcomers navigate the ecosystem and contribute effectively.
Community Engagement: Advocates actively engage with the developer community through various channels, including forums, social media, and events. They provide support, answer questions, and promote collaboration among developers of all levels.
Feedback and Improvement: Advocates gather feedback from the developer community and relay it to the OSO and relevant stakeholders. They contribute ideas for improving processes, tools, documentation, and overall developer experience within the ecosystem.

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Goals for the Developer Advocates:

Community Engagement and Growth: �The program aims to actively engage with developers within the Cardano ecosystem, fostering a sense of community and collaboration. By providing resources, support, and incentives, the program seeks to attract new developers, retain existing ones, and facilitate knowledge sharing and networking opportunities.�

Ecosystem Development and Innovation: �To drive the continued development and innovation within the Cardano ecosystem. Through the active participation of developers in working groups, feedback sessions, and collaborative projects, the program aims to spur the creation of new applications, tools, and solutions that enhance the functionality and usability of the Cardano platform.

Confidential and Proprietary

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Program Components

Compensation Structure:

Developers will receive compensation on a quarterly basis for their active participation in working groups, bi-monthly meetings with the Open Source Office (OSO), and other specified activities.
Compensation can be in the form of tokens, determined by the Intersect governance.

Working Groups or Special Interest Groups:

Developers will be assigned to various working groups based on their expertise and interests within the Cardano ecosystem.
These groups will focus on specific projects, initiatives, or areas of development within Cardano.

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Program Components (continued)

Bi-Monthly Meetings:

Advocates will attend bi-monthly meetings with the Open Source Office to provide updates on their progress, share insights, and collaborate on future strategies.
These meetings will serve as a platform for advocates to voice their opinions, concerns, and ideas for improving the ecosystem.

Onboarding New Developers:

Advocates will play a crucial role in onboarding new developers to Cardano and Intersect.
This could involve organizing workshops, creating educational resources, providing mentorship, and facilitating networking opportunities.

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Program Components (continued)

Community Engagement:

Advocates will actively engage with the community through forums, social media, events, and other channels.
They will answer questions, provide support, and encourage participation from developers of all levels.

Feedback and Improvement:

Advocates will gather feedback from the developer community and relay it to the OSO and relevant stakeholders.
They will also contribute ideas for improving processes, tools, documentation, and overall developer experience within the ecosystem.

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Aug 24 - Dec 24 Developer Advocate Goals

Voice Developers’ Concerns: Establish a feedback loop to gather concerns and suggestions from the developer community. This will involve regular engagement through forums, surveys, and bi-monthly meetings. The collected feedback will be relayed to the Open Source Office (OSO) and relevant stakeholders, contributing to the formation of open-source policies that address the developers’ needs and improve the overall developer experience. This process ensures that the voices of developers are heard and acted upon, fostering a collaborative environment.
Collating Open Source Libraries and Representation: Act as a representative of the open-source community within Cardano, promoting and supporting the use of open-source libraries. This includes identifying and curating a collection of useful open-source libraries, tools, and frameworks that can be leveraged by developers within the ecosystem. The Developer Advocate will also collaborate with other open-source projects and communities to share resources and knowledge, ensuring that Cardano developers have access to a wide range of high-quality, open-source solutions. This effort will help integrate diverse open-source technologies into the Cardano ecosystem and foster a culture of collaboration and innovation.

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OSO Structure

Filled Roles

Head of OSO

Open Source Analyst

Community Manager

Legal Counsel

Technology Evangelist

Program Manager

(Full Time Role)�Tex M.

(TBD)

(Borrowed from Open Source Projects)

(Part Time Role; consulted resource)

(Borrowed resource)�Abhi N.

Developer Advocate

(Community Resource x 4)

Developer Advocates play a pivotal role with the Open Source functions of Intersect and represent the community opinion to these initiatives.

(Full Time Role)�Christian T

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Additional Ideas for services

Technical Support:

Advocates can offer technical support to developers facing challenges or seeking guidance on Cardano-related projects.
This could include code reviews, debugging assistance, and architecture consultations.

Documentation and Tutorials:

Advocates can contribute to the creation and maintenance of comprehensive documentation, tutorials, and best practices guides for Cardano development.
These resources will help onboard and empower developers to build on the platform.

Promotion and Advocacy:

Advocates can actively promote the Cardano ecosystem through blog posts, presentations, webinars, and other forms of content creation.
They will advocate for the adoption of Cardano within the broader developer community and highlight the benefits of participating in the ecosystem.

Collaboration with Partners:

Advocates can collaborate with external partners, such as other blockchain projects, universities, and industry organizations, to further the goals of Cardano and Intersect.
This collaboration could involve joint projects, research initiatives, or co-sponsored events.

Disclaimer: More Service, more compensation needed

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Developer Advocate - General Expectations

Developer Experience Working Group: Description: Participate/Lead Developer Experience working group.This task includes establishing the meeting cadence as well as seeking participation. Reports of Dev Ex WG progress should be provided to the Open Source Committee on a bi-weekly basis. Developer Advocates have received a block on the OSC agenda to provide regular updates.

Onboarding New Developers: Developer Advocates will begin to connect with developers from the Community, encourage attendance to Dev Ex and Technical working groups to bring developers to Core Cardano. Developer Advocates are also expected to maintain documentation specific to development on Cardano in the developer-experience repository under the IntersectMBO organization on GitHub.

Meetings: Developer Advocates will establish meeting cadence for Dev Ex working group and 1-1 meetings as needed across multiple channels. Aside from normal check-in and OSC meetings, Advocates are expected to make themselves available to meet and onboard new developers.

Community Engagement: Advocates will continue to attend various Cardano events, seeking to enrich and improve the developer experience.

Feedback and Improvement: Advocates should search for/design future feedback collection tools and forms that are accessible and actionable. This begins with the State of Developer Experience Survey offered in Q1 2025.