There was a reason you down tools and joined bill, its called large ammounts of cash $$$ ka-ching!!
M@ Sent from my iPhone On 11 Apr 2008, at 05:47, "Scott Barnes" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Yes, I did get promoted and thankfully no more Evangelism. I find > the Evangelism scene, political, annoying and if i have one more > heated debate with the competitors over something minor and trivial, > I'll retire and go paint landscapes.. > > My new role is Product Manager in the Rich Client Platform Team (WPF/ > Silverlight). > > Now that's out of the way. > > Let me share some of my learned experience around technology > adoption (specifically in Australia/New Zealand), and specifically > brand awareness. Right now the benefits around why Coldfusion aren't > there, in that they may technically be there but the fact is there > is limited marketing around the product and not just the product but > also the community surrounding the product. > > My previous role was an Evangelist, and i bet if i asked anyone on > this list what does that mean, I'd get various answers. An > Evangelist role within Microsoft is simple, help folks with new > emerging technology not by ramming it down their throats, but simply > connecting them to people. In that, it wasn't my job to make you buy > ASP.NET or adopt Silverlight, but if you showed an interest I'd > connect you with some folks whom can either pay you to do the job, > help you learn the technology or provide you with some overview/ > understanding of what the technologies we had offer could do. I'd > also promote the new technology and with our team, do presos etc.. > that and travel the world and attend really cool parties (but thats > boring right). > > Evangelism is crucial to keeping technical communities alive, as > it's not only a contact sport but it's one that scales quite well - > if architected correctly. Find generals in the field, help them, > support them, provide as much as you can to enable them to scale. > Right now you folks don't have Coldfusion Generals. > > I mentioned at last years WebDU that Adobe should consider MVP > programs or similar nature (I did myself no favours by doing this) > and got laughed at, as if i was spreading some FUD around or > something. MVP programs are extremely successful inside Microsoft > communities, we ensure these folks are kept in the loop as much as > possible and can call on the evangelists etc anytime should they > need anything, some would say they are almost blue badges > themselves. They also have no issue with beating us around the head > should we screw up - some have and done really good job of it - we > don't punish them for it, we instead fix whatever the heck we > stuffed up on and apologise (should it be our fault) as to punish > them would cause 20,000 times more pain for us then the original > problem causes (basic math right). > > Some fun facts about MVP's todate: > Worldwide there are more than 100 million participants in technical > communities. > Of these participants there are only 4,000 MVPs located across 93 > countries, spanning more than 30 languages and more than 90 > Microsoft technologies. > There has been a 10 percent to 15 percent MVP audience growth in > countries such as China, Russia and Korea > Over the past few years new regions with MVPs include the Republic > of Congo, Ghana, Nepal, Macedonia and Macao > In recent years, a handful of MVPs have been awarded in new > categories such as MSN, Xbox, Visual Studio Tools for Office, > Microsoft Dynamics and Visual Studio Team System. > MVPs are a diverse group that includes accountants, teachers, > artists, government workers, engineers and technologists. > > Now, who's laughing? I'm not. It takes a lot of work to get someone > into the MPV program, and just because your the most popular guy/ > girl on a mailing list doesn't automatically make you an MPV. It's > not whom you know, it's what you know and I can say outloud, the > paperwork internally to get someone on this program is an effort - > but worth it in the end. > > My point is really raw and simple. Call it FUD, i don't care - in > fact i'd prefer to keep the politics out of this one. I spent a lot > of years waiting for the Coldfusion scene to pickup. I like most of > you at times took the crappy jobs while the market picked up, I also > waited for Macromedia to finally get some budget to market and so > on.. we got told a lot of promises and fast talkings at WebDU/MXDU's > of past and yet nothing much has occurred. Year after year the > Coldfusion question would come up, same or similiar responses would > pacify us for only so long... > > eg: > Remember Suncorp high-fives? Guess how many CF developers are left - > over to you Darren. > > I raise this point simply to say guys, enough. You have got > realistically limited choices: > > - Start acting like a community and foster better relationships. > Don't bring in the same muffin eaters, look for new ones. > > - Understand what motivates adoption in today's market. > > - Older generation developers switch to languages simply due to > boredom, perception of no work and last but most important of all, > lack of support by the brand whom owns the language. > > - WebDU should be bigger each year, but this year we're not even > attending simply because I couldn't get an ROI story out of it. I'll > be honest, year on year we attend, we really get low value out of > attending. We'd rather focus our energy on events like WD07, > BarCamps etc as these folks are not only agnostic but open to > technology discussion, less about brand politics. > > - Put more pressure on Adobe to get the budgets or better programs > in place. I'm amazed that we in Australia have 13 Evangelists whom > are kept busy 24/7 and Adobe has 0. One Evangelist for APAC? - how > about you have your own local Adobe celeb to lead you instead of > waiting for the US guys to fly out once a year? > > > If you think this thread is doing my employer any favours, think > otherwise and i'm sure i'll get some feedback for it (Today is my > last official day as Evangelist so i have a small amount of free > reign here). I leave this as simply a parting gift to you folks > before I head over to the US. I loved working in the Coldfusion > space for many years, despite our petty email squabbles and thread > wars - Taco Fleur, you're still cool - there have been some real > quality friendships made out of this community (actually most of my > best friends are Coldfusion Devs from past) > > I'd hate to see that die off, but perception = reality and remember > that. You can sit there and take it or whine about Microsoft all you > like, but we didn't create this problem and more importantly there > was a reason why i simply down tools and went over to Microsoft not > knowing a lick of .NET and it wasn't to get one up on the Adobe/ > Macromedia crew. > > That being said, my inbox is open to any whom wish to adopt .NET :) > > > On Tue, Apr 8, 2008 at 8:56 PM, CyberAngel <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Actually he is now a product manager for Silverlight..... > > > > No more evangelism for Scott J > > > > > > > > From: [email protected] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > On Behalf Of M@ Bourke > Sent: Tuesday, 8 April 2008 8:03 PM > > To: [email protected] > Subject: [cfaussie] Re: recruters say "CF on the way out"? ... FFS! > not FUD from them too? > > > > Just in case anyone is new to the list, Scott is a .net product > evangelist at Microsoft. > > of cos he is most likely unbiased and posted his last comment via an > iPhone :P > > > --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google > Groups "cfaussie" group. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected] > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to cfaussie-unsubscr --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "cfaussie" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/cfaussie?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
