I have witnessed a lot of discussion and defense of what developer advocacy is over the years, and as I watch what is happening right now with artificial intelligence and labor, I am left dreaming of a world where developer advocates truly advocated for developer rights across platforms and employers, built real communities, and had solidarity for each other. The drumbeat for developer advocacy has dwindled as the funding priorities shifted in Silicon Valley over the last five years, and it feels like artificial intelligence is going to do the concept in, or at least reveal what it has always been about over the years—platform and investor advocacy.
Historically developer advocates have fancied themselves the advocate for the developers within the community for a single platform. You can find developer advocates for commercial as well as open source communities, and take pride in helping educate developers who are looking to build something on top of APIs and other technology solutions. Developers tend to see themselves in a different light than I would say the marketing teams they are often positioned in, as well as the wider support, sales, and other operations that exist within startups. Developer advocates often see themselves outside the “regular business” of a startup and like to position themselves as a champion for a developer will want in the road map, taking an outside-in approach to business operations, but in reality they are completely dependent on the whims of the startup they work for.
Could you imagine if developer advocates were, well, truly advocates for developers across platforms? Imagine if they spent their time engaging with developers and learning what they needed across the tooling they use as part of their regular jobs. Think about what could be possible if developer advocates help build solidarity amongst developers as well as helped educated and train them in what they need to be successful beyond a single platform or a single position within a single company. If this type of work occurred across the tech sector I think you’d see an entirely different front emerge when it comes to what is happening with artificial intelligence and labor amongst the engineering functions of startups as well as enterprises. Who knows, maybe the current AI winter that is coming will provide a rich environment for other types of advocacy to emerge, and help developers see the collective power they possess, which transcends any single technology or platform.
It is hard to tell where developer advocacy is today. Anecdotally, it feels like it has been silenced. I just don’t hear the chatter and buzz that I have since things picked up momentum between 2016 and 2021. A quick look at Google Trends shows it is on a downward trend back to levels prior to 2016. It is hard to tell if this is a shift in startup priorities in hiring developer advocates or it is a shift in priorities around artificial intelligence. Regardless, I can tell from experience that developer advocacy isn’t a center of power or strength as a whole because it primarily focuses on advocating for developers of a single platform and not across platforms. This makes me sad, because there was a huge opportunity with APIs and open-source for the solidarity and advocacy for developers to exist outside individual corporate marketing efforts, investor portfolios, and actually give developers a voice and collective bargaining power in a time where they need it the most.
