An announcement 2.0
Not long ago i made a big announcement about moving me and the family back to Sydney as part of Traffik‘s growing digital team where i have been able to work on some very cool projects using web, mobile and server and also specalised hardware spec using technologies like Bluetooth BLE.
So today i am excited to make a second announcement, I have accepted a position with PayPal as the first APAC Developer Evangelist. While i wasn’t expecting to make this change so soon personally PayPal has always had a special place in my developer history.
I have been developing for over 10 years, originally as an analyst, code development was a way to get the job done inside unusable corporate CRM’s and deal up massive amounts of reporting data to sales managers and internal stakeholders and i got so good at it, and was completely unrecognised for it, that it forced my hand freelancing and my own projects as a way to compare my skills to that of the wider industry.
Alongside working full time and freelancing on the side (and working on my own projects) i took part in the 2009 PayPal developer day in Melbourne. At that stage i still didnt actually consider myself a developer but it was there that i realised that there were people like me who loved to code.
It was only a few months later that i got a call from PayPal Australia asking to send me as one of two developers to San Francisco representing Australia at the launch of the adaptive payment API’s. At innovate, half a world away, being able to network and connect with thousands of developers from around the world at PayPal innovate i suddenly realised … i am developer!
So what is Developer Evangelism, Its a position that many big technology brands have created over the years as a way of connecting to a user/developer community to encourage adoption of its tools/platform/services through innovative example, support and thought leadership via demonstrations, talks and code samples.
For me personally i have always loved using PayPal as a consumer, a merchant and especially as a developer, love it or hate it its a globally trusted brand that reaches all over the world.
This is an opportunity for me to help offer something back into the APAC developer community as a representative of a company that helped influence me into the developer world likewise i now get to help (and hopefully influence) developers be all they can be and help show the awesome work APAC developers do to the world.
Our first major event in Australia is of course the first Australian Battlehack which is scheduled for July 26 and 27 in Sydney where developers will battle it out for a chance to represent Australia at the Battlehack world finals in November. Of course you’ll get to hang out with some really cool developers with food and drink a plenty and some lucky team/dev will win a cool axe trophy and get to battle it out in the world finals in November.
