A technology evangelist is someone who builds a

critical mass In nuclear engineering, critical mass is the minimum mass of the fissile material needed for a sustained nuclear chain reaction in a particular setup. The critical mass of a fissionable material depends upon its nuclear properties (specific ...

of support for a specific technology, and then establishes it as a

technical standard A technical standard is an established Social norm, norm or requirement for a repeatable technical task which is applied to a common and repeated use of rules, conditions, guidelines or characteristics for products or related processes and producti ...

in a market that is subject to network effects. The word ''evangelism'' is borrowed from the context of religious evangelism due to the similarity of sharing information about a particular concept with the intention of having others adopt that concept. This is typically accomplished by showcasing the potential uses and benefits of a technology to help others understand how they can use it for themselves.

Target areas

Platform evangelism Platform evangelism (also called developer relations, developer and platform evangelism, developer advocacy, or API evangelism) is the application of technology evangelism to a multi-sided platform. It seeks to accelerate the growth of a platform ...

is one target of technology evangelism, in which the vendor of a two-sided platform attempts to accelerate the production of complementary goods by independent developers (e.g., during its early years,

Facebook Facebook is a social media and social networking service owned by the American technology conglomerate Meta Platforms, Meta. Created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with four other Harvard College students and roommates, Eduardo Saverin, Andre ...

worked on creating an ecosystem of third party developers, encouraging them to create games or develop mobile apps that could enhance users' experiences with Facebook). Professional technology evangelists are often employed by firms seeking to establish their technologies as ''de facto'' standards. Their work could also entail the training of personnel, including top managers so that they acquire skills and competencies necessary to adopt new technology or new technological initiative. There are even instances when technology evangelism becomes an aspect of a managerial position. Open-source evangelists, on the other hand, operate independently. Evangelists also participate in defining

open standards An open standard is a standard that is openly accessible and usable by anyone. It is also a common prerequisite that open standards use an open license that provides for extensibility. Typically, anybody can participate in their development due to ...

. Non-professional technology evangelists may act out of

altruism Altruism is the concern for the well-being of others, independently of personal benefit or reciprocity. The word ''altruism'' was popularised (and possibly coined) by the French philosopher Auguste Comte in French, as , for an antonym of egoi ...

or self-interest (e.g., to gain the benefits of early adoption or the network effect).

History of term

In Christianity, the word ''evangelist'' comes from the

Koine Greek Koine Greek (, ), also variously known as Hellenistic Greek, common Attic, the Alexandrian dialect, Biblical Greek, Septuagint Greek or New Testament Greek, was the koiné language, common supra-regional form of Greek language, Greek spoken and ...

word "" (transliterated as ''euangelion'') via Latinised ''evangelium'', as used in the canonical titles of the Four Gospels, attributed to Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John (also known as the

Four Evangelists In Christian tradition, the Four Evangelists are Matthew the Apostle, Matthew, Mark the Evangelist, Mark, Luke the Evangelist, Luke, and John the Evangelist, John, the authors attributed with the creation of the four canonical Gospel accounts ...

). The term ''software evangelist'' was coined by Mike Murray of

Apple Computer Apple Inc. is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Cupertino, California, in Silicon Valley. It is best known for its consumer electronics, software, and services. Founded in 1976 as Apple Computer Co ...

's Macintosh computer division in the early 1980s. It was part of Apple's drive to compete with

IBM International Business Machines Corporation (using the trademark IBM), nicknamed Big Blue, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company headquartered in Armonk, New York, and present in over 175 countries. It is ...

and it specifically described the initiative to win over third-party developers rhetorically to persuade them to develop software and applications for the

Macintosh Mac is a brand of personal computers designed and marketed by Apple Inc., Apple since 1984. The name is short for Macintosh (its official name until 1999), a reference to the McIntosh (apple), McIntosh apple. The current product lineup inclu ...

platform. In Guy Kawasaki's own words, it meant "using fervor and zeal (but never money) to convince software developers to create products for a computer with no installed base, 128K of RAM, no hard disk, no documentation, and no technical support, made by a flaky company that IBM was about to snuff out." The first so-identified technology evangelist was Mike Boich — who promoted the Macintosh computer. In 1987,

Steve Ballmer Steven Anthony Ballmer (; March 24, 1956) is an American businessman and investor who served as chief executive officer of Microsoft from 2000 to 2014. He is the owner of the Los Angeles Clippers of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He i ...

introduced the technology evangelist role at

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company, technology conglomerate headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Founded in 1975, the company became influential in the History of personal computers#The ear ...

to build excitement and drive adoption of

Windows Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...

and its development tools. The job is often closely related to both sales and training but requires specific technology marketing skills. For example, convincing a potential buyer or user to change from older methods to new ones. There is also the case of adopting new products such as green IT. The marketing aspect involved in technology evangelism was strongly influenced by Geoffrey Moore and his books concerning the

technology adoption lifecycle The technology adoption lifecycle is a sociological model that describes the adoption or acceptance of a new product or innovation, according to the demographic and psychological characteristics of defined adopter groups. The process of adoption o ...

. One of his positions maintain that the role of the evangelist becomes critical when addressing what he identified as the "chasm" that exists between early and mainstream adoption. Technology evangelism is sometimes associated with an internal employee assigned to encourage new practices within an organization. Methods of evangelism available include a modified STREET process (Scope, Track, Rank, Evaluate, Evangelize, Transfer) and the process that takes advantage of the hype cycle. Evangelism can also assume the form of a learning process and employ tools such as learning management systems (LMS).

Role

Technology evangelists aim to inspire enthusiasm for a product or idea. Successful evangelism requires strong corporate support and a deep understanding of technology. Evangelists also draw on diverse skills, including

marketing Marketing is the act of acquiring, satisfying and retaining customers. It is one of the primary components of Business administration, business management and commerce. Marketing is usually conducted by the seller, typically a retailer or ma ...

and

psychology Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Its subject matter includes the behavior of humans and nonhumans, both consciousness, conscious and Unconscious mind, unconscious phenomena, and mental processes such as thoughts, feel ...

. A study by Frederic Lucas-Conwell considers the principal characteristics of the technology evangelist role to include: # Generosity with one's time while proactively initiating and leveraging relationships to accomplish goals. # Clear and persuasive communication of large amounts of information, adapting content delivery to audience's specific needs. # Strong understanding of interpersonal and team dynamics, willing to collaborate with others. # Casual and outgoing persona with an animated communication style that attracts others into conversation. # Interested in relationship-building and forging a team for technical work. # Focused on achieving end-goals, delegating details to other individuals.

Notable examples

Notable technology evangelists in the commercial arena include

Steve Jobs Steven Paul Jobs (February 24, 1955 – October 5, 2011) was an American businessman, inventor, and investor best known for co-founding the technology company Apple Inc. Jobs was also the founder of NeXT and chairman and majority shareholder o ...

(Apple Inc.),

Vint Cerf Vinton Gray Cerf (; born June 23, 1943) is an American Internet pioneer and is recognized as one of "the fathers of the Internet", sharing this title with TCP/IP co-developer Robert Kahn. He has received honorary degrees and awards that inclu ...

(

Internet The Internet (or internet) is the Global network, global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a internetworking, network of networks ...

Don Box Don Box is a former Microsoft Technical Fellow. Before joining Microsoft in 2002, Box was a contributing editor and columnist at ''Microsoft Systems Journal'', which later became ''MSDN Magazine'', and was one of the founders of DevelopMentor, a ...

Guy Kawasaki Guy Takeo Kawasaki (born August 30, 1954) is an American marketing specialist, author, and Silicon Valley venture capitalist. He was one of the Apple employees originally responsible for marketing their Macintosh computer line in 1984. He popul ...

, Chris Crawford, Alex St. John, Robert Scoble, Myriam Joire (

Pebble A pebble is a clastic rocks, clast of rock (geology), rock with a grain size, particle size of based on the Particle size (grain size), Udden-Wentworth scale of sedimentology. Pebbles are generally considered larger than Granule (geology), gra ...

), Christian Allen (

Epic Games Epic Games, Inc. is an American Video game developer, video game and software development, software developer and video game publisher, publisher based in Cary, North Carolina. The company was founded by Tim Sweeney (game developer), Tim Sween ...

), Mudasser Zaheer (

Hewlett Packard Enterprise The Hewlett Packard Enterprise Company (HPE) is an American multinational information technology company based in Spring, Texas. It is a business-focused organization which works in servers, storage, networking, containerization software and ...

), and Dan Martin ( MasterCard). Court recordsPlaintiff's Exhibit 2456
''Comes vs. Microsoft,'' 2007. indicate that James Plamondon was a leading theorist, strategist, and practitioner of technology evangelism at Microsoft during its establishment of

Windows as the ''de facto'' standard PC operating system. Kawasaki, on the other hand, was credited for the remarkable growth of the software developed for the Macintosh, jumping from a few dozen products to more than 600 in less than a year of spreading the so-called Macintosh gospel. He claims, "Evangelism isn't a job title, it's a way of life."

Target areas

History of term

Role

Notable examples

See also

References

Further reading