Twilio launches program to teach developers how to become evangelists | Hacker News Reader

Twilio launches program to teach developers how to become evangelists

twilio.com

49 pointscrabasa17 comments

Despite popular conception, "evangelist" as a word isn't actually rooted in religious etymology: it comes from the Greek "euangelistes" -- literally "bringing of good news", where the "good news" part is rooted in the Greek "angelos", meaning "messenger."

http://www.princeton.edu/~achaney/tmve/wiki100k/docs/Evangel...

Thanks for sharing the link! The etymology is fascinating.

On a related note, I met a Twilio developer evangelist named Rob Spectre at a PennApps hackathon and he was a very helpful / encouraging person.

Interesting program but I suggest some changes to the description to clarify who should apply and what the expectations of applicants are.

First off, it isn't clear if this is for training Twilio evangelists, or more general. I think it is more general, but lines like "access to Twilio swag" suggest it might be otherwise. The application page (http://ahoy.twilio.com/heroes) is 2/3 about Twilio, which adds to this impression. Adding some text emphasizing that you do/don't need to evangelise Twilio would be good.

Next up, what kind of commitments are you signing up for? An hour a week of Hangouts, or is there more involvement? What time do you expect to run hangouts? Are you reviewed at the end of each track, and are there conditions you must meet to start the next track?

Where did the term evangelist come from, in a tech context?

My understanding is that the first (self-described) technology evangelist was Guy Kawasaki at Apple:

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guy_Kawasaki

It is a term that fundamentally bothers me in terms of technology. In my mind, evangelism is about spreading the good news of God, especially related to preaching of the Christian Gospel. I understand the term being applied metaphorically to software and technology, but it rubs be the wrong way personally in that context.

At my company we call them technology high priests for this reason. Almost every religion has priests of one kind of another. This way, we don't offend anyone.

So "Muslim evangelism" would be a contradiction in terms? I don't think so.

That would not bother me. Its the word being used for a decidedly non-religious context that seems to trivialize the word. A programming language or system is a tool and is likely to be supplanted in the years to come. This is not the same as a religious or life philosophy that could well guide a man or woman for his or her entire remaining life. Software just is just not as important in the grand scope of things.

Some marketing department probably.

Evangelism means "spreading the good news," which is why it's adopted by Christians, but it didn't originate there.

I find it interesting that "salesperson" has connotations that are so negative for so many people that we find ourselves using euphemisms.

They're not called salespeople because they're not salespeople.

An evangelist is selling something, even if they aren't negotiating price. Maybe "marketing person" would be more appropriate than "sales person"

Incredible program, incredible company.

Thanks for the kind words, I'm really excited to get this shipped. We've been iterating on a version of this program for a while and we can't wait to see what kind of force multiplier effect there will be when you help developers learn how to teach and support other developers.

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