Why DevMavens?
DevMavens.com is a community and philanthropic effort on the part of
Lake Quincy Media to support
the Microsoft developer community in three ways:
- Provide recognition (and sponsorships if desired) to leading bloggers in the Microsoft
developer community
- Support charitable and local developer events (chosen by the DevMavens)
- Improve the blog reader's experience by limiting ads to one per page on sponsored
blogs
What's a Maven?
In his excellent marketing book
The Tipping Point (click to read), Malcolm Gladwell identifies several groups
of people necessary for creating momentum around a product. Mavens are one of these
groups. Gladwell says, The critical thing about Mavens, though, is that they aren't
passive collectors of information... What sets them apart is that once they figure
out [something], they want to tell you about it too. Gladwell also identifies
Connectors and Salesmen as other individuals required to create product momentum,
and it is often the case that individuals can be considered more than one of these
roles. (More on The
Tipping Point at Wikipedia)
Who are these people?
Lake Quincy Media selected the original group of DevMavens
in June 2008 and
then created a board of well-known developers to guide the selection process
going forward. DevMavens are chosen primarily on the basis of their standing in
the developer community as bloggers. The selection process is necessarily subjective
and imperfect, but we welcome feedback as well as nominations for additional members.
The sponsored DevMavens are invited on the basis of their reach, overall traffic,
and appeal to potential sponsors, as determined by Lake Quincy Media.
It is not
required to show DevMavens advertisements in order to be recognized as a DevMaven
and promoted on the site.
How do I join?
Membership is invitation-only and limited to bloggers with an emphasis on Microsoft
software development.
Who decides whom to invite?
A secret cabal made up of members of the Illuminati. No, seriously. Ok, actually
the current members have input in selecting new members and
Richard Campbell (of DotNetRocks) also provides his input
(he's interviewed a *ton* of influential software developers on the show).