This is interesting. I don't see this is a threat suggestion for any
replacement @Twitter. In fact Twitter is growing to the size where
Twitter should consider having an official Developer Relations
Manager. Facebook lost one and found a new hire. Google lost one and
is hiring a new one. I have served at least 2 different "official"
advisory boards of developers for the biggest companies. I have
informally given advisory input for other big companies. Facebook does
this privately by inviting selective groups of developers from time to
time to evaluate their API before public release. Microsoft also does
this kind of things with their MSFT Certified Golden partners. The
companies I served directly will call advisory board on quarterly
basis to present us with rough drafts and product road map to ask for
candid input. It turns out to be very helpful to get insights from
active developers. It was amazing that the company executives would
listen "in" to these communications to understand the community.

Google is hiring crazy to expand Developer Relation team size to
support global reach. ROI must be very good before Google could
justify the head counts and investment. You can see how quickly Google
sold out their Google I/O conference in less than an hour. Given >75%
Twitter traffic are coming from API, it makes sense on the business
side that Twitter continues to support traffic growth without adding
business costs or increase burn rate.

Most likely Twitter stock would trade lower in secondary market or
investors would lower the company evaluation if Twitter couldn't
maintain the growth rate at par with Facebook. These days developer
community is a "true" commodities for currencies. The mobile app store
war battles for developers' love is a good example.

4/15/2010
Twitter Reveals: 75% of all their traffic comes from their API
http://blog.programmableweb.com/2010/04/15/twitter-reveals-75-of-our-traffic-is-via-api-3-billion-calls-per-day/

9/10/2007
API has 10x the traffic of the website and that of all that’s happened
with Twitter in the past year that “the amount of activity around the
API has been the most surprising experience”
http://blog.programmableweb.com/2007/09/10/twitter-api-traffic-is-10x-twitters-site/

On Mar 14, 8:48 am, Adam Green <140...@gmail.com> wrote:
> I've been getting emails saying that this message was a request to replace
> Ryan. That was not my intent. I am suggesting that he be given someone to
> help with developer communications. His job title implies that he does much
> beside sending out these cheery notes to developers. He should have a
> full-time person to do this and much else to improve developer relations
> instead.
>
> If this was seen as an attack on Ryan, I apologize. I recognize the irony of
> my critique of his message as an attack on us being seen as an attack on
> him. It was meant to be a suggestion for a better way to work together.
>
>
>
> On Mon, Mar 14, 2011 at 9:44 AM, Adam Green <140...@gmail.com> wrote:
> > First of all, I honestly believe that Twitter HQ values developers and
> > appreciates their contribution. That is why I decided to devote myself
> > to this area a couple of years ago. I was amazed that when a dev
> > reported a problem the engineer responsible replied here and tried to
> > solve it. That is better than any big product I know of today. That is
> > why you have so many developers putting in all this work.
>
> > I also believe that the last few announcements from Ryan and others
> > have been the worst examples of third party developer management I
> > have seen in 30 years in this business. I can see what Ryan wanted to
> > accomplish in his latest message. He wanted to provide guidance. He
> > ended up telling us that Twitter no longer wanted anyone to build
> > clients, didn't explain clearly what a "client" meant to him, and
> > pointed out that hundreds of apps that fail to meet his undefined
> > "high bar" were cut off every week. Not good. Sorry, Ryan. You are
> > right. You are not good at communicating with third party developers.
> > At least not in written form. You look like a very cool guy with a lot
> > of personal charm. Maybe it works better in person. You should spend
> > some time talking directly to developers in small groups. It might
> > help you develop some canned responses that work.
>
> > Here is a simple way this could have been prevented. If you had a
> > developer relations person with experience and skills in dealing with
> > third party developers, who have completely different motivations from
> > in-house coders, he or she could have quietly passed around a draft of
> > what you wanted to say. This would have gotten very strong negative
> > reactions. You would have been able to reformulate it to strip out the
> > implied threats and turn it into a positive roadmap. It could have
> > been framed as "Here are some areas we promise to leave open for
> > developers. If you work here, we will give you all kinds of extra
> > support and promotion."
>
> > Here is another simple way this could have been prevented. Create an
> > advisory board of developers. Rotate people through it every 6-12
> > months. Let them vet announcements in advance. Let them respond to the
> > questions. It works in every other company I have worked with.
>
> > Here is what could be done instead of these repeated bombs you keep
> > dropping on the community. Give people a present. Announce that you
> > will use some of your precious ad space to promote third party apps,
> > and not just the ones with millions of dollars of VC who happen to
> > work in your building. Find new ways to rev share with developers.
> > Offer all expense paid trips to select developers to visit your office
> > for a day to hang out. HOLD A DEVELOPERS CONFERENCE.
>
> > There are many other things a good developer relations person could
> > do. Talk to Guy. That is how he started for Apple.
>
> > One last thing. Give this developer relations person a seat at the
> > table when big decisions are made. I can read lots of signals, like
> > this "high bar" nonsense, that there are negative attitudes inside
> > Twitter towards developers. They are a pain in the ass. Yes. But they
> > do hundreds of millions of dollars in development and promotion for
> > you for free. Hire someone good for $100K+. Give them a million dollar
> > budget to really take care of developers and run conferences and get
> > togethers around the world. It will pay off many times over.
>
> > --
> > Twitter developer documentation and resources:http://dev.twitter.com/doc
> > API updates via Twitter:http://twitter.com/twitterapi
> > Issues/Enhancements Tracker:
> >http://code.google.com/p/twitter-api/issues/list
> > Change your membership to this group:
> >http://groups.google.com/group/twitter-development-talk
>
> --
> Adam Green
> Twitter API Consultant and Trainerhttp://140dev.com
> @140dev

-- 
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API updates via Twitter: http://twitter.com/twitterapi
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