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Learn the process for achieving author designations through the IBM developerWorks Author Achievement Recognition Program.
How the program works
As an author participating in the IBM developerWorks Author Achievement Recognition Program (dW author program), you achieve an author designation by accumulating a minimum number of publication points and by fulfilling specific scope requirements defined for each achievement level. Publication points are a measurement of your overall contributions to developerWorks, and scope requirements broaden your presence in the developerWorks community by requiring activity beyond authoring.
Here's how it all works:
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Sign up.
You must register to participate in the program. Registration is very easy and shouldn't take you more than a minute or two to complete.
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Review your package.
After you register, you will receive a welcome package that includes program instructions and a tracking tool that you will use for recording and monitoring your progress in the program. The tracking tool is a spreadsheet (that you can use with Microsoft® Excel®, OpenOffice Calc, or IBM Lotus® Symphony) that accumulates the points you earn and the requirements you complete, and tells you what you have left to achieve, while also being very easy to maintain.
If you have published with developerWorks before, the tracking tool will be pre-filled with your eligible publishing history from the past five years, along with credit for the applicable publication points and scope requirements to which your past contributions entitle you, based on our records. With this baseline information already applied, you should be able to easily determine what tasks you still need to complete to reach the next achievement level.
If you find that the baseline information pre-filled in the tracking tool is incomplete, you can follow the program instructions to add missing information.
If your baseline information indicates that you have completed the requirements to satisfy an achievement level entirely with your past contributions, you are eligible to be awarded that designation provided you have published on developerWorks within the past 12 months. Otherwise, you will be eligible to be awarded the designation upon your next published item.
Please note: Due to the volume of ongoing registrations we receive and the record keeping process involved, it is necessary for us to process registrations in batches. Therefore, please be aware that it can take several weeks to receive your welcome materials.
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Get writing.
As you contribute to developerWorks, you will record your published items in the tracking tool. The tracking tool calculates the publication points you have accumulated, and the points you still need to earn to reach each achievement level. Because accurate record keeping is important, the tracking tool has built-in help that makes it very easy to use, plus calculations are performed automatically based on simple input.
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Get active.
You track your scope requirements by entering your eligible activities in the tracking tool as well. As it does with publication points, the tracking tool will also let you know the outstanding requirements you need to complete for each achievement level.
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Get recognized.
When you have accumulated enough publication points and fulfilled the minimum scope requirements to satisfy an achievement level, send us your completed tracking tool. Through a confirmation process, we will review the information you have recorded to verify that the achievement level has been reached. When confirmed, you will be notified via e-mail of your accomplishment, and you will receive an electronic certificate of achievement that formally recognizes your accomplishment and contains the author designation that you will be authorized to use. Confirmations and public announcements of those who have been awarded designations will be made quarterly.
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Keep going.
You can reach the next achievement level by continuing to contribute to developerWorks. All requirements are cumulative, so the work you have already accomplished will help you achieve the next level.
Below are more details on each element of the program.
How you make progress
Each achievement level has requirements that reflect the level of effort and accomplishment associated with each plateau. These requirements are represented by two fundamental elements: publication points and scope requirements. You must accumulate the minimum number of publication points and complete the necessary scope requirements to be awarded a designation.
Publication points
Publication points are a measurement of your overall contributions to developerWorks. As an author, you receive publication points for each eligible content item you write that is published on developerWorks, based on content type. Point values differ to reflect the varying degree of effort and priority associated with each content type, and to encourage authors to explore different kinds of content. Table 1 shows how publication points are awarded for each eligible content type.
Table 1. Publication points for published content
| Content type | Points | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Tutorial | 15 | Task-oriented step-by-step article that instructs reader how to complete a specific objective. Must be in developerWorks tutorial format. |
| +2 | Added if idea of tutorial originated from developerWorks. | |
| Technical article | 10 | The majority of content published on developerWorks, covering a wide variety of topics and narrative approaches. Includes recurring columns and editorials. |
| +3 | Added if article is originally published in a developerWorks journal (such as Rational Edge, WebSphere Developer Technical Journal, or IBM Business Process Management Journal). | |
| +2 | Added if idea of article originated from developerWorks. | |
| Technical tip | 3 | Very short article describing a discrete topic, usually a quick fix, workaround, or helpful hint. |
Publication points are awarded per content item, and are distributed equally among all authors. For example, an author who writes a technical article alone will earn 10 publication points; two co-authors of a technical article will receive 5 points each, reflecting their relative contributions.
Scope requirements
Scope requirements broaden your presence in the developerWorks community by requiring activity beyond authoring. By participating in ways others than writing, you can increase your visibility to our audience, help us maintain the technical integrity of our content, bring new authors into the developerWorks community, and more.
Scope requirements include:
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Independent authorship
Articles you write with others often feature shared ideas based on combined experiences. An article that you write by yourself reflects only your own expertise and technical acumen. Because the dW author program acknowledges the contributions of individuals, each achievement level requires a minimum number of content items that must be authored by you alone. Of course, you can acknowledge colleagues that assist you with the article, but the article must have a single by-line.
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Community participation
Community features are very important in bringing developerWorks users together with experts, and so some achievement levels require participation in eligible community activities, which are:
- Initiating and maintaining a developerWorks blog.
- Participating in a developerWorks podcast.
- Leading a developerWorks online chat.
- Owning a developerWorks space.
- Providing substantive assistance through developerWorks forums.
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Technical reviews
It is important that the material we publish be as technically accurate as possible, so some achievement levels require that you lend your expertise to other authors by technically reviewing their articles prior to publication. A technical review is an in-depth review of an article or tutorial that deals with topics on which you are a subject matter expert.
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Mentoring new authors
We want our authors to be successful, to build a reputation, and to develop a following, but we also want to hear from new voices. Some achievement levels require that you introduce new writers to the experience of publishing on developerWorks for the first time. For this requirement, mentoring involves assisting a first-time author through the developerWorks editorial and publishing process from proposal to completed article or tutorial. As mentor, you must also act as either a co-author or technical reviewer. The article must be the mentored author's first developerWorks publication.
In addition to receiving credit for fulfilling a scope requirement, you also earn publication points for these activities:
Table 2. Publication points for scope requirements
| Content type | Points | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Create new blog or space* | 10 | Launch a new developerWorks-approved blog or space. Reflects the importance of the topic and the associated owner commitment. |
| Maintain blog | 10 | Post regular entries to a developerWorks blog for at least 10 months per calendar year. |
| Principal in webcast, podcast, or moderated chat | 5 | Lead or be a primary participant in a live (online or otherwise) interview or chat. |
| Technical review | 2 | Perform review and provide feedback of another author's article or tutorial to ensure technical accuracy. |
| Post to forum* | 1 | Provide substantive response to posted requests for assistance. Post must provide answers or otherwise contribute to the solution in a non-trivial manner. Validity of post is at the discretion of the program administrator during the confirmation process. You may record a maximum of ten valid forum posts, at which point you will receive community participation credit. |
*To enter spaces and forum activity requires Version 2.0.2 (V202) or later of the tracking tool.
Next, learn what's required to reach each achievement level.