Take a look at the achievement levels, requirements, and tracking tool for the IBM developerWorks Author Achievement Recognition Program.

There are three designations you can earn in the IBM developerWorks Author Achievement Recognition Program (dW author program). Each of these levels can be readily achievable, depending on your own goals and commitment. The requirements for each level are described below and illustrated in Figure 1.

Figure 1. Achievement level requirements

To reach each achievement level, you must accumulate a minimum number of publication points and complete a set of scope requirements:

• Contributing Author
  • Accumulate at least 30 publication points.
  • Write at least one (1) technical article or tutorial on your own.
• Professional Author
  • Accumulate at least 100 publication points, including the points you earned for Contributing Author.
  • Write a total of at least four (4) articles or tutorials on your own.
  • Participate in at least one (1) eligible community feature.
  • Perform at least two (2) technical reviews of published content items by other authors.
  • Recruit and mentor at least two (2) new developerWorks authors. You must be either the reviewer or co-author of their first major content item.
• Master Author
  • Accumulate at least 200 publication points, including the points you earned for Professional Author.
  • Write a total of at least ten (10) articles or tutorials on your own.
  • Participate in a total of at least three (3) eligible community features.
  • Perform a total of at least seven (7) technical reviews of published content items by other authors.
  • Recruit and mentor a total of at least seven (7) new developerWorks authors. You must be either the reviewer or co-author of their first major content item.

Since you track your own progress, you will always know the number of publication points you have remaining and what requirements you need to fulfill to reach the next achievement level. Tracking your progress is easy. Figure 2 shows the tracking tool you receive when you register for the program. The tracking tool is a spreadsheet that you can use with Microsoft® Excel®, OpenOffice Calc, or IBM Lotus® Symphony.

Figure 2. Tracking tool

Take a closer look at the tracking tool.

The tracking tool is designed to be easy to use and is made up of:

• A dashboard (Figure 3) that displays the publication points and scope requirements you have completed (in the Done section), along with the points and requirements that you still need to achieve for each level (in the To Do section).
  
  

  Figure 3. Dashboard section

• A simple data entry section (Figure 4) for recording your publications and completed activities. You only need to enter information in the white areas, and most values are drop-down selections, which make data entry even easier.
  
  

  Figure 4. Data entry section

• A point distribution section (Figure 5) that calculates the publication points you earn, based on the information you entered.
  
  

  Figure 5. Point distribution section

• A reference section (Figure 6) in which you enter details we can use to confirm the items you recorded.
  
  

  Figure 6. Reference section

You will receive simple instructions for using the tracking tool when you register for the program. If you are a current or past developerWorks author, the tracking tool will be pre-filled with your applicable publishing history. (Spaces and forum activity will not be pre-filled.) All you need to do is record your future progress in the same format.

The information in the dashboard updates automatically as you enter data. When all of the indicators in one of the achievement level columns reach 0, SUBMIT will display in that column (Figure 3). When this occurs, the data in your tracking tool indicates that you have accumulated enough publication points and completed the necessary scope requirements for that level, pending confirmation. At that point, simply send your tracking tool to the program administrator at dwaarp@us.ibm.com to begin the confirmation process.

When your achievement is confirmed, you will receive an e-mail notification informing you of your achievement, along with an electronic certificate of achievement (Figure 7), and instructions on how you may use your designation. The names of those authors who have reached an achievement level will be announced quarterly.

Figure 7. Certificates of achievement

A developerWorks author badge that reflects your achievement level (Figure 8) will also be added to your author biography on future developerWorks publications.

Figure 8. Article bio with badge

In addition, Master Authors will receive an author tribute page on developerWorks featuring their biography and examples of their published work.

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