"Individual developers influence 60 to 70 percent of technology decisions”

Gina W Poole, IBM Developer Relations’ vice president for Developer Marketing and Web Communities has worldwide responsibility for IBM’s online and offline developer programmes including developerWorks, alphaWorks and Developer Community Outreach. She spoke to Prashant L Rao about IBM’s developer programmes in India and the company’s contribution to open standards and emerging technology

What’s the target audience for IBM’s developer programmes?
Students, corporate developers, integrators, consultants, ISVs—IBM has ten million developers worldwide. This is a very influential audience in the IT industry. ISVs were responsible for $136 billion of business in 2001, accounting for 80 percent of all software revenue. Individual developers influence 60 to 70 percent of technology decisions. The quantity of skills often drives decision-making. Our goal is to build open standards skills and then skills on the IBM product portfolio.

Do Indians form a significant chunk of the developerWorks community?
developerWorks has 2.8 million registered users, a million are from the Asia-Pacific. 2,83,000 developers from India have registered on the site. India has the most active developer community in the Asia-Pacific region. According to IDC, there are 6,00,000 developers in India. India has the second largest developer community in the world after the US. China is third.

What is IBM’s focus with regard to the developer community?
Our focus is to firstly build awareness of the importance of open standards, and secondly to build skills on technologies like Java, Linux and Web services, and specifically on WebSphere, Lotus, DB2, Tivoli and Rational.

IBM recently acquired Rational Software. How does this complement IBM’s existing software products?
Rational offers outstanding development tools, IBM now has the leading portfolio of developer products. Rational has 56 percent of the development tool market in India. There are 6,00,000 developers using Rational tools worldwide.

How about Linux and other open standards-related activity?
Last year we set up the Linux Speed-start program on developerWorks. We offer free evaluation copies of IBM’s Linux middleware. We also offer technology support and education—online and offline. 4,000 new applications on Linux were developed last year, mostly using WebSphere or WebSphere with DB2. 2,000 people in IBM are working with open standard groups. 50 percent of the technology in Java is from IBM. We have made significant contributions to Apache and Linux.

Can you describe IBM’s relationship with the university community?
The focus is on the top schools in key geographies. We offer free software under the IBM Scholastic Programme, we also make hardware donations. IBM holds university days such as we are doing in Mumbai and Bangalore. 50,000 Indian developers have participated in such events. We offer grants, fellowships and internships at IRL (IBM Research Lab), Delhi.

ISVs are a crucial bunch, how does IBM assist them?
ISVs can test their applications at our solution partnership centre and get them to market faster. We offer training courses, 1,600 ISVs have registered on developerWorks from India. IBM has a strategic alliance programme through which we partner with the best in the industry. i-flex solutions is a premier alliance partner in India.

Are Web services picking up? Can you name a few emerging technologies?
Web services is into the middle of its adoption curve. There are lots of Web services deployments on IBM platforms in banking, healthcare, manufacturing and retail. Grid computing enables you to share resources across the corporate environment. We put technology at very early stages of development on alphaWorks. There are a number of grid and autonomic technologies there. You find technology like DNA and genetic modelling on alphaWorks. IRL Delhi is working on e-governance and voice recognition.

How many developer-oriented events did IBM hold in India last year?
We held 40 events in 2002 in India—this includes both targeted and general events. General events are those where we reach out to the mass developer population through events such as Developer Days and University Days. Targeted events include technical seminars and sessions conducted exclusively for ISVs or alliance partners like Infosys or Wipro.