Introducing Laurence Moroney

Laurence Moroney has been a developer advocate for over a decade and currently works at Google. Laurence is especially an advocate for TensorFlow and the possibilities of artificial intelligence (AI), and finds himself speaking to the non-tech world about AI every bit as much as the developer community. His YouTube interview show Coffee with a Googler helps developers and fans alike to put a human face on the roles inside a big tech company, and his many published works include The Definitive Guide to Firebase. Find Laurence on Twitter: @lmoroney.

Geertjan Wielenga: Could you provide some background about where you're from and what you do?

Laurence Moroney: I'm based in the Seattle area of the U.S. and I'm a developer advocate at Google. I work for Google AI (Google Brain) as a developer advocate for TensorFlow. My background is that I'm actually European. I grew up between Wales and Ireland, and I emigrated to the U.S. 23 years ago.

I discovered the role of developer advocacy while I was here in the U.S. I've worked as a developer advocate for three companies. The first company was a start-up called Mainsoft, the second was Microsoft, and the third is now Google.

How I landed in the developer advocacy field was that I worked for the chief technology officer (CTO) at Reuters and our job was building prototypes. We were kicking the tires of new tech and then advocating that inside the enterprise. That turned into a full career in advocacy.

With the official title "advocate" I've been doing this since about 2005, so, 14 years. I think I was one of the early ones.

Geertjan Wielenga: Let's first talk evangelism versus advocacy. Do you think this is a relevant discussion? Is there a difference?