Welcome to Navigators: DigitalOcean’s Ambassador Program 

It’s a new year but the DigitalOcean team remains set on fulfilling the same mission guided by the same set of values that has always driven us: to simplify cloud computing so developers and businesses can spend more time creating software that changes the world. The way we deliver on this mission is by starting with community and simplicity and ending with love.

One of the challenges any growing community faces is how to reach and support tens of millions of people. For us, we make this connection with developers and startups across the world with our modest but powerful team of DigitalOcean staff.

Building on the lessons of our community, we’re excited to officially launch our ambassador program called Navigators (http://do.co/navigators).  With this program we hope to prove this hypothesis: that DigitalOcean customers can contribute content, code, and community engagement to help others build and grow and get recognized and rewarded in turn.

Understanding Navigators

DigitalOcean would not be where we are today - serving as many customers and communities around the world as we do - without the ongoing support and effort of a brilliant community of developers, community organizers, speakers, writers, video creators, open source maintainers, and more. The people around the world who are motivated by helping others learn and grow with the DigitalOcean ecosystem are what we call Navigators, like Sammy the Shark here, Navigating the vast ocean ecosystem of technologies and tools.

These are the people who write hundreds of tutorials, contribute to countless tools and libraries, build our Meetup community to over 60,000 members, produce hundreds of helpful videos and talks, and create so much more. We all know someone who is a Navigator. These are the people in communities all over the world who are trying to be the best writer, speaker, creator, organizer, or educator.

If this is your goal, we want to work with you.

“I use my experience to help other developers. My advice to all DigitalOcean Navigators is to help each other work together while engaging the community. The community DigitalOcean offers is unique, warm, and great. And I loved DigitalOcean for it’s community and tutorials before I even used any of its resources.”  - Mouhsen Ibrahim

Perks of being a DigitalOcean Navigator

As a Navigator you will be expected to contribute to the community on a consistent basis. To make this as easy as possible,  here are the perks of the program that we believe will keep Navigators engaged and going above and beyond to guide people around the world to learn and grow with the help of DigitalOcean.

When we were dreaming up the Navigators program we kept asking ourselves, “with so many other priorities for our customers and community members, how do we make this program worthwhile for them?” We don’t take lightly the efforts that are involved in contributing code, content, and community engagement with a focus on high quality. This is why we’re offering a list of benefits that tap into your intrinsic and extrinsic motivators.

For the intrinsic motivation we know that our most active community members are inspired by the opportunity to help others, which we’ve learned from many years of running the Write for Donations program. We also know that these folks are motivated by learning and personal growth: with more knowledge and experience comes the opportunity to help more people, which brings more knowledge and experience, continuing the cycle. The Navigators Program is here to support this growth. As a Navigator you will be eligible to receive:

• Early access to DigitalOcean technologies (betas for upcoming product launches).
• Direct line of communication with DigitalOcean developer advocates and product managers.
• Monthly calls to discuss community, content, and code work with other Navigators.
• Speaking, writing, and organizing opportunities to reach hundreds of thousands of developers and startups in DigitalOcean’s network.

Of course, we understand that intrinsic motivation is not the whole equation. We know it’s also important for you to be rewarded and recognized more tangibly. The benefit of being a part of a growing community that cares about the individual members includes the myriad ways in which we will continue to delight you. As a Navigator you will also be eligible to receive:

• Promotion to DigitalOcean’s network of hundreds of thousands of developers and startups via social media, email, events, and website.
• Significant discounts on your personal use of DigitalOcean products and features.
• Custom Navigators swag as well as access to swag packs for distributing to your community.
• Funds that DigitalOcean will donate to open source projects of your choice on your behalf.

This is not where the benefits of Navigators end; it’s only where they begin. As a member you will help inform how DigitalOcean can support Navigators in evolving ways.

“I met DigitalOcean in 2014 when I was looking for a fixed-price cloud solution for a small business. The impact of simplicity and performance was so great that I became a fan. After that, I met a lot of amazing people there. A tip I would give to Navigators is: Open your mind, open your heart, and help others – that’s the key!” - Fernando Pimenta

Navigators welcome

You are an excellent candidate for the Navigators Program if you are already immersed in the developer ecosystem and have found success in helping other people learn and build. Do you have a passion for inclusive teaching through writing, presenting, or community organization? Do you have hands-on expertise with DigitalOcean’s products and services? Are you excited by making consistent code, content, and/or community contributions throughout the year?

If you answered yes to these questions we’d love to hear from you and encourage you to apply here. While we can’t select everyone, we greatly appreciate everyone who takes the time to apply, each of you will receive a response from our team. When we all work together, we reach our goals sooner, and we’re committed to simplifying cloud computing so developers and businesses can spend more time creating software that changes the world. We can’t wait to hear from you and welcome you as an extension of the DigitalOcean team.