Amazon Project Dawn Killed the Community Era — Here's What Comes Next

The Ambassador Trap#

For the last decade, the tech industry ran on a simple playbook:

Give developers status, swag, and a platform —
and they’ll evangelize your product for free.

Docker Captains.
HashiCorp Ambassadors.
AWS Community Builders.
Microsoft MVPs.

You posted.
You spoke at conferences.
You wrote tutorials.

And in exchange, you got:

• A LinkedIn badge
• A hoodie
• “Access” to a Slack channel
• The illusion of job security

Here’s what you didn’t get:

Ownership.

You built someone else’s SEO.
You drove traffic to someone else’s funnel.
You validated someone else’s product.

And when the market shifted —
when AI agents became cheaper than your content,
when CFOs needed to cut costs —

you became redundant.

Jason Dunn had more leverage than most Ambassadors.
He ran the program.

And they still cut him.

If Amazon fires the community manager,
the community itself is a liability.

The Efficiency Era#

We’re exiting the Community Era
and entering the Efficiency Era.

In the Community Era, companies bought developer attention with status.

You were “part of something.”
You had a badge.
You were “recognized.”

In the Efficiency Era, companies buy results.

Attribution.
ROI.
Cost per acquisition.

And here’s the problem:

Most community programs can’t prove ROI.

They generate “goodwill.”
They build “brand awareness.”
They create “engagement.”

None of that shows up on a P&L
when you’re cutting 14% of headcount.

AI is eating the bottom of the value chain.

Generic tutorials.
”Hello World” content.
Thought leadership that sounds like ChatGPT wrote it.

If your value is “I can explain how Docker works,“
you’re competing with an agent that can do it:

• In 30 languages
• 24/7
• For free

Efficiency doesn’t care about your feelings.
It cares about cost.

The Field CTO Path#

But there’s a way out.

And it requires killing the employee mindset.

Stop being an Ambassador.
Start being a Field CTO.

Ambassadors evangelize.
Field CTOs architect.

Ambassadors promote tools.
Field CTOs solve problems.

Ambassadors chase swag.
Field CTOs charge for access.

Here’s the shift:

Instead of writing “10 Reasons to Use Kubernetes,“
you write:

“Here’s the exact architecture we used to cut infrastructure costs by 40% without Kubernetes.”

Not generic.
Specific. Proven. Proprietary.

Instead of speaking at conferences for free,
you publish The Blueprint in a private channel
and charge for access.

Instead of building someone else’s SEO,
you own the IP.

The analysis.
The verdict.

When I analyze a stack, I’m not asking:

“Will this get me an Ambassador badge?”

I’m asking:

• What’s the ROI?
• What’s the leverage?
• What’s the moat?

And then I sell that analysis.

Not to Amazon.
To you.

What Survives#

Community isn’t dead.

Corporate-owned community is dead.

What’s rising is something darker.
Smaller.
Higher trust.
Higher price.

No swag.
No badges.
No conferences.

Just:

• The Verdict — cold architectural analysis
• The Blueprint — step-by-step execution
• The Private Order — direct access, no noise

Amazon decided that community programs are a cost center.

And they’re right.
For them.

But for you?

The developers who survived the last decade by
”building in public” and
”engaging the community” —

you have a choice:

Adapt
or
optimize away.

The Efficiency Era doesn’t reward visibility.

It rewards judgment.

SIGNAL & INTEL#

• The Private Order: Stop being a grunt. Become an Architect. Join The Private Order.

DOCKER CAPTAIN  ·  HASHICORP AMBASSADOR  ·  AWS COMMUNITY BUILDER