An Inside Look at the Docker Captains Program

Since launching the Docker Captains over a year ago, we’ve received a lot of questions: What is a Docker Captain? What do Captains do? How do I become a Captain? So who better to answer that than the Docker Captains themselves? At DockerCon Austin, we asked the Docker Captains to share their favorite thing about wearing the Captain’s hat.

What is a Captain?

Captains are Docker experts that are leaders in their communities, organizations or ecosystems. As Docker advocates, they are committed to sharing their knowledge and do so every chance they get!

What do Captains do?

Captains are advisors, ambassadors, coders, contributors, creators, tool builders, speakers, mentors, maintainers and super users and are required to be active stewards of Docker in order to remain in the program.

In addition to sharing their knowledge with the community, Captains provide insight and feedback to Docker. They have direct access to our technical teams, and are first to hear about and try upcoming features, product releases and big announcements.

What do Captains get? 

In return for their efforts, Captains get access to the existing captains community and Docker staff. They get ongoing training, private briefings and Slack chat channels where Captains have real-time access to each other and the Docker team. Docker amplifies the efforts of Captains by sharing their activities on social media, in the Docker Weekly, and through speaking opportunities. They also get additional training and resources at Docker events like DockerCon. Oh and SWAG… lots of SWAG!

How do I follow what the Captains are up to?

Follow all of the Captains on twitter. Also check out the Captains GitHub repo to see what projects they have been working on.

How can I learn more about each Captain?

Docker Captains are eager to bring their technical expertise to new audiences both offline and online around the world – don’t hesitate to reach out to them via the social links on their Captain profile pages. You can filter the captains by location, expertise, and more.

What does Docker look for when selecting Captains?

Captains were nominated as candidates for the program because their passion for inspiring and educating others about Docker translates into creating incredible value for Docker’s users. Specifically, Captains meet some or all of the following criteria:

• Technical: Captains are Docker practitioners – they use Docker and stay up to date with the latest Docker features and releases.
• Innovators: Captains have created some amazing projects and are constantly inspired by the way they push the envelope:
  • Play with Docker – A sandbox training playground that allows users to immediately test Docker and related projects with no setup.
  • Open FaaS Project – OpenFaaS is a framework for building serverless functions with Docker which has first class support for metrics.
• Creators: Captains create content to educate and support the Docker community, they respond to questions in forums and chat, and speak in public at meetups and conferences about Docker.
• Influencers: Captains are leaders in their community, organization or ecosystem and focus on advancing the adoption and proper use of Docker technology.
• Credible: Captains know their way around the container lifecycle and its applied uses, they’ve tried and worked with other technologies, and they share their findings. They are passionate about Docker as a solution, but the first to tell us we haven’t gotten something quite right.

How do I become a Captain?

We are actively looking to add additional leaders that inspire and educate the Docker community. Sign up for community.docker.com, let Captains know of your interest, share your activities on social media and hashtag #Docker, get involved in a local meetup as a speaker or organizer and continue to share your knowledge of Docker in your community and organization.