Mike Eftimakis – CHERI Alliance
If you’ve been watching the CHERI Alliance gather momentum, you’ve probably noticed a growing wave of community activity—talks, demos, explainers, and friendly faces spreading the word about capability-based security. A lot of that energy is coordinated by the Promotion & Ambassador Program Working Group (WG). Here’s a clear look at what the WG does, how it empowers ambassadors, and how you can plug in.
What we do
At a high level, the Promotion & Ambassador Program WG exists to do two things: promote CHERI and the CHERI Alliance and develop the Ambassador Program that powers community advocacy.
The promotion is mostly about direct contact with all organisations who would be interested in the CHERI technology, either to integrate into their offering, or just as potential users. Both are important: the users need to show there is a demand and the technology providers need to develop the components and products that will fill that need. This is how we managed to build a fast-growing community of CHERI promoters, as you can see on the CHERI Alliance members page.
The ambassador program is a way to extend the reach and visibility of the Alliance, and provide a local presence in many countries. It will be described in the following part.
Obviously, the working group complements the Marketing WG, which focuses on broader strategy and messaging for the Alliance—two groups with different remits that naturally reinforce each other.
The Ambassador Program — how to turn enthusiasm into impact
Since the CHERI Alliance is an association of organisations, building a community of people who would spread the word about CHERI is a natural extension. We therefore decided to start and grow an Ambassador Program, calling for volunteers who want to help make CHERI ubiquitous by explaining, teaching, showcasing, and convening.
Initially we didn’t really know what to expect or what these ambassadors would be able to do, but we really wanted to leverage the enthusiasm of people who were interested in cybersecurity and wanted to make the cyber world a better place.
We left the candidates decide what they wanted to do to help, while of course guiding them with our own ideas. As no one is expected to be the best at everything, they picked the activities that best fit their strengths:
- Create technical content: tutorials, presentations, code examples/demos, blog posts, and videos.
- Communicate consistently: share updates, news, and stories across channels.
- Drive events: help organise or represent the Alliance at meetups, workshops, and conferences.
- Outreach & growth: contact organisations, network widely, and help new folks discover CHERI.
- Participate: contribute to the life of the CHERI Alliance, by joining WG, or by designing collateral, help with admin/events, and bringing creative ideas.
Supporting ambassadors
The WG makes the program worthwhile and sustainable by providing Ambassadors with connections, support and content, but the idea is also to bring visibility and recognition to their work, and help them develop their career and network. The goal is to have a mutually beneficial engagement that helps everyone grow.
Ambassadors are also members of the Alliance, and as such benefit from privileged information and exclusive content, but also access to the working groups.
Recruiting ambassadors
The role of the WG is to continuously improve the program and find how to make it increasingly efficient at getting CHERI known and adopted worldwide. One aspect of this is to ensure a growth of the pool of ambassadors, with a local presence in as many countries as possible.
Growing the team is also a way to make the experience richer for Ambassadors, as they benefit from the value of a global network of like-minded volunteers. The Alliance supports this by giving them tools to connect and communicate.
The WG manages the recruitment of ambassadors, with a simple and straightforward process to select the most motivated and skilled individuals.
Get involved!
The CHERI Alliance always welcomes new members and give them the opportunity to drive the evolution of the ecosystem through working groups like this one.
If you want to personally get involved and make a difference, apply now! You will find details here: CHERI Alliance Ambassador program. Whether you love writing tutorials, giving talks, hacking on demos, or convening a local meetup, the Promotion & Ambassador Program WG gives you the runway, resources, and recognition to make a measurable dent in how the world understands—and adopts—CHERI.