Jeff Blankenburg, Technical Evangelist for Alexa Shares His Passion for Twitch Streaming (Episode 146)
Welcome Jeff Blankenburg
Jeff’s nickname is the Purveyor of Pop. He is a developer evangelist for Amazon Alexa and utilizes his Twitch channel to teach developers how to create things on Alexa.
What Role Does Jeff Play at the Alexa Team at Amazon?
Jeff’s primary job is to talk to developers, creators, and writers about the latest and greatest with Alexa, focusing on the technical side. Jeff also spends a lot of time talking about voice design and UI.
What Were Some Takeaways from Alexa Live?
One of the key takeaways was the concept of skill resumption. The biggest takeaway was “Alexa Conversations” and the concept behind it is to use machine learning and AI to drive how skills work.
Competition vs. Collaboration
Jeff stated that he has the same position that Amazon does; meaning this is not a battle but rather an opportunity for all. There can’t just be one perspective.
Let’s Talk About Twitch Streaming
Jeff is an avid twitch streamer. He has an engaged audience and enjoys developing his voice-enabled casino in real-time on the channel.
Thoughts on Creating Some Type of Blockchain Currency?
Jeff mentioned that he is trying to be very careful but one idea that has come to his mind is to possibly have paid subscribers. Jeff wants to stay away from anything that looks like a financial instrument.
How Does Jeff Envision Distributed Ledger Decentralization?
What is appealing to Jeff about Blockchain are the trust and verification factors.
How Can People Get Access to the Casino Application?
People can send Jeff a direct message with the email address that they used to set up their devices with and he can provide access for them. The games will also be live in the app store soon. Jeff mentioned that it will be multi-modal.
Where Can People Find Information on Promoting Amazon Services and Products?
Jeff mentioned that you can go to the Alexa developer portal, and it has a grid with the latest releases. Another resource is the Day One blog, which has a lot of the latest news and announcements.
Predictions for Voice 10 Years from Now
Jeff likes the idea of a personal AI companion that can, for example, tell him when he has a dentist appointment without Jeff having to make an appointment. Jeff also spoke of the ability to schedule get-togethers with friends. If you are planning an event, it should be able to set up Eventbrite for you. It should be able to do simple tasks automatically, so you don’t have to handle those tasks.
Connect with Jeff
Follow Jeff on Twitter
Follow Jeff on Twitch
Connect with Jeff on LinkedIn
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