Greeting WOW Members and Web Professionals Everywhere!
Bill Cullifer here with the World Organization of Webmasters WOW and the WOW Technology Minute. I hope that the New Year is off to a great start and treating you well.
As I mentioned in my last videocast, we intend to notch up our interaction and relationships with WOW members and practicing Web professionals everywhere for 2008.
Our goal is to conduct more in depth interviews, scan the globe to provide you with the most relevant news and resources that will impact and have an effect on the Web profession.
To that end, I?’ll be following WOW’s recently published Webinar series as listing on the webprotraining.org website. For 2008 I intend to identify and interview thought leaders in each of the areas of interest to Web Professionals.
As you may recall, WOW’s Webinar for January is “Best Practices in Web Design”. As a result, I?’ll be reaching out to practicing Web design professionals to get there perspective and insights regarding what designing with best practices in mind is`all about.
Before I do however, I?’d like to circle back to a topic that dates back to our inception ten years ago. And that is the topic of defining the specific roles within the Web profession. As a group and a community, we?’ve made significant improvement in the area of defining our titles and the task that we perform within those titles. That said, revisiting the responsibilities within each of the Web professional titles is worthwhile for two reasons. First, because many of those that hire Web professionals do not completely understand the complexity site design, development and management. Secondly and perhaps arguably, is the fact that we?’re still in the infancy of our profession.
Here’s a case in point: Last week, I received an email from David Michael Rengh, a WOW Advisory Board Member and college professor from Fresno
In her article, Gabrielle points out that that “a common misconception among many people is that Web development and Web design are synonymous. She continues to write about the distinction outlining that Web Designers by in large are more artistic, Web developers are typically more programming oriented and generalist Webmasters have a broad range of skills akin with the general contractors of the world and in many cases are jacks of all trades.
If you?’ve been practicing in this field for awhile, then you already know that this is the case but I think it?’s worth continually discussing so at a minimum we can set and manage customer expectations and those that employ us. By doing so, we will improve our relationships, the professionalism of our industry and hopefully will get the compensation that we seek and deserve.
By the way, Gabrielle if you?’re watching or listening, I?’d just like to add that although the Webmaster within the enterprise may be more of the project manager, studies reflect that all of us worker bees should posses an understanding of project management. Also, we?’re glad to see that you included awareness of Web Accessibility within all of the titles. Lastly, and thanks to the input from David, we?’d like to see you add CSS to the mix of skills from the Developer.
For more information on the article follow the links below and look for more in depth coverage and interviews on exactly what Web designers, developers and Webmasters and a host of other Web professionals do during the course of the day. Stay tuned for more.
This year, I intend to get out of my chair more with face to face and telephone interviews visits with Web professionals working in the field. If your of the outgoing nature and have something to share on the subject, I invite you to participate.
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