Greetings WOW Members and Web Professionals Everywhere.
Bill Cullifer here with the World Organization of Webmasters (WOW) and the WOW Technology Minute.
As many of you know, 2007 represented WOW?’s 10th year of operations as a web professional organization.
Looking back at our history, I am proud of our accomplishments and I am especially pleased with the level of support that we?’ve received from WOW members, practicing professionals and those that teach them.
Simply put, we?’ve matured as an industry, as a profession and as an association and I truly think the future looks bright for aspiring and practicing Web professionals.
As many of you also know, sustaining any kind of a business model for a decade or more is an accomplishment of itself. As you might suspect, this particularly applies to non-profit organizations and I am forever grateful for the calls, the e-mails, the shout outs of any kind and the membership support. I?’d like to thank the supporters of this organization for making this effort possible and most meaningful.
WOW?’s mission is to promote community, education and certification standards and here?’s a recap of what we?’ve been able to accomplish together for 2007:
•WOW conducted and participated in a series of community building events to promote the profession and to promote education (check out the WOW blog at http://www.webprominute.org for some of the highlights)
•We’ve strengthened our relationship with education by improving upon instructional design and delivery strategies within the high school, college, university and training company environments worldwide.
•We’ve continued our efforts to outline education and career pathway resources that define in depth the student learning outcomes so career counselors, parents, students and those that teach and hire Web pros can clearly understand what the Web profession is all about and what is expected of them.
•We’ve established an online training site (check out the http://webprotraining.org website) so aspiring and practicing professional alike can get access to short course and the in depth training that they need to stay competitive
•WOW celebrated our fourth year at conducting a national Web design contest in Kansas City,
• WOW continues to deliver certification exams for both aspiring and practicing professionals from around the globe
• In 2007 WOW announced an International Web design competition (check out http://www.webprochallenge.org ) in collaboration with the Adobe corporation that promotes best practices and standards of excellence that provides a vehicle for supporting non-profit efforts by creating a fully functional site for a worthy cause
All of that said, we recognize that we?’ve got a lot of work to do and I want you to know that your association is committed to a higher standard of excellence and membership benefits. If you have any thoughts on how we can improve upon that or if you would like to get involved please let us know.
In 2008 you can expect more community building events, rich content including a series of online Webinars covering a variety of topics including Best Practices in Web Design, Development and Administration. Happy Holidays everyone! I look forward to talking to you again soon.