Professional Organizations for Web Developers?

t1nman33 asks: "I have a degree in a field far removed from my current job as a web developer. While I know that I could have joined the SPJ if I had gone into broadcasting, I never learned of any equivalent associations for the web development field. I'd love to be active in a national or even local group to network, talk shop, keep up with recent developments in technology, go to awards presentations, and just hang out IRL with fellow geeks. Can anyone point me in the right direction?"

Comments

perhaps...

[m00by]

a local chapter of ACM could help you out. www.acm.org :) an organization for geeks. =D

Meetup.com?

[a.koepke]

Have you checked Meetup.com. It may not be a professional organisation but at least you get to meet people.

Also web developers is quite a broad term. Many designers also call themselves web developers even though many of them have no clue about programming. They still develop websites so are still able to use the web developer title.

To Clarify...

[t1nman33]

Part of the problem IS that the term "web developer" is so broad. :)

My biz card says "Sr. Web Developer" on it. That means that my main job involves HTML/JavaScript/Flash work. But I also do Perl/PHP/shell scripting on FreeBSD, tweak Apache and IIS (unfortunately), I'm learning Java, I do graphic design, copywriting, the odd ASP/JSP/CFM work. And sysadmin stuff. And netadmin stuff. You see what I'm getting at?

I'm not some Geocities/FrontPage poseur; I learned to build pages with Notepad and Photoshop 3.0, and I've taught myself 95% of what I know from O'Reilly books and Webmonkey. And I've been gainfully employed in my field since 2000, with the exception of 4 days this past March, which is how long it took me to find a new job. /. is great, don't get me wrong, but there HAS to be something more organized out there for other people like me.

If I were just a "programmer" and worked for IBM or Lockheed-Martin and spent all day living in a cube farm and writing C++, I'd join IEEE and that would be that...I'll check out the ACM for starters.

Re:Information Architecture?

[t1nman33]

Again, this is exactly the problem I'm talking about...when I say "web developer" I don't mean somebody with a copy of HTML for Dummies and MS Paint. I mean, somebody who is a sysadmin, netadmin, graphic designer, information architect, programmer, tech guru, animator, copywriter, marketer, interface designer, etc. etc. etc. and is skilled at all these things. Am I just using the wrong terminology in describing what I do for a living?

Another for the list

[Holerith]

The International Webmaster's Association http://www.iwanet.org

The also offer training courses and a certification program if that is what you are looking for. They and the HTML Writer's Guild have recently merged into one organization.

Re:"Web Developing" is a dying art

[Randym]

Web Developers are a dying breed. It used to mean someone who handcrafted HTML or systems to produce HTML. But now, there are mainstream tools to create page designs, to create weblogs and portals and content management systems. Very few people who are web developers need to actually touch the HTML anymore.

I've WM'd a certain site for 7 years. (I started writing HTML before tables even existed). The site's been through several incarnations and tools: joe, pagemill [1.0 & 2.0 -- painful], now I use BBE6.1 and my own templates and REGX macros for replacements. It had a [very] short incarnation as a database-driven site. A couple of years ago I added CSS. At various times, it's used server-side includes, javascript and [currently] PHP to serve ads. I just went to MacOSX; now I'll be able to write perl and use BBE on the same system.

Yet I still "touch the HTML" on a regular basis. Things are always changing and I'm always learning. Maybe in the future I'll have some reason to add some XML in there, or I might want to drop a little Flash movie in there somewhere [no, not on the front page 8^], or perhaps I can be part of TimBL's semantic web.

I guess I don't care if "professional" web developers are dying off -- they're latecomers (from my perspective) anyway.

Ones I know of

[hether]

The HWG (the HTML Writers Guild) merged with IWA (International Webmasters Association). More info at http://www.iwanet.org/ They have more than 100 chapters worldwide, offer classes online, certification, mailing lists, etc.

There's also WOW (World Organization of Webmasters)
They offer conferences, certification, etc.

Specifically for University and College web developers there's UwebD
They have a great mailing list

Pain no attention to the more than half of the non-constructive posts slamming your current profession. Unfortunately any mention of working with websites on /. seems to get you slews of comments about how you aren't a real tech and your job will be obsolete soon. At least you have a job, and probably a pretty interesting one.