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Professional Organizations for Web Developers?

Posted by Cliff on from the seeking-out-your-peers dept.

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?"

1 of 43 comments (clear)

  1. "Web Developing" is a dying art by Black+Perl · · Score: 2, Insightful

    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.

    Imagine a hypothetical job title of "postscript developer." Sounds ridiculous, right? We don't need anybody that develops postscript. It doesn't matter if they can create better postscript by hand than any tools can. Word processors and page-layout programs can get the job done, by people who would be paid much less than those that know the entire postscript specification.

    Well, that's the way things are going with HTML. HTML (and future XML-based variants) will be under-the-hood technology that people don't need to know, unless they're tools developers. And while I don't expect, say, a DreamWeaver-style tool for XSLT for quite some time, the trend is clear. The demand for web developers will continue to decrease.

    What can you do about it? Emphasize related skills that are more in demand. Change your title, if you can. Learn portals, CMS technology, weblogs, and how to install and integrate them. Learn new technologies that are in demand but haven't yet been reduced to a commodity by tools. Many XML-based standards are good examples: XSLT, Web Services, SOAP, etc.

    Good luck.

    --
    bp