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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?"
a local chapter of ACM could help you out. www.acm.org :) an organization for geeks. =D
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.
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How about the unemployment line? There's lots of "web developers" there. You can do all the networking and shop talk you want. And as for award presentation... everybody wins! The prize is a check, though the presenters don't stand on ceremony, and a lengthy acceptance speech will probably earn you a shove in the back from the next "award winning web developer."
-Isaac
I am not a lawyer, and this is not legal advice. For Entertainment Purposes Only.
I thought owning a geocities web page and having an HTML Writers Guild badge made you an official web developer. If that has changed, let me know, because I want in on this lucrative career of the future.
It's 10 PM. Do you know if you're un-American?
Part of the problem IS that the term "web developer" is so broad. :)
/. is great, don't get me wrong, but there HAS to be something more organized out there for other people like me.
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.
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.
--- Where's my car, and why are these grass stains on my pants?
Possibly because there aren't any standards out there for the job. Every rockstar or TV show fan with a "site," every business owner's sociopathic 16-year-old nephew, every church minister's wife is a Web designer or developer. The numbers grow with great regularity in June when school lets out and shrink again in September when the kids return to class. Been eking out my daily bread and margarine doing this as my own boss since 2000, and that's been my experience. Even our local art school, which is nationally prestigious, has a lousy Website and an impossibly pompous and chichi list of impractical course offerings.
I like WITI (Women in Technology International) for the collegiality, but there is a gender requirement. I steal my son's ACM goodies since he has a student membership. I read Slashdot over my morning coffee and again over my evening toddy. I make sure I visit A List Apart once a week. (Read the articles there but don't bother with the forums.) I have a long list of sites I visit frequently just to see what people are doing with PHP, PERL, and other things I find the need to keep up with. I have another list I visit less frequently to see what's up in terms of design.
I nurture a few very active correspondences with designers, developers, programmers, and network people I've met over the years. It's kind of like a secret society. You encounter people online. You quietly check out their chops, they quietly check out yours, and you cultivate the correspondence. Sometimes the e-mails actually develop into warm friendships. Sometimes you find people you can team with.
But professional associations just aren't out there.
Regards,
Anne
DUCT TAPE: The Election Supervisors' Secret Weapon
British Computer Society www.bcs.org.uk Institution of Analysts & Programmers www.iap.org.uk Am a member of both (I'm a Network Admin, but I've done web development work)
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?
--- Where's my car, and why are these grass stains on my pants?
Evolt.org
The HTML Writers Guild: www.hwg.org
The Association of Internet Professionals went tits up, but many of the local associations are still active.
The Society of Internet Professionals: www.sipgroup.org
I recommend the IEEE Computer Society as well as a subscription to comp.infosystems.www.authoring.*.
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.
-- Holerith
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
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.
/. 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.
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
Most people would die sooner than think; in fact, they do.