Professionalism elsewhere on the 'Net.
Part of Society.
Includes:
29 July 2009
Chris Heilmann unveils an online book that explains how to be a developer evangelist. Tons of good advice here. Read it if you're eager to talk about the stuff you're doing and want to convince other developers to use it.
Blogging, Business, Conferences, Education, Professionalism, Public speaking, Skillset | Permalink
18 March 2009
Nate's presentation on what our profession is and how we should go about it.
Professionalism | Permalink
2 February 2009
WebDirections now also runs a web developer survey, one that focuses more on the technical side. Excellent idea; the more we measure the more we know.
Professionalism, Surveys | Permalink
6 November 2007
Derek Powazek gives advice to budding web developers. Just make websites! Don't worry about degrees; even work experience matters little.
Skillset | Permalink
Rachel Andrew asks what people expect from an advanced CSS course (or book). I'd like to know the same.
CSS, Skillset | Permalink
23 October 2007
Back in June 2006, Nate Koechley invited me to come to Yahoo! one day, and last Friday I was finally able to take him up on that offer during my first ever visit to San Francisco. He also invited me to give a presentation.
For various reasons I was unable to create a unique presentation for Yahoo!, and therefore I translated my Dutch slides about Fronteers, the Guild of Front End Developers we're setting up in Holland, and repeated the presentation I've given three or four times back home, though without the really tricky subjects such as finance.
Fortunately the Yahoo! people were very much interested in this subject (in fact, Nate's working on professionalisation, too).
Of course Yahoo! recorded the event, and the record has now gone live. Since I absolutely hate seeing and hearing myself on any kind of screen, I haven't watched the video myself yet. Eventually I will, but only in the privacy of my own house. (Right now I'm at the VTM conference.)
Nonetheless, I assume that some of my readers are interested in what I had to say. Please excuse the accent and the slightly ... well ... quirky presentation style. I still have a depressing amount to learn.
Professionalism | Permalink
1 August 2007
Spurred on by my Guild post the WSG seems to have taken a stab at defining a front-end programmer. The mail thread contains a few interesting thoughts.
Skillset | Permalink
17 July 2007
Interesting article about corporate web standards; i.e. corporate web sites that are standards-aware in principle, but not-quite-perfect in practice.
Basically, the message is that in a corporate environment you can't yet produce perfectly standards-compliant websites, but that a not-quite-perfect site is light years better than old-fashioned tag soup. I fully agree; for the moment this is the best way to make corporations and web standards live together in harmony.
Working in a large company, there are likely to be a lot of little things that keep you from producing—and more importantly, maintaining—a picture-perfect standards-compliant website. It’s not just one big issue, but multiple factors that contribute to a greater whole, and it can be a bit intimidating when taken altogether.
The answer is to take baby steps. Stop and have a look at all the problems that prevent you from doing the work you want to do, then start figuring out which ones need to be fixed first.
Spot on.
Business, Professionalism, Standards/W3C | Permalink
24 May 2007
Chris continues to discuss professionalism; not the coding side, but the "soft" side.
Skillset | Permalink
6 May 2007
Silly answers to serious CSS/JavaScript questions:
Me: How do I add a style sheet to my HTML document?
Him: Simple. You click on 'Insert' on the menu bar, and click on "Style sheet".
It would be very funny if it weren't so sad.
Fun, Skillset | Permalink
2 May 2007
Chris on professionalism among web developers; not about the standards this time, but about how you should approach working in a company.
Skillset | Permalink
27 April 2007
Zeldman rocks!
Question: If web design makes the new information age possible—if it creates new markets and new products, generates significant global cash flow, changes the way companies and non-profits interact with the public, and employs untold legions of specialists—why, until now, hasn’t anybody tried to find out more about it as an industry?
Hypothesis: No one has tried to measure web design because web design has been a hidden profession.
He follows up with a few examples. Zeldman is definitely on to something, and I hope he'll continue his investigations. I might even do the same thing on a smaller scale here in Holland, if certain plans I have work out.
Business, Professionalism | Permalink
11 April 2007
Roger gets annoyed at people who offer silly excuses for not following web standards, and offers a veru useful overview of the excuses themselves. Now we have to write rebuttals of every excuse.
Skillset | Permalink
20 March 2007
Always an interesting question. Right now the answer seems to be 'web developers', but Patrick rightly points to the role of clients, authoring tool developers, as well as the disabled people themselves.
Accessibility, Professionalism | Permalink
8 March 2007
Scott Andrew's ways of detecting newbies at work in JavaScript.
I've learnt one other trick for distinguishing newbies and pros: ask them the difference between this and self. Usually people who just claim to be excellent scripters don't know the answer, while real pros do.
JavaScript, Skillset | Permalink
8 February 2007
One of the better descriptions of "web developer" I've read.
[...] e-commerce developers wrote web applications in Java. HTML was just beneath them, and it was a task well suited for the most junior member of the team.
This is one of the largest problems in building web sites with a strong server side component.
Web development isn't one skill, its an aggregation of many skills and knowledge - almost anything used in the context of the web counts as a web development skill.
True. I generally use a narrowed-down definition (HTML, CSS, JavaScript), but Isofarro names several related techniques that you're going to need one day—and are going to need a specialist for. This specialist is also a web developer, though with a different skillset.
Skillset | Permalink
7 October 2006
Mark Boulton discusses the problems inherent in teaching good web design, and possible actions for a professional body of web designers to take.
I think this industry needs a professional body who has a narrow remit. I don’t think certification, especially web standards, is workable. I’d like to see best design, development and business practice addressed. Although maybe all three of those would be too much to bite off. I’d like to see it as membership by peer review and I wouldn’t mind paying for it annually.
I'm not entirely sure if I'm behind this idea, mainly for practical reasons. If it doesn't allow us to reach out to the 90% of web developers who don't get it, does such a body have a point?
Nonetheless, this certainly should be discussed.
Professionalism | Permalink
What can a professional body do for a web designer? Richard quotes examples from similar bodies in the design and chemistry world.
Professionalism | Permalink
5 August 2006
Something that's worth a formal QuirksBlog entry, but I still haven't found the time to write it.
Professionalism | Permalink
25 July 2006
A first stab at defining professional web designers/developers. To be continued (I hope).
Skillset | Permalink
26 November 2005
Cameron Adams points out we don't have have an official profession, but that this lack of formal rules, and the chance to write the formal rules for later generations, is one of the great challenges of working in the Web.
Professionalism | Permalink
24 November 2005
Isolani adds a few interesting points to the New Professionalism discussion.
Professionalism | Permalink
14 November 2005
Andy has an excellent approach to accessibility issues, and he shows it here.
'Those people still delivering nested table layout, spacer gifs or ignoring accessibility can no longer call themselves web professionals.'
Hear, hear!
Accessibility, Professionalism | Permalink
10 October 2005
Ian Lloyd is shocked by the total absence of quality in 90% of the "Web development" books. Having browsed through many JavaScript books in my local bookstore, I can sympathize. Publishers just don't get it, and newbie web developers get wagonloads of bad advice.
Professionalism | Permalink
This is the linklog of Peter-Paul Koch, mobile platform strategist, consultant, and trainer. You can also visit his QuirksBlog, or you can follow him on Twitter.
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