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Professional Organizations for Web Developers? 43

Posted by Cliff 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?"
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Professional Organizations for Web Developers? More

Professional Organizations for Web Developers?

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  • perhaps... (Score:3, Informative)

    by m00by ( 605070 ) on Wednesday November 12, 2003 @08:24PM (#7459551) Journal
    a local chapter of ACM could help you out. www.acm.org :) an organization for geeks. =D
  • Perhaps you're mistaking them for paid web developers.

    A different matter entirely.

  • Meetup.com? (Score:3, Informative)

    by a.koepke ( 688359 ) on Wednesday November 12, 2003 @08:53PM (#7459817)
    Have you checked Meetup.com [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.

  • Have you considered... (Score:3, Funny)

    by isaac ( 2852 ) on Wednesday November 12, 2003 @09:04PM (#7459930)
    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

  • Huh? (Score:3, Funny)

    by Hard_Code ( 49548 ) on Wednesday November 12, 2003 @09:38PM (#7460238)
    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.


    • I thought owning a geocities web page and having an HTML Writers Guild badge made you an official web developer.

      Dang, I wish I had mod points right now. "Web Development" is at the same stage that "Desktop Publishing" was in the 80s: any wally with a computer and an "HTML Editor Program" can hang out a shingle. I knew I should have become a male prostitute instead of a Web consultant...

    • *sigh*

      I hate this mentality.. I know you were joking, but far too many people believe this.

      Web development is a distinct programming discipline.

      You don't expect a developer who's exceptionally good at 3D/game programming to be able to write optimized code for a database engine, do you?

      Same way that you can't expect an application programmer to be able to simply switch over to web programming.

      Web developers don't know about memory allocation, loop optimization and buffer overruns; Application developers
      • You don't expect a developer who's exceptionally good at 3D/game programming to be able to write optimized code for a database engine, do you?

        Of course I would. Being able to write move between fields within your discipline is the hallmark of anyone who's "exceptionally good" at anything (barring idiot savants). If a developer came to me and said "ooh, I can't work on project X - I only work on project Ys", then it really doesn't matter how good they are at working on project Ys. If they're a one-trick-p
        • It seems I was unclear, and I apologize.

          My point was that someone who is used to working in a specific sub-field (think OpenGL), isn't inherently able to jump fields without a learning curve... That's all.

          I agree that anyone who's "exceptionally good" in a sub-field has the ability to learn another sub-field.. but when the disciplines are different, there needs to be some [self-]education.

          S

  • To Clarify... (Score:2, Informative)

    by t1nman33 ( 248342 )
    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,
  • You don't mention where you are from, but there is usually a user group of something near by. Check Yahoo Groups for things like Perl User Groups, Macromedia User Groups, .NET user groups, and the such.

    I live and work in Tampa (for the next few months, anyway) and can usually find *something* to do if I am just looking for geek things to do.
  • Buddy, you've found it. Brush up on your trolling!

  • There isn't one (Score:3, Interesting)

    by annielaurie ( 257735 ) <annekmadison@h[ ]ail.com ['otm' in gap]> on Thursday November 13, 2003 @12:42AM (#7461369) Journal
    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

  • Try these... (UK, but accept World Wide) (Score:3, Interesting)

    by REBloomfield ( 550182 ) on Thursday November 13, 2003 @04:30AM (#7462250)
    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)
  • 1. Start Web Developers Professional Association.
    2. Collect members Fees.
    3. ???
    4. Profit!

    Haha kidding - have you checked google - I am sure there are a few organisations proporting to do this already - and take your money.


  • I think O'Reilly's Information Architecture book might have some pointers. However, since web "developers" mostly have no notion of architecture, I guess I'm wasting my time, here.
    • 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?
      • Am I just using the wrong terminology in describing what I do for a living?

        No, it's just a case that you are correct, and so is everyone else. "Web development" is such a broad domain that it rightly includes basically every other discipline, so much so that I generally consider "web developer" to be a joke of a job title. It's a lot like "software engineer" or "analyst" or "associate".

  • A couple leads (Score:3, Interesting)

    by mcmonkey ( 96054 ) on Thursday November 13, 2003 @01:10PM (#7465217) Homepage
    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
    • First I'd heard that the AIP [association.org] died. I used to be a member (actually, I was a member of the Internet Developers' Association (IDA), which rolled up into the AIP), but they seemed to lose focus after the AIP was born from the IDA, ISIP, and Webmasters' Guild. I wish I knew more about what happened.
  • The unemployment office?
  • I recommend the IEEE Computer Society [computer.org] as well as a subscription to comp.infosystems.www.authoring.* [google.com].

  • Another for the list (Score:3, Informative)

    by Holerith ( 29294 ) on Thursday November 13, 2003 @02:58PM (#7466407)
    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.

  • "Web Developing" is a dying art (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Black Perl ( 12686 ) on Thursday November 13, 2003 @03:03PM (#7466464)
    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.
    • 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

  • Ones I know of (Score:3, Informative)

    by hether ( 101201 ) on Friday November 14, 2003 @01:09PM (#7474834)
    The HWG (the HTML Writers Guild) merged with IWA (International Webmasters Association). More info at http://www.iwanet.org/ [iwanet.org] They have more than 100 chapters worldwide, offer classes online, certification, mailing lists, etc.

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

    Specifically for University and College web developers there's UwebD [usask.ca]
    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.

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