Web Professional Minute

Greetings WOW Members and Web Professionals everywhere!

Bill Cullifer here with the World Organization of Webmasters (WOW) and the WOW Technology Minute. It?’s hard to believe that it?’s already the end of January 2008.

I?’d like to give a shout out to the participants in this month?’s podcast of Designing with Best Practices in mind.  If you?’ve been following along this month then you know that those that participated in the interviews had some really great and unique things to say and share. A common thread emerged among the interviews I think. It?’s clear that practicing professionals believe and subscribe to designing with best practices in mind.

Those best practices include:

* Understanding client needs and great communication
* Storyboarding, wire framing and designing with Web standards and Web accessibility in mind is in fact best practices.

For those of you that design with best practices in mind, I’d encourage you to stand up and take a bow. In fact, consider showing January?’s videos, to your clients and or your manager.  Truth is, they most likely do not fully understand how complex designing with best practices in mind can be and we need to educate them.

As I look back at my notes, one area that I want to add to the designing with best practices mix is Web security.  I recognize that most professionals include security in their best practices but over the years, I?’ve learned that?’s its not good practice to take this for granted.  Also, for those that are new to the field, I feel its WOW?’s responsibility to stress the importance of Web Security.

Top Cyber Security Professionals including the CIA met in New Orleans last week and according to published reports, Cyber-extortion is a growing threat and attackers have radically increased their take.  Vulnerabilities are all too common among commercial and open source web applications, and are exploited all too frequently. 

As Web professionals we owe it to ourselves and our customers to design websites with security in mind. To that end, we need to pay close attention to vulnerabilities associated with Rich Internet and Web Applications. Also, cyber attackers are finding more creative ways to obtain propriety data from organizations large and small as well as our customers. It?’s mission critical that we design with web security in mind and we also need to take the time to insure that our customers and stakeholders are aware of security best practices as well.

As you may be aware, were conducting a Webinar on this topic and I highly recommend that you consider signing up for this one. Thanks for listening and watching the WOW Technology Minute.  See you next month.

Greetings WOW Members and Web Professionals everywhere!  Bill Cullifer here with the World Organization of Webmasters (WOW) and the WOW Technology Minute.

Today’s podcast is on Best Practices in Web Design and I am on the phone with Professor Terry Morris, Associate Professor at William Harper Rainey College in Illinois and a WOW Academy Center Director offering an Associates Degree in Web Development.  

Good afternoon Professor Morris and thank you for agreeing to this interview.

Q. Professor Morris what does designing with best practices mean to you.?

 Q. You assembled some resources on the topic and would you be ok with sharing those with others around the world?  Where would we find that information?

 For details of this interview visit: www.webprominute.org

Greetings WOW Members and Web Professionals everywhere!

Bill Cullifer here with the World Organization of Webmasters (WOW) and the WOW Technology Minute.

Today’s podcast is on Best Practices in Web Design and I am on the phone with Liana Evans, Director of Internet Marketing at KeyRelevance.com and a blogger at SerachMarektingGurus.com  

Liana good afternoon and thank you for agreeing to this interview.

You?’re presenting next week at the Search Engine Strategies Training on the topic of social media. Liana, when designing for the Web with best practices in mind relating to social media can you highlight a few of the principles that Web professionals should consider?

Greetings WOW Members and Web Professionals everywhere!  Bill Cullifer here with the World Organization of Webmasters (WOW) and the WOW Technology Minute.

Today’s podcast is on Best Practices in Web Design and I am on the phone with Rhonda Kueffler, Webmaster Montana State University Great Falls.

Good afternoon Rhonda and thank you for agreeing to this interview. Rhonda what does designing with best practices in mind mean to you?

Check out the entire interview at: www.webprominute.org

Greetings WOW Members and Web Professionals everywhere! Bill Cullifer here with the World Organization of Webmasters (WOW) and the WOW Technology Minute.

Today’s podcast is on Best Practices in Web Design and I am on the phone with Dr. Karl Stolley Assistant Professor of Technical Communication Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago. Dr. Stolley good afternoon and thank you for agreeing to this interview.

Question # 1: Dr. Stolley what does designing with best practices mean to you?.

Question # 2: You assembled some reources on sustaiblabe web design. Where would we find that information?

 For the entire interview visit: www.webprominute.org

Bill Cullifer here with the World Organization of Webmasters (WOW) and the WOW Technology Minute.

Today?’s podcast is on Best Practices in Web Design and I am on the phone with Charles Wyke-Smith, Author of Stylin with CSS a Designers Guide, Codin?’ for the Web and  Director of User Experience at Benefitfocus a HealthCare Software company.

Charles has a unique perspective on the topic and a number of FREE resources that aspiring and practicing Web designers and developers can use and benefit from. Check them out at: www.stylinwithcss.com

For the entire interview check it out at www.webprominute.org

Today?’s topic is Designing with Best Practices in mind and I am on the phone with Toni Moss, Web Designer and business person from Tulsa, OK.  Good morning and thank you for agreeing to this interview.  Toni, what does Designing with Best Practices of Web design in mind mean to you? 

Greetings WOW Members and Web Professionals everywhere.
Bill Cullifer here with the World Organization of Webmasters (WOW) and the WOW Technology Minute.

While lining up my interviews on the topic of Best Practices of Web Design, it occurred to me that including the business oriented aspects of Web Design should definitely be included in the mix. 

Whether you?’re an independent Web professional or serve on a Web team,  you know first hand how important this topic is.  Whether you?’re working with clients or with a variety of wide ranging personalities than you know first hand how complex and trying designing with best practices in mind and at the same time managing the daily task, the to-do?’s, endless request from external as well as internal customers can be.

 For today?’s videocast, I?’d like to share with you a YouTube video of a couple of executives stuck on an escalator. It?’s a short video clip and I think it?’s a must watch for the New Year! Undoubtedly this will resonate and if you have any coworkers or customers that fit the bill, I promise you?’ll ROFL and maybe even scream.

Simply stated, let?’s make it a point to “think outside the box” for 2008. As the video illustrates, this is an excellent example of what happens when we become immobilized.

Happy Friday everyone! 

Greeting WOW Members and Web Professionals Everywhere!  

Bill Cullifer here with the World Organization of Webmasters WOW and the WOW Technology Minute.    

As I mentioned in early in the week, I intend to spend 2008 better understanding the needs of WOW members and Web professionals everywhere.  With that goal in mind, WOW intends to continually improve upon the resources that we provide to the Web professional community at large.  

It?’s what associations generally do best and its consistent with the WOW mission and I hope that it helps. If you?’ve been following along this week, then you know the theme for the month of January for the WOW Technology Minute and our Webinar series is Best Practices in Web Design.   

Because designing with best practices might mean different things to different people. I am on a mission to conduct a number of interviews with everyday practicing Web professional Web designers, Boutique firms, Web standards evangelist, authors and educators teaching Web design at various levels and I hope that you can join in.  

Please note that it?’s not my intention to editorialize at this point but rather to ask the simple question of what Designing with best practices in mind means to a wide variety of practicing professionals in the field.   

If we’re to guide and educate we need to better understand what?’s being practiced in the field and who?’s doing what and I hope that you find this journey as interested as I do.  Earlier today, I asked the question to a local Web Designer here in Folsom, CA. (Alex Von Allmen) and here is what he had to say.  (see video www.webprominute.org )

Greeting WOW Members and Web Professionals Everywhere!  

Bill Cullifer here with the World Organization of Webmasters WOW and the WOW Technology Minute.  I hope that the New Year is off to a great start and treating you well.  

As I mentioned in my last videocast, we intend to notch up our interaction and relationships with WOW members and practicing Web professionals everywhere for 2008.  

Our goal is to conduct more in depth interviews, scan the globe to provide you with the most relevant news and resources that will impact and have an effect on the Web profession. 

To that end, I?’ll be following WOW’s recently published Webinar series as listing on the webprotraining.org  website.  For 2008 I intend to identify and interview thought leaders in each of the areas of interest to Web Professionals. 

As you may recall, WOW’s Webinar for January is “Best Practices in Web Design”.  As a result, I?’ll be reaching out to practicing Web design professionals to get there perspective and insights regarding what designing with best practices in mind is`all about.   

Before I do however, I?’d like to circle back to a topic that dates back to our inception ten years ago. And that is the topic of defining the specific roles within the Web profession. As a group and a community, we?’ve made significant improvement in the area of defining our titles and the task that we perform within those titles. That said, revisiting the responsibilities within each of the Web professional titles is worthwhile for two reasons. First, because many of those that hire Web professionals do not completely understand the complexity site design, development and management.  Secondly and perhaps arguably, is the fact that we?’re still in the infancy of our profession.  

Here’s a case in point:  Last week, I received an email from David Michael Rengh, a WOW Advisory Board Member and college professor from Fresno CA.  David asked me to look an article authored by Gabrielle Gayheart at HTML Goodies.com entitled “Web Related Careers”.  (see http://www.htmlgoodies.com/beyond/webmaster/article.php/3719276)

 In her article, Gabrielle points out that that “a common misconception among many people is that Web development and Web design are synonymous.  She continues to write about the distinction outlining that Web Designers by in large are more artistic, Web developers are typically more programming oriented and generalist Webmasters have a broad range of skills akin with the general contractors of the world and in many cases are jacks of all trades.   

If you?’ve been practicing in this field for awhile, then you already know that this is the case but I think it?’s worth continually discussing so at a minimum we can set and manage customer expectations and those that employ us.  By doing so, we will improve our relationships, the professionalism of our industry and hopefully will get the compensation that we seek and deserve.  

By the way, Gabrielle if you?’re watching or listening, I?’d just like to add that although the Webmaster within the enterprise may be more of the project manager, studies reflect that all of us worker bees should posses an understanding of project management. Also, we?’re glad to see that you included awareness of Web Accessibility within all of the titles. Lastly, and thanks to the input from David, we?’d like to see you add CSS to the mix of skills from the Developer.  

For more information on the article follow the links below and look for more in depth  coverage and interviews on exactly what Web designers, developers and Webmasters and a host of other Web professionals do during the course of the day. Stay tuned for more. 

This year, I intend to get out of my chair more with face to face and telephone interviews visits with Web professionals working in the field.  If your of the outgoing nature and have something to share on the subject, I invite you to participate.