The Monthly Newsletter for Web Professionals

Volume 8 Issue 01 - January 2006

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Letter from the Executive Editor

By Bill Cullifer

Greetings Web professionals from WOW HQ!

I’d like to take this opportunity to wish you a Happy New Year and share with you some of the recent milestones and plans for 2006.

Thank you for being a part of this association and thank you for your continued support!

Contents:

WOW’s Articulation Initiative:

On November 1st and 2nd, 2005, WOW brought together a diverse group of industry and educational professionals for an in-depth Articulation Committee meeting in Las Vegas. In attendance were numerous representatives from progressive universities, community colleges, traditional and technical high schools from around the U.S. Additional participants included representatives from Adobe, IBM, Microsoft, SkillsUSA, California Coast Credit Union and Web Yoda.

The purpose of the meeting was to review, discuss and update currently defined titles in the Web profession and develop model guidelines for curricula for use within the K12, community college, university and training company environments.

Mark DuBois, Articulation Committee Chair and Tim Paul, Articulation Committee co-Chair led the group through in-depth discussions to update the topics for the three currently recognized Web professional titles of Web Designer, Web Developer and Webmaster. Competencies within the individual titles were identified and clarified, to be used in the development of uniform curricula by the educational community.

The educators involved in this meeting also had the opportunity to share current curriculum and brainstorm future growth for their own programs. You can read more about this initiative and its participants at http://www.webprofessionals.org/articulation/.

New Articulation Committee Members Announced:

WOW is pleased to announce the following new members that have joined the Articulation Committee.:

• Assoc Prof Allan Ellis, Southern Cross University, Australia.
• Professor Bebo White, Departmental Associate (retired) at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC),
• John Eichenlaub, Data Analyst - Personal Lines Westfield Group

WOW is thrilled to have this level of support and all have been invited to join us in at our annual Advisory Board event meeting in Las Vegas, NV in November 2006.

Collaboration and Articulation Agreement with the Sate of Pennsylvania Secondary Schools Announced:

WOW Academy headed up by David Lowe, Web entrepreneur and former Florida State University Professor is pleased to announce that the state of Pennsylvania secondary school system has awarded the WOW Academy a contract for Webmaster education, training and certification for thousands of high schools students and instructors statewide. This effort culminates years of hard work, study of the needs for Web professionals and collaboration with WOW. The WOW Academy will provide online training and will act as WOW’s representative in delivering “turn-key” curriculum to educational institutions worldwide. For more information visit: (http://www.wowacademy.com)

WOW Web Professional Workshop Tour Announced:

WOW’s 2006 events set the stage for WOW’s ongoing commitment to the promotion of degreed level educational programs and certifications worldwide.

The following workshop topics are scheduled to be covered in a variety of venues and cities throughout the U.S for 2006:

For complete details visit: http://www.joinwow.org/community/events/

Summit for Education Web Professionals:

Annual West Coast WOW Education Web Professional Summit and WOW Certification In conjunction with TechEd, Technology in Education International Conference & Exposition April 4-6 2006, Pasadena, CA.

For complete details visit http://www.joinwow.org/community/events/websummit3/

International Events:

For the third year in a row, WOW has been invited to participate in the World Wide Web Conference event. Organized by the International World Wide Web Conference Committee (IW3C2), since 1994, the annual WWW Conference has played the fundamental role of gathering the trail-blazers from the international community to discuss, debate and explore how to shape and develop the future direction of the World Wide Web. The WWW2006 World Conference will take place in Edinburgh, Scotland. WOW’s education and training will provide an option for WOW certification as a part of Web Developers day. For more information visit: http://www2006.org/

WOW Honolulu Chapter Announced:

WOW is pleased to announce the establishment of WOW’s Honolulu Chapter heading up by Jon Blumhardt, Director Educational Media Center University of Hawaii Honolulu Community College. For more information visit: (http://www.joinwow.org/honoluluchapter/ )

National Web Design Contest:

WOW’s Annual National Web Design Competition with SkillsUSA is in full swing and will be celebrating its third year. If you haven’t taken the time to learn more about this event please do so at www.joinwow.org/skillsusa . SkillsUSA is the largest student association in the country with 225,000 members nationwide.

Initiatives:

In the first quarter of 2006, WOW will be introducing a “Webmaster Survival Guide”. The purpose of the online guide is to provide a “onestop shop” for all of the tools and survival gear for Web professionals. Please note: The site hasn’t been released to the general public yet although we invite you to take a look http://www.webmastersurvivalguide.com

WOW Iron Chef

Third Annual WOW Iron Chef Of Web Design Competition For Education Web Professionals at Teched Pasadena 2006. Top Education Web Designers, Webmasters and Education Web Professionals compete to do a one-day makeover of an existing working Web site for a higher Education institution on the show floor. For more information visit: http://www.webprofessionals.org/community/ironChef/

Collaboration with the Department of Labor (DOL) to Survey Web professionals

Request for Volunteers: Answer questions about your work and receive $40! RTI International, under contract with the National Center for O*NET Development, is asking for help with an important national project to gather information describing the work that people do. RTI would like to have Web Developers and Web Administrators from WOW volunteer to answer questions about the work that they do.

The Occupational Information Network (O*NET) lets millions of employers, workers, educators, job seekers, and students across the country see what it takes to do the work of web professionals. O*NET provides this information free to the public online at http://online.onetcenter.org.

If you are a member of WOW with 5 years experience in web development or web administration, and would like to participate, please send your name, mailing address, and a telephone number to Laurie Cluff at RTI. Please also indicate whether you are a Web Developer or a Web Administrator. Her email is lcluff@rti.org. If you have any questions, Laurie can be reached at (919)541-6514.

Volunteers will get $40 and a framed Certificate of Appreciation from the U.S. Department of Labor as tokens of appreciation. Responses will be strictly confidential. Your responses will be combined with other participants’ to describe the skills, knowledge, and activities of your occupation. More information about this data collection effort is available at www.onetcenter.org.

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