NYCPHP Meetup

[Peter Sawczynec]

I would posit that there has been a tipping point in all programming and
related fields including webmastering. 

That the days of stringing together some solid text pages that all ran
off a little recycled personal server that laid unsecured on the floor
under your desk are over and the content you served has basically
anecdotal info about stuff.

Today the internet has become a commerce channel, a medical tool, a
financial conduit, a personal diary/finance/calendar life organizer, an
entertainment machine, the defacto news bringer, the banking network, an
education tool.

So whether working on nuclear tools, ecommerce tools or personal
calendar tools -- there is nothing left on the internet any more that
isn't a database driven, entertainment/financial/medical/planning
conduit of tremendous personal import to millions of people. 

The pervasive need for accuracy, precision, truth, ethics and privacy is
through the roof. 

I would still agree with Dr. LeJeune, other industries (even chefing)
have schools and egregiously difficult accreditations that through trial
by fire the vast majority of participants have agreed to and come to the
vital conclusion that we need standards.

If I could wave a wand there would be association accreditations for
programming that were industry and academically recognized.

If I were running a financial institution with interactive financial
tools that reach in to millions of peoples bank accounts, I would be
damn straight strict about the quality, aptitude and proven ethics and
skills of my workers. I think that needs to be a fact today or get out
of this business because I and a lot of consumers depend quite blindly
every day that there really is some type of morality and honest purpose,
proper coordination and genuine financial skill behind all the tools we
use on the internet every day.

We need standards. One day there will yet be some massive financial
blowup where someone is going to learn that some interest calculating
script in an international money market fund was off by 1/100ths of a
penny on 33% of transactions and accidentally over 16 years time over
$400,000,000 in interest earnings were never applied to account holders.
And one of them will be a senator who lost $1,400,000 and then what? 

What incident are you waiting for?

Peter
   

-----Original Message-----
From: talk-bounces at lists.nyphp.org [mailto:talk-bounces at lists.nyphp.org]
On Behalf Of Webmaster
Sent: Wednesday, April 16, 2008 9:44 AM
To: NYPHP Talk
Subject: Re: [nycphp-talk] Re: OT: webmaster test

I'm not certain of 'Houghton Mifflin' (and whatever traces of etymology 
they use in that particular edition), but the word itself actually comes

from the monastics/priests, in which one would 'profess' their belief. 
It was later adapted to professional, or 'one who professed an 
understanding of a skill'. It has never been attached to formal 
education or academic achievement; that would be 'academic', 
'baccalaureate </index.php?term=baccalaureate>', 'esquire' or 'master'. 
(And I hope you're not seeking your etymological proofs from wikipedia)

Clearly the word has been equivocated in this discussion, and I strongly

suggest that a Webmaster is a 'professional', in his capacity (not 
requiring a third party approval), for he is not 'professing' to have 
skills of basket-weaving or ministry, but to have skills of a specific 
nature and practice pertaining solely to 'webmastering'. These skills 
could be verified by a third party, but that verification is not the 
foundation upon which a profession is established. Professions are 
established by a particular set of skills being required to perform a 
particular task, or set of tasks. Hence a professional 'handy-man', 
'professional student', 'professional football player', 'professional 
actor'. The entire concept to be carried in the word is to cognitively 
separate those who have mastered particular skills from those who are 
acquiring particular skills (aka Professional VS Amateur).

Then again, the word itself began in a society and time of greater moral

concentration, so perhaps you assume that anyone who refers to 
themselves as a professional today, is either lying (if they haven't a 
third party 'approval' or tertiary educational document) or is 
equivocating upon the word, and actually means 'academic', 
'baccalaureate </index.php?term=baccalaureate>', 'esquire' or 'master' 
of 'webmastering'.

Never-the-less, referencing oneself as a 'professional' is not based 
upon academic merit, but upon personal, occupational self-reflection. 
Whether-or-not that reflection is an accurate one leads to a different 
discussion.

As an old friend once told me: "If you call yourself professional, don't

turn out to be a Shmegegge"

-My two (well ok three) cents


Urb LeJeune wrote:
>
>>>  By definition, programming and website design is not a
>>> profession.
>>
>> Really? What specifically is that definition?
>
> profession: "An occupation, such as law, medicine, or engineering, 
> that requires considerable training
> and specialized study"
>
> Houghton Mifflin Dictionary.
>
> Even an engineer must have a professional engineering (PE) designation

> to perform certain types of design.
> I don't have a problem with a self taught programmers, I've known some

> great ones, however, a field having
> a large number of practitioners without formal training is a trade not

> a profession. A profession is also
> self-regulated.
>
> It's another thread but, should there be certification available for 
> programmers and web designers? If we
> ever want to be considered a profession, that's the first step. I was 
> in the stock brokerage business when
> the designation Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) first came into 
> being. It was extraordinarily difficult
> and it took almost two years after the announcement before the first 
> designation were awarded. It required
> two 8 hour day testing sessions. It made a huge difference in the 
> industry and these days you will not get
> a senior level job in a research department without a CFA. Same thing 
> happened with Chartered Financial
> Planner (CFP).
>
> I'm unsure of the procedure, but how/when does one change the subject 
> when we have drifted into a new
> area?
>
>
> Urb
>
> Dr. Urban A. LeJeune, President
> E-Government.com
> 609-294-0320  800-204-9545
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> E-Government.com lowers you costs while increasing your expectations.
>
>
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