Over the last few years I have really come to question the point of various web industry professional associations.
Yes, it’s all about member benefits, relevancy, and value for money. What I also look for is the chances to network, face to face or online, ways to enhance my professional development (offline and online). Also the validation that you are following industry best practice as well.
Still the most important requirement is a sense of community and belonging.
Where does the the web industry fit in the world. You would think that after 15 plus years that we would have worked that out by now and found our place. But alas this isn’t the case. I still ponder what category should we sit under in a corporate or business structure, let alone what role we should all be.
Something that really frustrates me, is when you go to fill in a survey and they list off the industry types. I’m always very confused where do I put myself, my business. Which one of the categories do I choose.
I have volunteered and helped out a good number of professional, sporting and community groups over the years; up till now I have never really questioned why I do it. I guess it’s just the drive to make a difference. Now with my 2 year stint as the Treasurer of the Australian Web Industry Association coming to a close maybe it’s time to reflect on why I nominate myself for such things and what the benefits of volunteering for your community are:
With all the discussion, earlier in the month, on the way the W3C working groups are made up and operate, the influence of the browser and software producers on the web industry. We really have to consider do we have this around the right way. There has been calls for removal of the software producers from the working groups. Now I’m not going to debate that topic here, I think we have all done this to death at the moment.
Gary Barber
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