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.
Last month Molly Holzschlag lead an interesting discussion on the divided state of the web standards community on A List Apart. Now we all know this has been happening for a while, this fragmentation of the web standards community.
Molly is prompting people to get involve with their web standards group of their choice, in an effort bolster the community, and maybe reverse the trend.
Okay it’s a good idea in theory; but in reality, from a personal view I’m tired of the same thing time and time again. Take for example the Web Standards Group mailing list (we don’t have a local WSG) I’m finding the constant rehashing of topics and questions and answers a bit pointless, to the point that I’ve just lost interest.
Gary Barber
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