[IxDA Discuss] A List Apart web design survey results

[Seema Gururaj]

I agree with you that its important for anyone not to box themselves and be active in learning about trends in their field.
However another aspect about keeping up with the trends is that on occasion I have noticed that once you have learnt something new or exciting there is a strong inclination to try and use it in your next project or influence your peers to try it out. It's a fantastic thing and the whole point of doing it. 
....... Till you take it to management :-) ... Take the case of AJAX for example its a wonderful thing and I am sure we all appreciate what it can do. Now the reality in order to change our existing stuff to AJAX is a political nightmare. So yeah I know AJAX and lots of cool things. While I get personal satisfaction and will continue learning new stuff  the sad part I cant use it much. Same with Web 2.0 I guess.
Probably the professionals you mention are at the point where they are like "why bother...this too shall pass" 
-Seema


Message: 13
Date: Sun, 21 Oct 2007 08:36:02 -0700
From: "Joseph Selbie" 
Subject: Re: [IxDA Discuss] A List Apart web design survey results
To: "'Todd Zaki Warfel'" 
Cc: 'IxDA' 
Message-ID: 
Content-Type: text/plain;	charset="us-ascii"
 
>>I'd guess that in every profession most of the professionals are in fact
very insulated by the companies they work for and don't actively follow
trends in their profession online or off.
 
 
 
>Perhaps this is a difference between innies and outies? Or do those of you
who work for consulting firms also find the same thing in your colleagues?
 
 
 
My company is quite small and the people I have chosen to work with very
much keep up with trends - if anything, they push me to keep up with them,
rather than the other way around J. I can't say that I know if this is
unusual or normal among consulting firms. I'd guess it to be more normal
since we are always competing for our next project, and any edge in
knowledge we can show can make the difference in whether we win the next bid
or not. 
 
 
 
One thing I do know is that our team is always more knowledgeable and
skilled than the in-house teams we come in to support. Initially, I thought
this was because upper management understood their in house team's short
comings and were making a rational decision to augment their teams skills.
But the more I've done this work the more I realize that neither management
nor the in house teams have any idea where they stand skill-wise and
knowledge-wise in relation to industry standards. 
 
 
 
Joseph Selbie
 
Founder, CEO Tristream
 
Web Application Design
 
http://www.tristream.com
 
 
 
 

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