If you already miss the summer conferences, help is on its way with HighEdWebDev 05 on November 6-9 in Rochester, NY. As I’ve already mentioned it in a previous post, Steve Krug, the author of “Don’t Make Me Think” will be the keynote speaker this year.
Whether or not you plan to come to HighEdWebDev05 this Fall, I’m sure you’ll be interested to read the Conference’s Program Chair Doug Tschopp’s perspective on our industry and the 2005 edition of this event:
1) This year would mark the 10th year for WebDev and the 5th year for HighEdWeb. What is the history behind this and why did you choose to combine these two conferences last year for the first HighEdWebDev?
WebDev or WebDevShare started at Indiana University in 1996. The conference drew attendees from across the US and eventually from around the globe. From the inception, this conference had the reputation of being the conference where the people in higher education that make web happen could share solutions to common issues. In 2003 Indiana University decided that it would no longer host the conference. I came to the conference that year (as the program chair) with the expectation that it would be the final conference.
However the attendees of the conference had very strong feelings about the necessity of the conference continuing. The key point being that there was no other conference where this high quality content was available to those of us in higher ed that actually have to make the web work… and it was also a lot of fun and a great place to network. I was barraged by people to figure out how to keep WebDev going. By the end of the conference, the conference program committee had agreed that we would look at proposals from different colleges and universities to move the program to a new location.
We looked at various proposals, and the committee decided that the consortium of schools in the Rochester, NY area would be a great group to partner with. They had a few years experience of running a small regional conference. They had the resource commitment from their schools. But the clinching element was that they had started to explore the possibilities of forming a national professional organization for web developers in higher education.
2) In your opinion, how has our field evolved for the past years?
This is an easy question. In 1998, the conference seemed to center around what code to use where and how to get different platforms to play together. In 1999, there were some of the first content/design/management presentations. By 2001, WebDev had started to be known as the “content conferenceâ€. So today we have a great mix of different backgrounds at the conference… tech geeks (propeller heads), marketers, writers, designers, etc… and they are all looking at the same issues, just through a different focus.
3) Today, what are the biggest challenges for higher ed professionals?
This is tough, because I can think of enough things to turn this into a dissertation. But let’s look at two simple things.
Personally: Each one of us has to figure out where to focus on personal skill building. Doing “web work†has become too complex for any of us to be great at all the skills that are necessary. So we need to learn to be great at some things and work with other experts to build sites that best meet the needs of our audiences.
As a group: I think it is important that we better define our skill sets and our jobs. This begs the issue of a professional organization that can collect data and provide some guidance to this varied group of people that are “web developersâ€.
4) This year’s theme is “Building Connections”. Can you tell us a bit more about the program? If somebody can only attend a few presentations or workshops, what should they be and why?
We are working on getting this info posted on the conference website even as I am answering your questions. It is a great mix of topics to appeal to this widely varied group of attendees that I have already referred to. There are four main tracks, each with seven 1-hour presentations and one 2-hour presentation. There will also be ten half-hour showcase presentations and we anticipate at least 16 poser presentations.
Of course I want everyone to come to my workshop and presentation… and give me high ratings! Actually, there is no way to recommend anything in particular since we all have different questions and issues that we are seeking information for. I can tell you that we had a record number of proposals submitted and the quality was very high. You would think this would make putting together a program very easy, but it was difficult knowing that many good proposals would have to be told “no thank youâ€.
So come pack in as much info as you can… make sure to have fun, because that is one of the features of this conference… and meet a lot of colleagues that you can use as resources as you try to muddle through this thing we call web development.
NOTE FROM KARINE: Early bird registration is open until September 30 at $379. After this date, the conference will cost you $499.