Ten-Thousand Plus.
Earlier this evening WSD+D reached a milestone we can all be proud of: 10,000 members, and growing. For fun here's a wallpaper for your iPhone.
Lets All Go To An Event Apart.
Another day brings another helpful offer from our friends.
Seattle. Boston. Chicago. San Francisco. In each of these fabled cities this year, An Event Apart will hold a two-day concentrated learning session featuring industry leaders and visionaries.
I've been to three of these conferences and without a doubt they are worth every penny. If you don't leave feeling richer then you weren't paying attention.
Founded by Eric Meyer and Jeffrey Zeldman, An Event Apart is an intensely educational conference for passionate practitioners of standards-based web design. Each AEA event brings together twelve of the leading minds in web design for two days of non-stop inspiration and enlightenment, plus fine food, fun swag, and a don't-stop-till-you-drop opening night networking party.
Times being what they are, Team Apart are offering Web Standards Design + Development members a $100 discount off any AEA show this year — $200 off any show if you order during the early bird period. In other words, hurry the hell up and save money.
To receive your special discount, use code AEAWSD when registering for any show at An Event Apart. Now, I don't want to play favorites here but I know Seattle is going rock this years line up if only because the unstoppable Ethan Marcotte is speaking and his Kung-Fu is very strong.
Voices That Matter: Web Design Conference '09.
The good people at Pearson Education have extended a formal invitation for all of us to attend the Voices That Matter: Web Design Conference '09 by New Riders Press. The event is scheduled for April 27-30, 2009 and takes place in San Francisco (has anyone noticed that Iowa is never tapped to host web design conferences? Pity). The speakers line-up is incredible. Look, any chance to go see Marty Neumeier, Christina Wodtke, Dan Saffer and Steve Krug under one tent should be considered a good investment in continuing education and geek entertainment.
If that's not enough to entice any of you to attend, WSD+D members get $200 discount off the price of registration. And if you act now—well, if you act before March 12th, 2009—you can combine this offer with early bird registration saving a total of $400.
Nice, eh? To quote Mr. Marcotte, "$895 for three days isn't shabby."
To receive this special discount use code WBNKLMN when registering. If you take advantage of this offer do be sure to say thank you to Heather Keegan who made this possible.
Future.
Today LinkedIn launched a much needed update to groups. The more enticing of the new features is the discussion board. I'm happy to see this new functionality but the last thing I want is for this to turn into another place to post "how to" or job/gig announcements. We already have plenty of well established places for those types of correspondence.
During the formative stages of this group, I received the following statement via email: "We can all learn from each other and better not only ourselves, but the industry as a whole." I see a huge potential benefit to sharing information about two issues that have been considered somewhat taboo: Mistakes and money. Both are delicate topics that are difficult to discuss in a public forum — mainly because no one likes to put themselves out there for potential ridicule or persecution. That said, if we can find common ground to talk about these things, I believe it will strengthen our industry and our individual contributions to it.
I'm still figuring out how to move forward in a constructive fashion, consulting co-workers, peers, and professionals outside our industry who find themselves in similar situations. If you have had any thoughts on this topic feel free to chime in.
Meanwhile, we're well on the way to six-thousand members. That's roughly the attendance of SXSW Interactive. Go team WSD+D!
Five Legions Strong and Counting.
This morning I "approved" the 5000th member of the WSD+D group. If you're not already doing so, please consider standing up and doing a little happy dance.
Questions + Answers.
How is it being moderated and how will the quality fare? Will it be the best of the best or will anyone be approved?
Currently LinkedIn does not have any really good tools for moderating groups but I have been told that these things are on the way. So for now it's all skate, all skate. It's also important to keep in mind that this isn't a portfolio review (maybe one day we'll expand but for now lets keep it simple), the purpose of WSD+D is to form a strong network of peers, business contacts, and maybe a mentor or two.
We need another "best of the best club" like we need another eccentric British web designer sporting lamb chops--we already got one of those and he fits that role quiet nicely. Quality of applicants are a reflection of the web: All over the place. The group roster includes all the names most of us in web standards business would recognize immediately and there are many, many people who just haven't made a name for themselves yet or they are perfectly happy lurking in the back row, for now.
I'm sure there are quite a few who have zero business affiliating themselves with such a group as this but I'm not too concerned about that right now. When we start requiring members to wear sport coats with the WSD+D crest then we'll find a way to weed out the posers and groupies (unless they're willing pay an absurd amount of money to hang out in the clubhouse).
Do you have any criteria in mind for who joins the group? I've snooped around groups across different industries, but none have any specific criteria they require. I was curious if I would find one that make people pass a quiz or something.
This isn't high school. We're not going to hold standardized testing, nor am I, or anyone else, going to 'grade' exams. If people join and they clearly don't belong then I guess we'll all have to live in a post 9/11 world wherein some members might not actually know a thing about XHTML or, God forbid, actively use Frontpage 98.
We can all learn from each other and better not only ourselves, but the industry as a whole. It is definitely something I would love to be a part of.
That's what I was thinking.
"I'm curious about what you see as the upside."
I'd like to see us all learn from each other on how to work smarter, faster, and cheaper (see above). We'll see how it goes.
Almost Madison.
As of today, Sunday, June 8th, there are four-thousand WSD+D members. The member roster is made up of a wonderful collection of skills sets and levels of talent. We've got everyone from the big names in the business to students and professionals to amateurs who would love to quit their day job and become a full-time designer or developer.
I'm excited by the quick establishment of this group and the opportunities that might lay ahead. Already there has been a flurry of activity as members are networking with other members and people within LinkedIn.
This is exactly what I was hoping would happen.
Admittedly this is moving a bit faster than anticipated and thus was unprepared for some of the questions that came in via email. Answers to some of the more frequent queries will be answered later this week. Check back here and/or subscribe to the WSD+D news feed.
I do want to answer one concern that a few people had about the purpose of this group. There are already very well established communities for you and I to learn how to advance our vocational skills, talent, and more. There is no need to replicate those endeavors simply for the sake of doing so: divided we fall and all that.
I see this group as a way for us to increase our visibility to the business community (the people who like to trade money for design and development) and become increasingly savvy about how to increase our opportunities.