[thechat] Defining National 'Web Skills'

[Erika Meyer]

Thanks to Ron's heads-up, Jeff Howden (aka .jeff) & I were both able
to participate in the Portland focus groups.  It was quite the
experience.

Jeff & I were in different groups, I was with a couple of Internet
techie guys, a Human Factors woman from the SF Bay Area, and a
consultant from Los Angeles.

Here's what I found difficult.  We were asked to define skill sets
for jobs in "Internet Operations and Maintenance."  We were told that
this was to include everything from telecommunications to web
design...

We rebelled at that broad lump.  (at least most of my group did.) --
especially since the Department of Labor seems to be making the
assumption that the Internet is the same thing as the Web.

"Internet" is such a broad concept, and includes so much more than
the web... (IMO web=http) but that the field of web dev is so broad
in itself... (ranging from server administration to content creation
to usability testing....)

We also focused on web operations/maintenance, as it appears you did.
I got in my jabs about accessibilty, validation etc, and we put them
into our descriptions, and yes they didn't know about that stuff, but
I certainly wasn't surprised at that.

Very interesting that you were asked to describe "entry level"
positions.  We were told to define positions for a "technician" with
a 2-year degree who had been doing that work for at least 2-3 years.
hmmm.  Defining "technician" was another issue.

Anyway, the Internet and the web are not the same thing, dammit.

In any case, whatever the Department of Labor comes up with as a
"final answer" has got to be better than what they have now.  When I
went to the EDD and told them I wanted to be a web designer, the
closest thing they could find in their little booklet was "computer
data entry clerk."

blah.

Anyway, it was a good day off work, the food was good, and it was
nice to see Jeff.

Erika




RonL wrote:

>Hi Gang,
>
>I finally wrote my notes up from that research I participated in up in
>Dallas a couple of weeks ago.

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