[thelist] Must a webmaster know databases???

Herzog, Ari Ari_Herzog at Instron.com
Wed Dec 13 16:24:25 CST 2000


Scott, I love your analogy to that of a militant leader.
Despotism! Despotism! Chaos!


-----Original Message-----
From: Scott Dexter [mailto:sgd at ti3.com]
Sent: Wednesday, December 13, 2000 5:16 PM
To: 'thelist at lists.evolt.org'
Subject: RE: [thelist] Must a webmaster know databases???


> If this attitude becomes prevelant, it would seem that the IT industry
> might revert to a pre industrial age infra structure, where 
> you have large
> numbers of specialist craft masters (with apprentices) who provide a
> variety of specialist functions as services. This would not 
> seem to be the
> best environment for the non specialist.
> 
> This is a view I'm taking on a book I'm working on so I'd 
> appreciate any
> comments that would counter this arguement.


I'd liken a 'webmaster' to a small, nimble company in this context, whereas
a specialist would be portrayed as the large behemoth conglomerate that
moves very slowly. 

I think of it like this: as a specialist in one area and one area alone, it
can be all too easy to apply that specialty to the task, regardless of
context or need. Further, the learning curve to reach a new specialty to
include as a core competency is very great, and would take a significant
amount of time. A company we've come to term as "old school brick and
mortar" would operate in much the same fashion. Consider IBM in the years
prior to the purging of its top management and subsequent entry (and huge
success) in the laptop market in the early 1990's. Prior to that, IBM
epitomized the 'old school' management and operation style that prevented it
from moving swiftly to market shifts and increased customer empowerment.
	A Jack-of-All-Trades, on the other hand, has a base knowledge of a
number of technologies and could have the awareness and savvy to be able to
apply the best tool for the problem at hand. A small company that does not
have the strict and deep trenches of management and dedicated single-track
processes can adapt quickly to market shifts and the changing whims of their
customers.

Seen like this, a 'webmaster' then, in my mind, is much more valuable, and
placed in the right position, can orchestrate a team of specialists. This
leads me to a military view, where a webmaster is a general --king of theory
and process, wielding his arsenal of specialties to rid the problem at hand.

sgd

---------------------------------------
For unsubscribe and other options, including
the Tip Harvester and archive of TheList go to:
http://lists.evolt.org Workers of the Web, evolt ! 




More information about the thelist mailing list