Webmastering Essay, Research Paper

Webmaster I. Introduction II. History of Occupation A. Beginning B. Future III. Earnings IV. Education and Training A. College B. Tech School V. Machines and Tools A. Hardware B. Software VI. Work Duties VII. Extra Benefits VIII. Attractive Features IX. Unattractive Features X. Conclusion Webmaster The Webmaster career is new and getting very exciting for the years to come. There are constant changes in the technology used to create web pages, and the Webmasters job is to stay current with this technology. There is a lot of work for the Webmaster, and the Webmaster can decide to work either for a company or hire himself/herself out as an independent contractor. Many skills are required to be a Webmaster, but most skills are transferable not educational. Web pages have been in existence since people started using the Internet, around 1990. The pages are created by using a code called Hypertext markup language or HTML. HTML is a very simple language to understand, but it is very limited in what it can do. The job for the Webmaster will be secure for the future as more and more people sign up for the Internet and the demand for both personal and commercial pages increase. “The World Wide Web (WWW) has developed in the late 1980’s by researchers at the European Particle Physics Laboratory in Geneva, Switzerland (Career As 5).” “Between 1994 and 1998 the number of people connected to the Web in the United States alone leapt from barely two million to more than 30 million, and demand shows no signs of slowing down (Career As 5).” “A Web site usually consists of a “homepage”, a document that serves as a kind of table of contents and index, which in turn is linked to many pages of text and graphics. The contents of these pages depends of course on the purpose of the Web site: A business can offer a catalog of goods or services, a school will describe its courses and faculty members; an individual may describe his or her job skills, interests, or hobbies (Henderson 85).” “The future of the Web is undeniably bright, but it is also murky, paradoxical, as that may seem. The possibilities are limitless, but the practical problems are substantial. More than anything else, what the Web business needs right now is dedicated, creative Webmasters willing and able to find the solutions that the Web needs in order to pursue its bright future. It won’t be easy, and the competition will be tough. But opportunities for enthusiastic entrepreneurs will never be better (Career As 7).” As the Web grows and the technology for computers grows with it, a Webmaster’s job will be needed from now until forever. As more and more companies grow the World Wide Web will be needed for their services. The world will come to the need of the web sooner or later. “Earnings opportunities for Webmasters vary widely, depending upon a variety of circumstances. Like most other aspects of the career, salary schedules for Webmasters haven’t been well established. There’s really no such thing as a poorly paid Webmaster (Career As 19).” “Organizations that use the Web as an essential part of their business (such as online stores) requires the most experienced, reliable Webmasters, and are likely to pay them to highest salaries (Henderson 86).” “Salaried Webmasters working for business earn salaries ranging from $30,000 per year to $125,000 per year. The range is so wide because of differences in content, technical needs, business acumen and site activity. Another determining factor is how important the business deems it’s Web site to be (Career As 19)” “Webmasters can work at a contract position where they can earn an average of $15 to $25 per hour. A good Webmaster can make a lot more the income suggested if many over time hours are put in or by owning there own company and contacting themselves out to many other clients. Overall, Webmaster working in the United States is about $75,000 per year, or much more then the average salaries offered by most other careers. This is especially enlightening when you consider that nobody in the Web business really has very much seniority (Career As 19).” “I attended the University of Miami, then I took classes for programming and classes for business (Fineburg 1).” “There is no specific body of knowledge required to become a Webmaster. The Webmaster’s Guild founded in 1995 in Cambridge Massachusetts, near Harvard University, has determined that in order to be a Webmaster, a careerist must possess knowledge of network configuration, interface and graphic design, software development, business strategy, writing, marketing and project management (Career As 18).” “I’ve received a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from George Mason University (Webmaster: Profiles).” In becoming the best Webmaster and making the most money in the career, college has the best courses for it. Colleges offer mainly two courses that can lead to a career in Webmastering. Computer Science is the main course that is offered. Which covers basically everything that computers do, everything that computers don’t do, and everything in between. The second course is IST (Information Science and Technology), that covers just a little bit less then the Computer Science courses do. Many technical schools provide courses in Web design, programming, business management, and other computer related courses. In a technical school you may gain more hands-on experience with computers and the World Wide Web. Therefore you many gain more knowledge about what the demands are for a website. Also working hands-on, you are using most of the up to date equipment. In a college course you maybe going into the textbook to see what it is that you are looking for. In the Web career, a technical school may be used for additional learning after a degree is achieved in college. Of course the main machine that Webmasters use is a computer. Many hardware components are also used for transferring data into the computer. A scanner is used quite often; many sites have pictures on them to give the viewer a better understanding of the product, school, or whatever is being advertised. A digital camera may be used to put motion pictures on a site. For the viewer to get a better look at what he or she is looking for or looking at. There are many software programs that are developed to make web designing easier on the creator. Many Webmasters may create their own software programs for a specific task that they find difficult to perform or just a task that is used so often that the program will cut the time of that simple task. Now a days, many software companies develop Web design programs that are so easy all it involves is mainly pointing and clicking or copy and paste. Once done with the website, many software programs have step-by-step tasks that register your site with an ISP, and post your site on the Internet in a few minutes or even seconds. Software programs are not usually the main choice for Webmasters. A typical day of Stephen Shoaff who works for Nat Systems International Inc. in McLean VA. “He arrives at the office at 6:30 a.m., spends quiet time working on new Web apps or page updates. Once the rest of the office gets in, he switches to his more traditional software management rule and gets Web development in during the slow times. The day ends with a couple of evening hours devoted to development. Most of his work in Internet/Intranet stuff seems to get done at night (Webmaster: Profiles).” Keeping up with all of the e-mails and updates is a big part of becoming a good Webmaster. Many companies, mainly the big ones, have at least 200 e-mails coming in daily. Many of those e-mails have to be answered daily as well. So that is a tough roll for one reason. Some company’s rates and prices change all the time, which have to be changed on the web site as well. “Creating and maintaining a Web site involves the following tasks: + Designing the overall structure of the site + Creating the documents (Web pages) that contain the text, graphics and other features. + Creating the links that take readers from one page to another. + Writing the programs or scripts that provide additional features, such as an ordering form. + Testing the site to make sure all links work properly. + Monitoring the number of people who visit or “hit” the site. + Dealing with issues such as network congestion or security problems. + Responding to feedback from readers” (Henderson 85). “Webmasters have the top job in America based on: Income, Outlooks, Security, Stress, Environment, and Physical Demand (Webmaster Career).” “There is nothing boring or routine about a job as a Webmaster. You will never fall into the age-old habits of punching a clock or working nine to five. You will never take your job or your work for granted. You will never resent your job for getting in the way of things that are really important to you, or the things that you really enjoy (Career As 16).” There are personal advantages to becoming a Webmaster, if you work for yourself that is. There is nobody to tell you how to do your work, what you get paid or even, sometimes, what the deadline is. “Unlikely as it may seem, the wide-open Web could soon be dominated by big companies with very deep pockets and the necessary capital to stake out their territory on the Web and fond off all competitors. Of course, you could go to work for one of these companies, but the competition will be fierce. The Web business also seems sometimes to be dominated by nerdy, antisocial types who use virtual reality as a substitute for actual reality (Career As 17).” “It cannot be stressed enough that there are no guarantees in the Web business. Not a single, solitary human being has spent his or her entire career climbing the ladder in the Web business. There are no career charts to follow, there are no well-worn paths and there are no ways to predict where you are likely to be in five, 10, 20 or even two years’ time. You will be striking out on your own. Even if you go to work for a large company and get all the normal perquisites associated with a fulltime, white-collar job, the nature of the Web is evolving so rapidly. You will never know when you could be laid off or moved into a new job that may or may not come with a corresponding increase in pay (Career As 17).” This career is an exciting and rewarding career. Because advertising on the Internet is so new, the webmaster is in constant demand. Webmasters are typically creative and interpersonal people who can grasp new ideas and learn independently. There is no formal education necessary for entry into this profession, but programming and designing skills are a definite asset. Although new software has been developed that allows home users to create pages, this does not threaten the webmaster profession. Today’s webmasters are confident that their ability to grasp complex programming will enable them to retain the middle and large sized business market on the World Wide Web. If you are creative and can grasp the technical side of computers, the career of the webmaster may appeal to you.

Bibliography

Career As A Webmaster Chicago: The Institute For Research, 1998 Henderson, Harry. Career Opportunities in Computer and Cyberspace. New York: Checkmark Books, 1999: 85-86 Webmasters Philosophy. www.webmaster.com/philospophy.html 1998; Webmasters, Inc. Webmasters: Profiles. www.cio.com/forums/wmf_job_profiles _content.html Fineburg, Dennis. E-mail Interview. 20 Nov. 2000