Web Programmers – The Unsung Heroes
“ WOW, what a beautiful site !” is a common exclamation that comes to ones lips on encountering an eye pleasing Website.
The design, the colors, the aesthetic appeal all convey your compliments to the Web designer, who worked on the graphical interface of the Website, perhaps with the same diligence as the Web programmer who tied it up neatly with the back-end coding.
However, few people are capable of appreciating the dynamism that coding lends to an otherwise static Website. The comfort of placing an order on the Net using your credit card, the luxury of watching movies on your computer , the ease of being able to book a ticket online and all such bells and whistles are made possible through Web programming.
Had the web technologies not progressed beyond HTML , internet would have been no different than digital books and far less fascinating and useful than it is now.
So, what does back-end Web programming do to a Website ? Well, to put it simply it makes a Website interact with you. For any offered functionality, Web programming causes you to input data and then generates a relevant output for you.
Even static sites are basically just HTML code but it only displays a Website as a graphical interface with text and images and nothing beyond that. Needless to say how boring Net would have been if Websites were just HTML.
A lot of hard work and system analysis goes in a Website that is even moderately interactive. Since it is going to talk with it’s users Web programmers put in a lot of effort to make sure that a site is smart enough to provide right output to your queries, is secure and all functionality in a given Website is linear and neat.
This is not to undermine the efforts of the Web designers for they are every bit as important as Web programmers to say the least. However though Web designers are indispensible for all kinds of sites, their role diminishes in proportion to the level of interactivity a given site has. Should you want to have amazon.com replicated your focus would be more on interactive functionality than design. In any case, such heavy duty sites are less design intensive.
And should a pointed question be asked as to whether a Web designer or a Web programmer is more relevant to the current sophistication that Net has reached in communicative technologies, then the answer would most certainly be the Web programmer.
So next time you wow a Website that has offered you a cool online planner to your trip to the Bahamas, know it for sure that more than just design has gone into that site.
Career in Web Design & Web Development
We are in the era of information technology. Within minutes you can find out anything you want to know with a quick search on Google. This is all thanks to web designers and web developers. Web developers are responsible for the creation and maintenance of the World Wide Web.
Qualifications
Te become a web developer one must grasp a few different skill sets. First one must be able to design a web page. Design is usually achieved through a particular software suit, such as: Dreamweaver, Microsoft Expression, or many other software choices.
Additionally one needs to know HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language). HTML is the scripting code that makes things happen on websites. While some software will make all this happen for you, it’s good to know how to do it on your own. After all if the software can’t do it, the developer must pick up the slack.
Last one needs to know something about CSS (Cascading Style Sheet). CSS is the code that changes how a website looks. CSS sets the look and theme of a website.
There are ways to go farther into web development by picking up on other programming languages such as: ASP.Net, perl, php, flash, and others. These programming languages are what make websites dynamic. A dynamic website has ways to interact with customers through quizzes, shopping carts, surveys, and many other features.
Jobs
The Internet has become an integral part of our lives. It is needless to say that the web is the future. Most of the desktop applications are now merging into web based applications. Google is almost ready to launch its first web based operating system, which gives us a clear picture of future technologies and trends. So, there are tremendous opportunities for youngsters in this field. Many businesses hire web developers to maintain their own websites. There are also businesses, like One World Technologies, that are in fact in the business of building websites for other companies.
Freelancing
Freelancers are those who look for short term jobs with clients. A freelancer is typically a self-employed web developer. Of course a freelancer could also develop contracts that allow him or her to maintain websites as well.
Maintaining websites is maybe even more important than development itself. Cash flow is essential to the success of any business, regardless of size. Maintenance is sure fire way to keep your cash flow up even when you’re not doing so well in the advertising and marketing field.
Promotion
Web developers are also there to promote websites. Business not only need a website, but also need it to be attractive. A web developer must know what people need to see. A web site must be concise and easy to read. It is the developer’s job to deliver this.
All the knowledge of websites in the world is useless if it is not attractive to the end user.
Health Problems in IT industry
When you think of jobs with health risks you usually think of miners, movers, or some other job requiring a lot of manual labor. This isn’t really accurate though. Every job has its risks. Even an unemployed person faces risks! So it’s safe to say that an IT professional also has risks in the work place as well.
Get Moving
Perhaps the worst of all of these risks is the lack of movement. Not moving enough during the work day is actually said to be worse than not exercising. Remember to take walks through out the day. This helps to fight weight gain and prevents blood clots.
Blood Clots
Ever sit down for a while and feel your legs getting numb? This is because of prolonged sitting. This can eventually turn into blood clots in the legs. There are even reports of possible blood clots in your lungs. Again remember to get up occasionally, stretch, and take some walks.
Dust
IT professionals are frequently working in dusty areas. Whether it’s opening a computer case, or just crawling in a workstation environment, there’s dust everywhere. This can cause sinus and allergy problems. Keep dust masks with you for these situations. You may also consider using a vacuum instead of compressed air for cleaning dusty areas.
Lighting
Most offices use fluorescent lights. Although fluorescent lights are much better for the environment than incandescent lights, they’re not so great for the human eye. The constant flickering of fluorescent lights can cause head aches and stress. Flickering lights have even been reported as a means to torture prisoners in some countries. Obviously a fluorescent light won’t be flickering that much, but no one is immune to its head aches, or stress it can cause.
Computer Screen
There’s another light that can really do a number on you in the office. That’s right it’s your very own computer screen. Often when working on a project, or solving a problem, one gets so caught up in work, that they don’t blink or take breaks. Remember to blink your eyes. Again get up and take walks away from all of this unnatural light. If you feel your eyes drying despite your breaks and eye blinking, try using artificial tears, or speak to an eye doctor.
Don’t forget to get fresh air and some natural light while working. Also, make sure you walk to more destinations. Most all the IT risks are associated with sitting around and staring at unnatural lights.
One World Technologies has a staff strength of more than 30 people and we have started a special campaign to motivate our staff members to take breaks at regular intervals and walk around the office campus. We have also planted number of trees around our campus to keep it green and fresh.
Outsourcing isn’t really the devil it’s made out to be
Indian Web companies have been very unabashed about sending out unsolicited emails to any email address that they can grab. While spams offering to cater to 'below the stomach issues' dominate most of the junk email domain, Web companies have lagged behind only a trifle.
When I say Web companies, I mean Indian, Russian and Chinese Web companies.
Indian Web companies in particular, share a love and hate relationship with Web companies that are established in the developed countries like US, UK, Australia, Canada and so on. We, being an Indian Web company, have come across an overwhelming number of Web companies abroad that keep Indian Web development companies at an arm's length. And not without reasons, examples of which would be:
- Having had a VERY bitter experience with an Indian Web company in the terms that communication happened in comical English and the product delivered was a far cry from what was promised, not to mention scooting away with the retainer.
- The Web company abroad simply wants to keep all their business in-house and never wanted to outsource in the first place but was bombarded each day with pleading emails shouting the benefits of outsourcing down their throats.
I seek to bring home to my readers that outsourcing is just another form of innocent trade and isn't as threatening or controversial as it's made out to be by some enteprenuers.
A company's apprehensive attitude towards outsourcing stems from the insecurity of dependence on a foreign entity for it's production and delivery. This is a VERY misplaced concern in the modern scenario which is highly charged with communication and connectivity. I'd say it's definitely poor business sense if not narrow mindedness.
The benefits of outsourcing are far too many to be given up in favour of an irrelevant fear. Instead of giving up outsourcing altogether a company can very easily safeguard and ensure both it's production and delivery by retaining a portfolio of two or maybe three reputed and well established Web vedors abroad. So in case one of those siezes to provide services due to any reason, one can fall back on the other two. And there is no dearth of vendor Web companies which do good work and are reliable.
Another reason is more of an emotional nature than practical and is therefore tricky to tackle. It's patriotism. Point taken that it makes a lot of patriotic sense if a CEO cares for his own country's economy and wants to give business to his own countrymen and not foreigners.
But such enteprenuers do not understand things in a broader light. They deny the fact that globalization has happened and is going to stay whether they like it or not. They would gorge on mangoes imported from India or Mexico on their breakfast table and when in office they would whine about outsourcing. While other businesses would take advantage of their government's policies of free international trade, such CEOs would be opposed to a trend which they could never reverse. So who is the ultimate loser ? The very CEOs with this kind of thinking.
Globalization - which is both approved and encouraged internationally - enables business sectors from around the world to explore attractive and profitable trade options with their foreign counterparts. This has happened since the dawn of trade and civillizations. However, it's only now that the world is experiencing it's full extent with the advent of Internet which has shrunk the world with it's criss - crossing data cables.
Now, there aren't just individuals who are opposed to outsourcing but leaders of countries as well. Mr Obama, the US president, is whemently against US companies which outsource. One side of this coin is that it's fair for a President to worry about employment and skills of his own people but the other side is that he would find it hard to restrict those businesses from outsourcing who have enjoyed it's benefits successfully over the last many years.
It would be a big task for the US government to enhance Web services and skills on such a mass level within the US that the current per hour programming rate of $45 to $60 charged by domestic programmers drops to $10 to $15 per hour that is being offered by foreign Web companies. And even if this is realized, there would be other hurdles difficult to address which pertain to the mindset of US programmers.
It would be impossible to inculcate in them 'by hook or by crook' approach to a project which seems to come naturally to Indian Web developers and which is welcomed by US Web companies with an ear to ear grin. The happy go lucky and a lenient attitude of Indian Web programmers towards their clients establishes a very comfortable rapport between the two and is a pleasant change for the US Web companies when their own programmers would charge them for every minute spent in their office premises.
Coming back to outsourcing let's summarize:
- Outsourcing is innocent trade between two countries which is as old as the 'oldest profession' 
- Outsourcing / trade will happen whether individuals or leaders like it or not. Either cannot reverse it
- Either you broaden your horizons to embrace outsourcing or choose to be left behind and miss the boat
- When individuals are brought together they have no option but to talk and interact and they would do so in any way they deem appropriate. Similarly when countries are brought together, peoples of these countries would interact in anyway they deem appropriate and trade / outsourcing is just one aspect of it
So, embrace outsourcing as you ventured to sample the odd tiffin of your friend in school !