mcneely - 8:54 am on Dec 23, 2007 (gmt 0)

In 5 years?

Most of what's being discussed here will surely be around in 5 years. And it's true with any business under the sun, in that, if you don't grow, adjust or remain flexible, you won't last.

As far as general overall web devlopment?
I've seen an increase in people running from open source sites, scripting, and wysiwyg programs.
I've been seeing a certain dissolution with regard to online site builders, which are slow, heavily scripted and about as easy to digest as a brick.

If anything, just from where I'm sitting, the web-dev world is going to come more into it's own. We are handling more requests for custom scripting/coding than ever before.
It used to be "let's purchase some hosting, so we can use that free OS Commerce Solution"... Now, not one of our clients cares to use it. It's all just somehow ended up beneath them to even be associated with it.

There is still a very good interest in CMS, but "only" if it can be customized to precise specification.

As far as online site builders? Sure, Our Windows Servers have it... and, surprise, surprise, we can't give it away.

No, we've got a pretty long road ahead of us before the design/development world ever takes a hit.
Being diverse is key though.
If you've got a few good coders and a few designers that can see past the colour blue, then you're in on that end. Add these to good SEO and professional marketing, then you'll last a whole lot longer than 5 years.

We include all of those, and even all of the linux/windows hosting, search development technologies, script development, and even find ourselves wandering down the wicked road of domain registrations.

Diversity is where it's at I think. At least, that's where it's at for us anyway.

When we throw our proposals together, there are those that show some surprise that search/marketing technologies are not only included, but are precisely laid out.

You cover every base in this day and age of the internet. You leave nothing to chance.

If you're going to do this *Design/development deal, you've got to understand many of the other core aspects of the internet, and understanding them and how they relate to the real world (money) is an added plus. Gone are the days when slapping a few pages up with a little script tither and yon was enough (I don't think it ever was enough, but that's just me).