Web Development as an Industry

How would you evaluate the "state of the web development industry"?

[gregor]

Suppose this is a very broad question but regardless I'd like some opinions. I'm wondering how you would evaluate the "state of the web development industry" today and where you see it going in the future (ie. the next 2-5 years). Opinions from a developer's p-o-v, please. Comments regarding your own experiences and upturns/downturns in business and perhaps the "why" of these issues are more than welcome.

I'm asking wholly out of my own self-interest. LOL ...

Thanks!

[txbakers]

Hi, that's a fair question.

I think web development will pick up considerably in the next few years as more developers learn web services and .Net.

For a while, with all the GUI tools like Dreamweaver available at a modest cost, it seemed everyone and their nephew was a "web developer" when in reality they created cutesy web pages. I was telling people to stay away from that as a career.

Web based applications will be a big growth area as servers become more powerful and bandwidth gets bigger. Desktop applications will fade away.

[gregor]

For a while, with all the GUI tools like Dreamweaver available at a modest cost, it seemed everyone and their nephew was a "web developer" when in reality they created cutesy web pages. I was telling people to stay away from that as a career.

I completely agree with this. It is for reasons like this that I am apprehensive about going back to school in September for Web Development. I don't want to graduate and remain jobless just because I'm thought of as a "web page designer". Sure, that's fun, but I'm interested in where the web is heading and the technology that will drive it ... like Flash-driven XML applications, for example, or the comprhensiveness offered by the .Net framework.

... as more developers learn web services and .Net. ... Web based applications will be a big growth area as servers become more powerful and bandwidth gets bigger.

Again, I completely agree. Service based applications will become bigger than they already are. The general public almost expects the web to be something functional and practical ... It already is (online banking, for example, or information exchange portals) and will only become more so. And by that I mean the technology behind these applications will change, not necessarily the service offered.

[crosenblum]

I strongly disagree.

The economy model is changed, no longer are companies going to pay high dollars for the average run of the mill web developer or web designer.

Unless you are strong in ecommerce, usability, or database design and modeling.

Even then it's not going to be like what it was.

So what we have to do is master our crafts, make sure the quality of work we release is not something that will come back and bite us later.

Because our work will then be all outsourced for cheap bucks, instead of being part of a company team.

[digitaldog]

I think the future of the webdev biz will certainly be colored by the trend towards using content management systems. Clients want to be empowered. Those webdev firms that listen to that, see the trends, will evolve and change to meet those needs. Most won't because you have to accept that what you know, is no longer valid--something that is very difficult for the typical biz owner who has spent long hours building websites a certain way, with a certain tool. Change is good, and profitable since most of your competitors won't change. Our market is littered with talented, but out of work folks who just planted their feet and said, "This is how you build websites and we're going to keep building them this way."

In the end, I've found after ten years of running a successful web dev company, that on the human side, it all boils down to the kind of client experience you craft around the project. If you do it right, you'll never have a shortage of clients or referrals. And of course, a little luck doesn't hurt either.

Just my two cents.

Larry

[crosenblum]

Creating Content Mgmt Apps, should already be a part of our repoitoire...

[aspdaddy]

In my experiences, technology is hardly ever an issue. For most web-development projects .NET is just another way of getting the same result so I cant see it changing much.

"state of the web development industry" is a very broad categorisation, theres so many areas of business within it with thier own needs and trends etc.