128 WHO: The Obligatory Glossary: Web Lingo

XHTML is essentially an XML version of HTML that works in most browsers. It is currently the W3C-recommended markup language for creating sites, though most sites as of this writing are still created in HTML. The differences between HTML and XHTML, from the “writing the code” point of view, are rather small, like Japan, though the implications of XHTML are rather large, like China.

The Document Object Model (DOM) is a web standard that lets these other standards “talk to each other” to perform actions. (For more about this, see Chapter 11.)

With the increasing specialization of the Web, designers are no more expected to master all these technologies than Rabbis are expected to fry bacon. Web designers should learn CSS (which is easy), and most learn enough JavaScript to be dangerous. Developers rather than designers will likely do the XML and DOM programming as well as most of the heavy-duty JavaScript/ECMAScript. The longer you work in the field, the more knowledgeable you will become about these standards, but few employers will expect you to have more than rudimentary awareness of most of this stuff.

Web page

As explained in Chapter 1, “Splash Screen,” a web page is a type of electronic document, just as a Microsoft Word file or a Photoshop document is, except that a web page does not require any particular brand of software for someone to open and/or use it. And that is the glory of it, brothers and sisters. Developers and designers build web pages in HTML but, as noted above, they also use stuff besides HTML, which we’ll talk about in the relevant technical chapters.

Website

A website is a collection of related web pages published on the World Wide Web.

In English: Click here.

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Additional terminology

Tech terms will come up like last night’s chili burritos throughout your career. You can always look up the latest buzzwords (or refresh your memory about what you have learned) by turning to the Computer Currents High-Tech Dictionary at www.currents.net/resources/dictionary/.

ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES IN THE WEB

WORLD

As a web designer, you will be responsible for creating the look and feel of websites—or portions thereof. Web designers may create menu bar icons for sites designed by other designers on their team, or they may create animated ad banners for sites designed by others. Hey, you’ve read Chapters 2 and 3—you know the deal. (If you don’t, read the next chapter, which describes the web designer at painful length.) Meanwhile, this seems as good a place as any to familiarize yourself with some of the other players on your team.

Web developer/programmer

The web developers on your team will be responsible for the technical implementation of the site. You might hear them talk about Perl, Java, ASP, PHP, SSI, XML, ColdFusion, and other technologies. Just smile and nod as if you get it.

Most sites seamlessly fuse design, content, and interactivity. For that to happen, teamwork is needed. You don’t have to understand how developers work their magic any more than developers need to possess design or writing skills. But thoughtful collaboration and mutual respect for each other’s disciplines are required to create functionally and aesthetically superb sites.

Many developers have their roots in UNIX. Some are old hippies; others look like preteen rejects from the cast of The Matrix. With the frantic need for qualified personnel, developers also might come from the ranks of tradi-

130 WHO: The Obligatory Glossary: Roles and Responsibilities in the Web World

tional information technology (IT) services. Many of these people are wonderful, but some have a strong bias toward particular technologies and generally do not approach web development with a “Webby” mindset—by which we mean a preference for open standards and accessibility.

For instance, IT-trained developers with roots in Microsoft-only shops sometimes employ technologies that leave Mac, Linux, UNIX, and OS/2 users out in the cold. This is because they don’t know any better; they are as trapped by their training as that sad little boy who shoots puppies. (We now make good on our earlier apology to People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. You see, this book is really very skillfully woven together in spite of its strange, dreamlike quality.)

Before accepting a job, be sure to check the company’s offerings using at least one of these non-Windows operating systems. If the sites fail, the developers may be biased in favor of proprietary technologies without realizing the harmful nature of that predisposition.

Designers who wish their work to reach the broadest possible audience might want to think twice before accepting a job at a place like that. We’ve even seen shops where Mac-using designers can’t send email due to Win- dows-only gateway issues. This is not intended as a slam at Microsoft’s many fine products, two of which were used in the creation of this book. It is simply cautionary advice for the job seeker. In our opinion, because closed systems lock out millions of potential users, serious web developers prefer open standards.

Project manager

These team members are like technologically savvy account executives. They help articulate the client’s needs, develop schedules (timelines) and budgets, and are responsible for keeping the project on track. Just like the account executives you might have worked with in your traditional design career, project managers are usually good people with stressful jobs. As you used to do with account executives, you must employ tact and patience to negotiate with these folks.

Project managers will often produce things called Gantt Charts, which are frankly little more than fancy work schedules. Say “thank you” when you get these. It makes them feel good about themselves.

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Do not actually look at the Gantt Charts, however. They will only frighten you and make you feel hopeless and uncreative. Don’t worry about missing any deadlines. The project managers will be “casually dropping by” your cubicle every 15 minutes for the next 40 years, and you won’t miss a single deadline. See, what did we tell you? They’re exactly like account executives.

Systems administrator (sysadmin) and network administrator (netadmin)

Sysadmins and netadmins are also called network engineers, database administrators, directors of web development, webgods, UNIX guys, NT guys, Linux guys, and geeks (formerly often called “webmasters”)—these are the people who run the server (computer) that houses the site you’re developing. They also run the staging server where you might build the site before actually “publishing” it to the Web.

In some companies these folks are woefully underpaid juniors with extensive computing knowledge. In others, they’re woefully overpaid juniors without any computing experience at all, which is why many old-school webmasters now call themselves systems administrators, network engineers, database administrators, and so forth, leaving the webmaster moniker to the temp who answers email about the site.

Most sysadmins are senior employees in charge of a staff. In small companies, they also might be the folks you go to when you need software installed on your computer or if you’re having trouble with your email. In larger companies, an IT person typically handles those responsibilities. In some companies, sysadmins are also developers and in others, they are not.

Some companies call their sysadmins developers. Some call their juniors seniors—because titles are easier to come up with than salary. Some say love is like a flower. Don’t let any of this drive you mad. Above all, respect the sysadmins. Without them, we’d have no Web.

Web technician

Web technicians, also called producers, web producers, HTML jockeys, webmonkeys, web practitioners, HTML practitioners, design technicians, HTML technicians, geeks, and many other things, are folks who do a job similar to that of the studio people in an ad agency. As studio people take an art

132 WHO: The Obligatory Glossary: Roles and Responsibilities in the Web World

director’s comp and make technologically-oriented changes to it so that it can be handed off to a printer, web technicians take a web designer’s Photoshop comp, cut it apart, and render it in HTML, JavaScript, and other languages as needed. They also will render the graphic elements in web-appropriate formats.

If you were wondering, the difference between web technicians and web developers is largely a matter of experience, knowledge, and salary. A web technician may cut your comp apart and write HTML; a web developer is more like a technology designer who envisions powerful transactions and writes advanced code in several different languages to bring those visions to life.

Web developers are as critical to the process as lead designers, whereas web technicians are more like junior designers. Junior designers might create buttons or develop alternate color schemes under the supervision of a senior designer; similarly, web technicians generally do lower-level programming tasks than web developers. Some don’t program at all but simply use cut-and-paste JavaScripts (as do many web designers).

In smaller companies (or in large companies when there is a time crunch), there are no web technicians; web designers execute their own designs in HTML, JavaScript, and other languages as needed. This book will prepare you to do that part of the job, making you that much more employable and giving you that much more control over the process. (And as designers, we all like control.)

Even if you always work in large companies, your knowledge of these processes will enable you to work closely with web technicians, often in a supervisory capacity—as if they were junior designers helping you execute your campaign. It also will enable you to self-publish your creative work if you find, as many of us do, that the Web is the greatest thing since sliced bread, and you have an urge to do creative work even after hours.

We started this chapter by mentioning that titles are often confusing in this business. The same thing holds for job responsibilities. While there are plenty of junior and mid-level web technicians, there are also web developers who handle these tasks. Regardless of anyone’s stature, it goes without saying that you should be respectful to all your teammates because that makes life better.