{"id":66,"date":"2009-01-21T13:08:31","date_gmt":"2009-01-21T19:08:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/alliwalk.com\/blog\/?p=66"},"modified":"2009-01-21T13:08:31","modified_gmt":"2009-01-21T19:08:31","slug":"web-design-vs-academia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alliwalk.com\/blog\/2009\/01\/web-design-vs-academia\/","title":{"rendered":"Web design vs. Academia"},"content":{"rendered":"

For a Special Edition publication, the Journal on New Media and Society is looking for papers on Mobile Communication and the Developing World<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are seeking papers for a special edition of the journal New Media & Society focusing on mobile communication and media, and its impact on the developing world. We are interested in papers that empirically describe the use of mobile practices as well as the convergence of mobile and other platforms in the developing world (e.g. Africa, Asia, Latin America, Eastern Europe or other locations in the \u201cglobal south\u201d). Successful papers will examine the integration and use of mobile communication technology and its implications (both positive and negative) in individuals\u2019 lives. We are seeking papers that investigate the global as well as the local appropriations of mobile media use and its relationship to social change and\/or development\u2026\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Hrmm… Could this be yet another good reason why the myriad of professions in the \u201cuser experience design\u201d field need more original research? Interestingly enough, while I pondered that thougth, I came across A List Apart’s post on elevating web design in academia<\/a>. The article listed 3 tips for getting involved:
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

Here are three things you can do today to make a difference in web education:
\n\u2022 connect with a university,
\n\u2022 sponsor an educator, and
\n\u2022 volunteer your time.<\/em><\/p>\n

I do like the idea of getting professionals more involved in education, but I feel that parts of the article\u00a0are confusing the business model of web design companies with the academic model of universities. Companies are for-profit entities that ultimately need to make money. Universities are non-profit organizations that ultimately strive to advance knowledge. The two have motivations that can be, and apparently are for the web design industry, mutually exclusive. Their drivers are completely different and require different credentials to advance their needs. Business needs skill. Academia needs knowledge and degrees. It\u2019s not so simple to simply ask universities to give up the need to hire people with graduate degrees. Universities are more established than web design, so why is it that universities are broken? Why not ask businesses to hire people who are “unqualified”, and then spend time training them to be productive in the context of their business? Why isn\u2019t it that web design businesses should change, or at least change their expectations on who they should expect to hire?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Academia vs. Web design: The Journal on New Media and Society looks for papers on mobile communication and developing communities. Meanwhile, A List Apart posts an article on improving web design education. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4,1,3],"tags":[16,331,15],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alliwalk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alliwalk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alliwalk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alliwalk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alliwalk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/alliwalk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":68,"href":"https:\/\/alliwalk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66\/revisions\/68"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alliwalk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alliwalk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alliwalk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}