CIW Community - Get caught in the Web!

One of the things we teach in the CIW Internet Business Foundations course is how to evaluate resources. So, I thought it'd be interesting to take a look at the debate. Most of the debate tends to devolve into a "kids these days" versus "You're so old fashioned" debate. There's more to this debate than meets the eye. So, let's take a look.

Near the end of January, Stephen and I flew over to the Washington DC area, where we were able take Anne Marie Pascoe, our VP of marketing, one some meetings with several of our partners. I'd say we were able to find synergy, take things to the next level, and but I'm past my cliche quotient. Here's the rundown of the meetings we were able to have:

We're proud to announce a new CIW certification: CIW Database Design Specialist. You can read more about it at Certification Magazine: http://tinyurl.com/277lac.

The New York Times put together a pretty compelling explanation for Microsoft's Yahoo! move. But is purchasing a new company really going to change their licensing ethos? Does the word "free" - either as in "free beer" or ""freedom" really compute with Microsoft?

Answer: Did purchasing AOL make Time Warner change its business model?

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So, Microsoft is finally trying to get - as in purchase - the Web with its $44 billion dollar offer for Yahoo!. Funny - Microsoft has never even come close to understanding the open nature of the Web, and it has never really led any real ground-breaking Web movement. Sure, .Net is pretty cool. But only because they saw Java's threat to their platform and then came up with a more logical alternative (for Microsoft-oriented programmers, anyway).

But MS has never been particularly savvy about the Web.

Most of the blog (il)literati eschew such awards, but if you're interested in finding out some of the more interesting or controversial Web sites, check out the 2008 bloggies award Web site at http://2008.bloggies.com.

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Every once in a while, I'll be informed that a popular Web design or development book or course manual is "too broad," or "not deep enough." Such statements are favorites among those who feel if you're not born a Web wonk, you need hundreds of hours of training to get to the right spot. In some cases, I'm sure that there are cases in even the best books where topic coverage is anemic and wanting.

Here's a nice little set of Flash-based tutorials about TCP/IP. Pretty good stuff, and best of all, they're free:
http://www.techtutorials.info/nettcpip.html

These kinds of tutorials should be useful for anyone teaching CIW Server Administrator and Foundations. Plus, they've got a nice little peer-based recommendation system going, so that you can more easily choose the best little videos.

Enjoy!

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While people in North America try to slim down, it would seem that user interface designers are trying to do the same thing. Have you noticed that many of the most popular Web sites today are incredibly simple? If not for their gargantuan success, the thin, sparse design of some Web sites appears almost anorexic compared to what many would have argued until relatively recently is the industry standard. Simple is in. Bloat is out. Check out the following sites to see what I mean:

Networkworld posted the latest salvo in the "Kids these days" argument. What's the argument? That "millenials" (people now between 18-31) are hard to manage. What are your experiences? What about post-millenials? Many in the CIW community teach students who aren't yet 18 - are they different than the millenials?

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