Thursday, December 31, 2009

Professional resolutions: Wave, connect and streamline

As television and store advertisements are shifting from "buy this, eat this, drink this" mode to "lose weight, organize this, exercise more" mode, I've been thinking of various resolutions for many categories of my life as well. Here are my professional resolutions for 2010, which I will write about and hope you will help keep me accountable on:
  • Figuring out Google Wave: I've had an invitation for about three months, and I've visited the site about four times. I'm connected to a handful of waves, but I find them about as easy to follow as an e-mail thread with 15+ messages. Is it because I don't have enough daily contact with the site? Is it because I don't know enough people on it? Is it because the people who use it are as lost as me? Is it because Wave is trying to do too many things at once? These are the questions I hope to resolve in 2010. (And if anyone wants to include me on Waves or have one of my invitations, I can be found at davinagould@gmail.com.)

  • Connect with other graduate and professional school marketing professionals: I've had the pleasure of connecting with many higher ed communicators on Twitter and a few who work specifically with law schools and business schools, but I'd love to connect with more of you out there. I'm especially interested in learning more from those in the health sciences—my law school has a few dual-degree programs and I'd love to find out more about what makes prospective medicine, nursing, or public health students tick. Suggestions on connecting with peers in every category (business, law, health, liberal arts) are welcome!

  • Get more done in less time: I know, this resolution is hardly original, and as a working mom, it certainly isn't limited to my professional life. But with so many new online resources for streamlining activities and managing priorities, I'm bound and determined to find new applications for accomplishing this goal.
What are your professional resolutions for 2010? Any suggestions for helping me with mine? Best wishes to all for a wonderful new year!

Wednesday, December 9, 2009

What Web development languages are colleges using?

Earlier this year, I surveyed the University Web Developers listserv about Web development languages. Here are the long-overdue results:

What Web development languages do you use at your college or university?
  1. PHP (77.1%)
  2. JScript (38.6%)
  3. Perl (31.3%)
  4. Cold Fusion (25.3%)
  5. ASP Classic/VBScript (22.9%)
  6. Java (21.7%)
  7. ASP.net/VB.net (18.1%)
  8. Python (16.9%)
  9. Ruby on Rails (14.5%)
  10. C#.net (9.6%)
  11. JSP (9.6%)
  12. Other (6.0%)
What Web development languages do you think will be mainstream five years from now?
  1. PHP (81.9%)
  2. Java (43.4%)
  3. Ruby on Rails (38.6%)
  4. ASP.net/VB.net (36.1%)
  5. JScript (34.9%)
  6. C#.net (25.3%)
  7. Python (24.1%)
  8. Perl (18.1%)
  9. JSP (14.5%)
  10. Cold Fusion (13.3%)
  11. Other (8.4%)
  12. ASP Classic/VBScript (3.6%)
The survey was completed in July 2009 by 83 university Web developers. Yes, we recognize that we can't really foresee what might be around in five years, but for the purposes of planning now, this survey was extremely helpful. Thanks to my trusty Web developer Russ Wright and to all who participated!

P.S. To the Web developers reading this...do you agree with these five-year projections, and if so, what factors keep the language around?