One subject that fascinates me (and probably me alone I suspect, being a huge geek) is the direction the internet is going in.

I find it amazing that this thing, entity, whatever you want to call it has grown from a small network of relatively simple computers which were born out of a wish to share information between scientists. Facebook alone now states that its users create more than 25 Billion pieces of content each month, and that's just facebook, imagine what that figure is for all sites globally.

I was fortunate that I started with the internet in the very beginning, and I mean the beginning, the first time I went online was on a 50Mhz 486 and a dial-up connection through a 28K modem, and that was lightning fast at the time, well, relatively fast to other machines of the time anyway. I genuinely pity anyone who is denied access to such a huge resource of information, something like the internet is such a wealth of knowledge for scholars as to be unbelievable, yet only 26.6% of people have access to it (according to internetworldstats.com).

This leaves me wondering what is going to happen to the future of this wild-west of information. From a professional point of view, I have a good idea what I would like to see, but I'm sure this would not suit everyone. For example, I'm all in favour of regulation within the web-design and development community. I take pride in my work and always try to do the best job I can, I believe that this leads to growth within the sector. I have however met a lot of cowboys along the way, people who call themselves web designers and developers, but in actual fact are simply people who have downloaded some wysiwyg software off the internet and decided that they are professionals because they know how to press a few buttons. They don't necessarily know anything about coding best practices, accessibility, suitable application of technologies, design, typography, or much else for that matter, yet they can still call themselves professionals.

These are often the same people who give the industry a bad name by charging ridiculous fees and then never completing their projects. I've seen it happen, and these are the people who always turn around and tell you "the client was too difficult to please", "didn't have the budget for it", or "couldn't be bothered".

These type of people are the ones who lead people to believe that little Jimmy, (you know Jimmy, my 8-year-old nephew Jimmy) can build you a top-notch website from his bedroom within a week. No people, that's not how it works. If you want a professional job done when you get your car fixed, you take it to a garage, you don't "give Jimmy a go" because he happens to own a hammer. Well it's the same with your website, think of your website like part of your marketing strategy, not just a fun thing to do on a Friday afternoon. After all, it really is part of your marketing strategy, and I don't care how many "marketing gurus" have already said that. It still is, get over it.