New technologies

The pace of the web is incredible. The technologies we have available today are far superior to six months ago. A year from now, we will use key technologies that don't even exist now. Stylesheets are a specific example of a technology that doesn't exist, but that will dramatically alter our ability to create excellent presentations of information. There are many other examples.

When you consider hiring someone as a key member of your web team, it may be vastly more important how fast someone can learn new technologies, rather than knowing a particular existing technology.

And in this sea of possibilities, you need someone who can identify ways of using technologies that add significant value, rather than just waste bandwidth or distract from your message.

For example, using "cool" Java or Shockwave applets may just be a distraction. On the other hand, presenting information in an animation is valuable in many instances. Letting people download Acrobat files may be very efficient for documents you want your customers to print. High quality images may increase enthusiasm for your product among potential customers (I'm thinking of automobiles as an example). The same may be true of video. But will anyone want to wait a half hour to download a video clip of your President's welcome statement?