I’ve no idea what the note above says. But I reckon it’s time we started thinking about Webmasters again.
I always wanted to be a Webmaster. It sounds so super powerful and cool. If a little geeky.
Anyway the more I think about what we do these days and the importance of social media (it’s amazing how much my fingers balk at having to type those two words side-by-side) the more I think that every site needs a webmaster. What I like about the term webmaster is that it implies that one person is the big boss. The master of the site. The person who speaks with the voice of the machine.
When you come across a brilliant site it so often feels like it comes through one person. Or at least there’s a very strong sense of singularity in the way it’s written and presented.
Webmasters would also, I’m sure, be good at Twitter, Facebook and all that stuff. They’re kind of like the Maitre D’ of the site. They’d know the regulars and keep them happy as well as getting new people involved. Looking after blogrolls as well as getting subscribers to an RSS feed.
Webmasters used to be the guys who knew a little about a lot. Not the deep techies but the person who could do updates and bits and pieces of code. The kinds of skills that would make your really good at customising widgets and blog bits.
Anyway next time you’re putting together a site don’t forget to think about who the webmaster is going to be :-)
Yes, I agree.
More or less, and sorry about my english it say:
“Workshop:
WEBMASTER
Devolops the new technology of Information, with the creation and mantinience of web pages and information sistems for the posterior work back”
;)
I agree with what you’re saying, its so often you get to a site and the content seems disjointed and badly though through. That is of course because more often than not it is built and maintained by different people. A webmaster sounds like the kind of job that should be taken on by a good creatively minded producer or a kind of brand guardian that blogs a bit themselves. Its a nice feeling to know that people are engaging with what you’re doing and encouraging to keep it up.
I agree, good post….there’s always the case of the power mad webmaster too though!
Iain, I love the idea and call to bring back the Webmaster. Can I be the webmaster of Google? I think if you really think about it, technology is making it easier for us to become Webmaster 2.0. Try setting up a blog back in 1998.
I can now become a webmaster who is social, knows one or two good sites to view and post video to ;) and at the very least a master of my own content. I’m not sure if this is exactly what you were trying to communicate, but thought it would be great to share this through the lens of new found ability as the result of what allows people to become webmaster nowadays, or at least a reason why they would want to become one.
Thanks for sharing :o
Webmasters should be the center of the universe. They may be called something different now, but they are that key person that gets the marketing and IT sides of operations on the web. You need this person/s to be the brains behind the marketing team’s dream.
Bring back the webmaster, whatever it is called in your team now. Is it you?
I agree with what you're saying, its so often you get to a site and the content seems disjointed and badly though through. That is of course because more often than not it is built and maintained by different people. A webmaster sounds like the kind of job that should be taken on by a good creatively minded producer or a kind of brand guardian that blogs a bit themselves. Its a nice feeling to know that people are engaging with what you're doing and encouraging to keep it up.