WWW: Beyond the Basics

7. Web Related Careers

7.4. Future Opportunities

The Internet and WWW are changing the way people perform information searches and presentations, sell and buy products, and communicate with others. Although there are many new Web related careers that may result from the growth of the Internet, the four professions that may benefit most in the future are Education, Internet Commerce, Law, and Internet Security.

The Internet and WWW have had a major impact on academia. College students are performing many academic endeavors using the Internet including correspondence and collaboration. Faculty are using the Internet to develop courses, exchange information, and examine students' progress. This leaves ample room for the Internet to expand in the academic environment, from producing Internet Programmers to designing quality applications to be used in education. The Internet technology will have an even larger impact on K-12 education. It is presently changing the way students collaborate, and will continue to allow communication that was otherwise limited by distance in the past.

Although we see many advantages to having the Internet, this grand new communication network comes with problems such as legal and security issues. However, these changes and problems have produced the potential for new jobs and the expansion of existing jobs. Legal issues come about from legal misbehavior such as e-mail fraud, and breach of confidentiality. International export laws produce restrictions on taxes, licenses, and transport of goods across boundaries. Managing proprietary information, programs, and technology is and will be a prominent concern in the future. All of this means there will be a whole new arena for the legal profession. Security issues can abound on the Internet due to unauthorized access, denial of service, malicious altering of information, and theft of information. This opens a host of career opportunities for programmers/analysts who design and code encryption algorithms and use other techniques to ensure privacy and information security on the Web.

With the growth of the Internet, there has been a major increase in conducting business using this technological medium. Some of the advantages of Internet commerce include 24-hour access for customers, and rapid customer service response. There are many organizations that offer online services including financial institutions, home shopping networks, and online newspapers. The future for this business encompasses bringing more interactive services and publications to a larger spectrum of the population. There will also be many more entrepreneurships, new opportunities for distribution, and more businesses interacting among each other ( Internet Commerce Overview ). Internet Commerce is an umbrella for a variety of existing careers opportunities, and therefore will be an exciting market for many highly motivated individuals.

All of the above results in a promising future market in Web related careers. Presently, many of the Web related skills are acquired via self-taught methods. A training trend has begun in which there are Internet schools being started to teach the necessary skills to work in Internet/Web related jobs. The success of the Internet/Web can only determine if these schools are a good investment idea. For now, Colleges, Universities, and Technical Schools will have to accommodate the students attempting to acquire these Web related skills.

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Copyright © 1996 Felicia Doswell, All Rights Reserved

Felicia Doswell <doswell@csgrad.cs.vt.edu>