But That’s Not My Job: When Everyone Is a Webmaster

"In the Web's current incarnation, the evolved role of the Webmaster--as a team and a team member--has become crucial to the success of a Web site. The Webmaster's Guild defines these roles as evangelism, business strategy, domain expertise, content, information architecture, design, and technology." (A Brief History of Webmastery)

If you're like most users, you don't think being a webmaster is part of your job. SharePoint web publishing is a relatively new feature, and until recently, the majority of websites have been maintained by professional web designers. But business self-service web publishing is a natural evolution in business communications. Consider how your job today includes common daily tasks that once weren't so common.

Do you use PowerPoint?	It gained popularity with Office 2000.
Do you log in to the VPN?	Virtual Private Networks were not common until the late 1990s.
Do you use Outlook?	Microsoft released it in 1998. (Internet email was invented in 1971.)
Do you email attachments?	The MIME attachment format was first introduced in 1996.
Do you use a web browser?	Netscape Navigator came out in 1993, Internet Explorer in 1995.
Do you have a laptop?	The first IBM ThinkPad shipped in 1992.
Do you use the company intranet?	The first corporate intranets emerged in 1990-1992.
Does your job involve creating and distributing PDFs?	Adobe introduced the PDF format in 1990.
Do you do Windows?	The first Windows operating system came out in 1990.
Do you surf the web?	Tim Berners-Lee founded the World Wide Web in 1989.
Do you share files on a Novell file server?	Novell had a 50% share of the market by the mid-1990s.
Do you remember desktop publishing?	PageMaker and the LaserWriter made it a reality in 1984.
Do you use bold, outline, headings, and other formatting?	WYSIWYG editors came in with the Apple Macintosh in 1984.
Do you use a personal computer?	The IBM PC made its debut in 1981.

Thirty years ago, offices had typewriters, secretaries, and a Xerox machine (invented in 1949). Twenty years ago, a word processor was a person, not a software product. Ten years ago, you connected to the office network in the office, or over a dialup modem. The 1990s saw a revolution in office technology and communications. Now the next wave is reaching for the cloud.
Tools like SharePoint help business team communicate in an increasingly collaborative working environment. While the tasks involved may be new to you, web publishing will become familiar as you practice using SharePoint, just as you use Word, Excel, and your web browser today.
Imagine what your job will involve in another ten, twenty, or thirty years! Now go blog about it J.