WHAT/WHEN/WHERE:

The eyes of the web industry will soon be turned toward Chattanooga as the Web Education Rocks Summit, also known as the WE Rock Summit, begins August 4th 2009.

The Open Web Education Alliance (OWEA), an international group of web industry leaders, is joining forces at the Web Education (WE) Rock Summit, to be hosted by the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. The Summit will provide an opportunity to the international leaders of OWEA to gather in Chattanooga to develop foundational documentation that will start a new movement in web education. In addition to building a foundation for the organization, the web industry leaders of OWEA connect with the local/regional community by kicking off the WE Rock Tour in Chattanooga to be held at the Hunter Museum of American Art on August 6th, doors open at 5:30 PM. The WE Rock Tour is a free event open to the public and will feature six of the web industry’s leading professionals who will paint a picture of the past, present and future of web education with a reception to follow the presentations.

WHY:

Web standards are needed to allow everyone access to the World Wide Web. In a society driven by the Web and it’s ever-evolving industry, it is of the utmost importance to ensure that everyone is able to experience the best of what the Web has to offer. This is where web standards and best practices come into play. Web standards, generated by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), promote accessibility for everyone by requiring the structure and development of a web site to adhere to certain guidelines that in turn make the site usable to someone with disabilities and generally user friendly for everyone.

In many universities and schools, web standards and best practices are not being taught; therefore students are not adequately prepared to enter the industry upon graduation. Graduates are then dependent on their future employers to get them up to speed on industry standards. Chattanooga has the unique opportunity to be a part of the solution, as host for the WE Rock Summit. Our community will serve as a guide to encourage other cities to follow our lead in embracing change for the Web and web education. By taking this important first step, Chattanooga will position itself as a hub for technology and innovation attracting the attention of the web industry and providing an opportunity for economic growth in Chattanooga.

Web industry professionals and web educators need to get connected. The WE Rock Summit will allow the international members of OWEA to connect and the WE Rock Tour will allow OWEA to connect with the region’s educators, industry professionals, and students. This connection will bring everyone together around a central methodology with the realization that tomorrow’s web experience is today’s web education.

WHO:

The WE Rock Summit is an open forum for the core members of OWEA to come together to further develop and outline their mission. Three key members of this organization available for interviews and further information: John Allsop, Leslie Jensen-Inman, and Aarron Walter.

John Allsop,
Owner of Westciv, a software development company
Founder/Organizer for Web Directions, conferences for web design and development
Lead for Open Web Education Alliance (OWEA)

Leslie Jensen-Inman,
Assistant Professor of Art, Design and Technology at The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga
Author, Teach the Web
Summit Coordinator

Aarron Walter,
Author, Building Findable Websites: Web Standards, SEO and Beyond
Lead User Experience Designer for MailChimp, a HTML email marketing company
Lead for the Web Standards Project Education Task Force (WaSP EduTF) www.interact.webstandards.org/

In addition to the talents and organizations that these three represent, many other OWEA memebers will be participating in the WE Rock Summit and WE Rock Tour, including representatives from companies like Adobe, Opera and Yahoo, as well as representatives from organizations like WOW (The World Organization of Webmasters), WaSP (The Web Standards Project), WaSP Edu TF (The Web Standards Project Education Task Force), and the W3C (The World Wide Web Consortium).