Why does the term webmaster still exist?
This ancient relic needs to die.
I was at a client meeting recently and this ugly duckling kept rearing it’s head. ‘We don’t really have a webmaster,’ or ‘I’d love to do this, but the since the last webmaster left…’ There is no webmaster position anymore. Nor should there be. Having all content and updates run through one person is an antiquated notion, and it lends itself to a culture of not learning.
If five or ten (or more) people are responsible for keeping a website updated consistently, there is room for great potential. If given proper training and tools, you never know who is going to shine in terms of great writing, or coming up with new business ideas that otherwise would remain dormant in their minds.
Empowering more non-web specific people to have web-specific responsibility is the way of the world now. Just because someone has a degree in finance doesn’t mean they don’t have a lot of good to add to a website.
If you have a webmaster, then have them focus on IT related issues, not content. Don’t let them be the bottle neck that prevents new ideas from getting out. Some of these ideas are not going to be great, or have the desired effect, but you need to fail to learn how to grow. Plus, giving more people more power can make them feel that much more important, and that is an invaluable marketing tool.
