Alan Vonlanthen’s blog

Ever heard of Sandrine Szabo and her web portal www.profession-web.ch?

Well if you haven’t, you’re either not a web professional in the French-speaking Switzerland or you’re working too hard to see what’s going on.

I don’t even know exactly why nor how she got on the scene, but she’s there and that’s just providential.

I’m not sure she’d appreciate the metaphor, but she seems to me like a loving-mama aiming at pampering each one of us with infinite affection. Let me explain…

Most of us are quite autistic when it comes to communicating and networking. I am the perfect example. I can do brilliant stuff but I can’t talk about it… I always have this geeky attitude whenever I’m asked about my work or achievements… For instance, though I claim to be a good popularizer on complicated projects, I have never been able to get my own mum to fully understand what my jobs consists of exactly. Ok, my mum probably isn’t the best example, but I’m sure you get the idea

We are lousy communicators and it is definitely our fault if ordinary people think that ergonomists walk on the moon or that Ajax it just a detergent (or a Greek Hero for the most learned). Instead of hating us for this, Sandrine has decided to help us and to make something out of it, something rather brilliant: www.profession-web.ch, which is a 2.0 portal for, about, and by local web workers. If I recall Sandrine’s announcement after it was launched a few weeks ago, “If your an actual web developer fed up of receiving advertisements for positions of SAP consultants, well, this site is intended for you“.

She has also carried out the “Swiss Web 2.0” initiative, which feeds on her incredible energy and stamina and allows us to get to know each other (despite our natural tendencies) and keep informed of what’s going on on the local web scene.

I am not going to start a philosophical point here, but in short, I am convinced that beyond its obvious advantages, the mere notion of networking is what make us specifically human. And connectors such as Sandrine make the whole thing possible.

On behalf of the swiss web professionals: THANK YOU SANDRINE for what you do for us and please keep going, you’re making this microcosm a better place!