Subrata Chakraborty

Consultant & Lead Developer at opeldo.com
M.Sc in Computing


Why to choose a career in web development?

Foremost, along with very other aspects of software development the area of web development is contemporary and evolving very fast. Things are moving towards the web from the typical desktop environment. This industry is very dynamic in nature.

Secondly, the combination of analytical, logical and technical thought with the aptitude to bring new idea and to do new things resonant the very essence of human endeavour, which also makes the work very exciting for developers – no matter how many years I have been at it yet there is always new challenge to face, new knowledge / skills to gain and new things to build.

Another aspect of this industry is the challenge it brings to staying current which gives developers the opportunity to push the limits and shape the future of web browsing, design, and technology. Besides, there is a huge growth of career opportunity for skilled and talented professionals. Skilled developers who know how to create great user experiences will only be finding their skills more in demand over the coming years.

My career interest in a nutshell !

My long-term career in this sector availed me with great opportunities to conduct research on various areas of web technologies. During this process, I have built various sites / web applications. My major interest was on the Web engineering / Web development and programming. One of my research was to investigate how Security and Trustworthiness plays a pivotal role in today’s social networking platforms. I have analysed the aspects of “Security and Trustworthiness in relation with social and cultural domain” through a self-developed social media, based on web 2.0 platform called GLIMTO. The objective of the research is to “Investigate and understand the overall management of data in the web application/sites ­ including encryption of data and how private data have been seen and managed by site administrator/ internal employees”. I argue that all these issues can be interrelated even though many users of these systems are not aware of their underlying implementation. In an effort to demonstrate individual stories I have attempted to test the finding by building my own SNS (Social Networking Site).

Why should one consider learning web development? What is bright about the future in the industry?

One of the great reasons is that, the increasing global trends towards the web / internet based technologies. This industry is creative, technical, analytical and almost has no boundary. Besides these, the career prospect and job opportunities it brings is indisputable, web developers can expect a higher than average wage than people in other industries with the same amount of experience.

With the internet continually changing life as we know it, things that excites me about the next generation of web technologies and influencers.

I am very much passionate around the web and its upcoming trends. One of the key attributes of this industry that excites me is; one has to continually adopt cutting age and contemporary methods, tools & techniques. Predominantly, in the field of web design/development, it is absolutely vital for me to match my teaching materials, content delivery with the need of upcoming days for the new generation of learner who are growing with it.

Biggest misconception about the web development job!

One of the misconceptions I often hear about this job task is: “The Site Is Finished, the Job Is Done”. But the truth is, the web is constantly changing. New web browsers, computers, and mobile devices are being released very quickly. Web developers have to be at the top of their games as sites need to be updated and maintained regularly to remain compliant with the industry standard, best practices, and upcoming trends. Whether it is a new SEO algorithm or a new UX aesthetic trend or a completely set of new technologies a web developer and his work must adopt these new changes.

Few sites I admire and why??

There are many sites to be mentioned however in respect of complexity and back-end process Google and its services are my favourite, in terms of daily use, IBM’s developerWorks, TED, TechCrunch, thenextweb, Codecademy, BBC iplayer, amazon. etc. I prefer to build site / web application for tech, business, and social networking companies.

List projects I have worked on :

  • OPELDO.COM (Ongoing development): Open source learning platform for Web Developer
  • VLE (Virtual Library Environment) Application for UK Higher Education sector
  • GLIMTO.Com – A social networking site (Only for research purpose)
  • Property Management Site
  • Various websites for Small and Medium Sized Companies
  • Editor of the yearly magazine for a charitable organization

Ongoing interest / work on research area:

  • Semantic web (intelligent web) for digital media.
  • The viability of social business enterprise through social media sites.