I found this off of my friend Scott Fegette’s blog - A List Apart is holding an annual survey for the web design market with hopes to get more aggregate data on the topic of Web Design (design, development, project management, writing, editing, information architecture, usability, etc.). It appears they are also going to be releasing this information after May 22nd, 2007, so it’s definitely worth participating in. If that didn’t convince you to participate, they are randomly drawing for some prizes including one free ticket to An Event Apart event held in the continental U.S.; an Apple 30GB iPod, An Event Apart jump drive, or A List Apart T-shirt.

I’ve posted up an initial batch of high-resolution (3072×2304) textures that can be used for various projects which I took in February - they are free to use. I’ve added in the typical stone, asphalt, wood, metal, etc. I’ve also added in some pipes/drains. I plan on posting a second batch soon. View Textures.

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I’m a big fan of using LinkedIn to keep up with old friends and colleagues within the industry. It is truely one of the many sites I frequent at least a few times per week to see what’s happening in my network, whether someone changed jobs, started a new company, added a new site, recommended someone, etc. A short while ago (4 months? I think I’ve lost track of what people call “time”), LinkedIn added a new tool called “Answers”,? which ended up as yet another tab on the main navigation.? At first I thought it was just a help resource section or a support forum, but one day I clicked on it and discovered something completely different. Answers is pretty much a place to get “answers”. You can ask a question, and get answers from professionals within your network, or you can even restrict it to a selection of people in your network. Depending on how relevant your question is to your network, you can typically receive answers within hours… pretty sweet.

Answers? is still gaining a bit of attention and momentum. I have found it to be quite a bit more valuable than using specialty forums… you get a much more diverse audience on LinkedIn, and there are fewer “trolls”. You might want to give it a try sometime - I was thinking of keeping it to myself, but the more who use it, the more valuable I think it will be.

The Nominees and Official Honorees of the 11th Annual Webby Awards have been announced. These winners have been selected from over 8,000 entries representing all 50 states and 60 countries worldwide. Now that’s a lot of web sites… I wish I could see the whole lot instead of their selections!?

Two of my team’s sites were named Official Honorees for the game-related category… very cool! Check them out [1] [2]. This is the second year? that we’ve participated in? the Webby Awards, and the second? year having one of our sites selected, with a site almost winning last year? (I won’t go there). I’m very proud of what my team has done. I still have my sights set on having a Category Winner for the 12th Annual. We will see.