In the past month, I’ve been asked several times if my degree in Computer Science has helped me in my web development career. I always find this question hard to answer.

Part of me wants to say that yes, it helped me. I learned Object Oriented programming. I learned about design patterns, use cases, and documentation. I learned how to work on team projects, how to program on a Linux OS (ha!), and how to take tests. Mostly, I learned that I do not care for software development.

Even so, a large part of me wants to say no, it did not help me. Almost everything I know in regards to web development (HTML, CSS, SQL, PHP, Photoshop, the list goes on…) I know because I took it upon myself to learn it in my own time. Outside of class, I did web projects for myself and others. I found two internships that allowed me to practice my web development skills because I did not have that opportunity in my classes. If I had done nothing in my own time and relied entirely upon my schooling in CS to find me a web development job, there is absolutely no way that would have been possible.

I’m positive I’m a better web programmer because of my CS degree and it certainly helped when looking for a job. Every job application I’ve seen for web development wants a CS degree or equivalent work experience. It’s nice to know I have both.

However, I also feel like what I learned in those 4 years of school (and $30k later) I could have learned in my own time. In this day and age – where a 12 year old kid can teach him or herself C++ from the comfort of his or her bedroom – I’m not entirely sure college has as much value as it once did. With information becoming so widely available on the internet, should the same importance be placed on a college education as it once was? Who’s to say that a high school graduate, who has been doing web development since he/she was 10 years old, is not as qualified (if not more qualified) than a college graduate who only has 4 years of CS under his/her belt?

But I’m not here to undermine the importance of college. College is very important for some fields. I’m glad I had my college experience, and I would probably do it again if I had a chance (although maybe a different degree). But as far as I’m concerned, my own motivation, initiative, and passion for web development is what got me where I am today – not a $30k piece of paper.

What do you guys think? Was college useful for you, or not? If you didn’t go, are you happy with your decision?

It seems everyone is talking about Twitter lately – What is Twitter? How will Twitter make money? What will happen to Twitter once it goes mainstream? Twitter, Twitter, Twitter… – so I’m going to go ahead and jump on the bandwagon and add my own two cents.

My friend Henriette just wrote a great post on her blog explaining the differences between Facebook and Twitter. Her post got me thinking, because it was only two weeks ago that I attempted to explain to my mom what Twitter was, and I found I had a hard time doing so. I KNEW what Twitter was, but I couldn’t explain it very well, especially to someone who is not as technically inclined.

Henriette nailed it right on the head when she said,

“You can explore people on Facebook. You can explore people on Twitter. But where Facebook is great to find out a lot of stuff about people based on a context, Twitter is great at exploring people based on conversation and interactions.”

A lot of people think Twitter is stupid (ie, my coworkers), and to give them credit, much of the stuff that is posted IS pointless (many of my own tweets included). However, what makes Twitter great isn’t the individual tweets a person makes, but the collective of tweets and the interactions you are able to make with complete strangers (and companies). As I tried explaining to my mom, “It’s like texting, chat rooms, and message boards combined.” Not a very great explanation, but it worked for her.

I also enjoy Twitter because it provides real time media reporting and channels. I knew about the plane crash in the Hudson river and Lance Armstrong’s recent injury hours before my coworkers read it on CNN. At SXSW, I was able to see which parties were the ones to be at, could read comments and questions regarding a particular pane, and was able to interact with other people in line for Diggnation – in real time.

How will Twitter make money? I don’t know. Gary Vaynerchuk posted a great video on his theory, and Jason Calacanis posted an interesting mockup of his idea. I would also imagine Twitter also has massive amounts of data relating to any one subject, and could pull that data and present it in a clean and concise manner to a company that wants to know what people think of their brand (although that company could easily do it themselves with the search feature, but the companies who don’t know how to use Twitter may be willing to pay).

Personally, I love Twitter. I do recognize that what I tweet about – and what many others tweet about – is pointless, but there’s also something beautiful in the simple and mundane part of every day life. I know that no one cares what I ate for breakfast, and saying so will not affect anyone else’s life in any particular way (except possibly others who are also passionate about breakfast burritos!). But at the end of the day, I feel apart of something. The fact that people care enough about what I have to say (no matter how mundane) to follow me is amazing, and makes me feel like I have a voice on this big thing we call the internet.

Follow me on Twitter! :)

While I was at SXSW, I picked up on the idea that branding yourself is important, especially if you are an entrepreneur in any way, shape, or form.

Well, duh.

But the chatter I heard wasn’t so much about why it’s important to brand yourself, but how to do so in the best manner possible. Aside from speaking with and listening to some wonderful people at SXSW on this subject, I’ve also read several articles on why I should be using my real name instead of an online handle (the articles revolve around Twitter, but I believe the idea can be carried across all platforms). The reasoning behind this idea is that as people begin to put more and more information about themselves on the web, it is becoming less and less important to distinguish one’s real self with one’s online self. This struck a chord with me as I found it completely true, which led to my decision to change my online name.

Even so, letting go of peachsoda has been hard. I came up with peachsoda03 when I was in the seventh grade (the 03 stood for the year I graduated high school, because really, when you’re in seventh grade, high school graduation feels like it will never come). I had been struggling for a year or two with choosing an online alias I truly liked, until I came across a website called Applesoda. “That’s clever,” I thought. So I did what any girl in seventh grade would do; I copied the idea and modified it to my liking. Hence, peachsoda03 was born (if I remember correctly, I had to add the 03 because peachsoda had already been taken… damn AOL),. It has been my identity since.

I think the reason I liked peachsoda so much was that there was nothing else like it (that I came across at least, aside from Applesoda which soon went away) and have been told on more than one occasion that my name was cute/clever/memorable/etc. However, I also feel that by retiring peachsoda, I am starting a new, more grown-up chapter in my life, and that is exciting.

So, in celebration of this new chapter, I am introducing www.jenniferwilhelm.com with a brand new design. Please let me know if you find any errors, as I’m not perfect and have most likely become blind to my own mistakes at this point. I’ll also try to post here more regularly… Twitter seems to have taken over my desire to blog, but that’s another post for another day.

While I was at SXSW last week, I decided to check out the trade show that was happening on the forth floor. Upon arrival, I was immediately drawn to a booth that was crowded with people. As I made my way to the front of the crowd, I discovered the cutest little USB drives I have ever seen, called Mimobots.

Of course, being a girl (which generally means being a sucker for cute things), I had to have one. I grabbed one of the catalogs and studied it for about 10 minutes before deciding upon the one I would bring home (and believe me, it was a tough choice).

However, the Mimobots do not run cheap; a 2GB one will cost you about $25, which means you are basically paying for the cuteness factor. But apparently, the cuteness factor is worth that to me, and many others, and they were selling like wildfire. I did find it neat that as I was paying for my purchase, the Mimobot salesperson asked if I would be willing to recycle my packaging in exchange for a free protective sock. I love when companies find ways to save both money and the environment!

Everyone I know told me I would have an amazing time at SXSW, and they were 100% right. I’m completely exhausted, but it was all worth it – I learned a lot, was inspired, and best of all, met a lot of great people.

I won’t do my usually play-by-play of each day, but instead touch on a few highlights of the trip.

(more…)