The Future of Internet Technologies-HTML5, jQuery...

Web life isn't as futuristic as it may seem, or is it.   At what seems like the speed of light, technology grows old and is placed on the back burner; sometimes as fast as 6 months after it's inception.  And somewhere in all these bites of chaos are the latest core advances in web technology, hurtling developers into a learning frenzy to stay ahead of the curve.   Here is a list (as compiled by Tech Republic) that outlines the newest version of web technology standards:

• HTML5: While HTML5 may not be a fully finalized standard yet, it is not changing very much at this stage. Right now, it is usable and has a decent amount of implementation in browsers. You should start learning it now.
• CSS: If you are not already familiar with CSS, now is a good time to learn it. Browser support keeps improving, and Internet Explorer 6 is now a small enough portion of the market that many developers feel safe in ignoring it.
• Web services: Every major server-side development language has a framework or set of libraries for easily producing Web services, such as Windows Communication Foundation(WCF) in .NET. It should not take much learning to understand the basics. You will want to especially learn how to produce JSON output, which is quickly becoming the lingua franca of Web applications. Also make sure that you understand RESTful Web services. While they may be more work to consume than SOAP services are in a modern development environment, they are much more universally accessible.
• JavaScript: The new application development paradigms require a lot more JavaScript knowledge than it takes for traditional ASP.NET or similar development requires.
• jQuery: jQuery has become the client-side development framework to use; it seemingly can do it all. With an extensive set of plugins, if there is a client UI trick you need to try, there is a good chance that jQuery can do it for you.

The writing was on the walls for CSS nearly 10 years ago, it has been a core staple of the web diet for developers  who create cutting edge appeal in their websites.  Flash has clearly been replaced by jQuery, and it is easy to understand why with the lack of security issues that plague Flash, jQuery is robust, dynamic and a safer choice.

As a web developer, "continuing education credits" are critical.  Where we don't receive any industry credits for keeping up with the whole of technology standards as they roll forward, we certainly do receive the benefits of stronger and more dynamic web development projects that aid in ease of deployment and long-term maintenance.