I think what Desirea said about mom and pop shops needing simple web sites versus other companies needing more cutting edge design is very true, however, James, you are more than capable of reviewing a portfolio, identifying designs that suck and not allowing those providers into the Xemion directory - I don’t think you need a panel of experts to do that. On the other hand, if you are strapped for time, then you may not be able to do all of the review work single handedly. If that is the case, then you would need a panel, but I don’t think you need 3-5 people to review each company who applies for listing in your directory. Just get a few trusted people (experts) to each review a share of the potential listings on their own, not as a group, and decide whether the designer/firm meets Xemion standards or not.

While I would be a hypocrite to say that some kids know what they’re doing, they are going about it in all the wrong ways. I, too, would be firm advocate of having a panel of three to five REAL experts (with experience as well as up-to-date knowledge of technology and methods), as this would weed out those “firms” I’m talking about.

Sorry if that seemed like a flame, but I’m sure many of you can relate and understand my frustration, as it is clearly mimicked around the web.

I think you are probably on the right track with the idea of a badge on the actual listing, and I think the wording should go something like “Xemion Top Pick” or “Xemion Category Winner”. Would you be okay with changing the focus of the effort to rewarding exceptional efforts and possibly using the word “criteria” rather than “standards?”? It seems like a positive acknowledgement of accomplishment and may encourage others to meet the bar you set.

The more I think about the security issue brought up by Desirea, the more I think it’s a worthwhile topic on it’s own. Despite all of the security testing that we did (above) for enterprise Web products, we never used the word “secure” to describe a deployment. We said “more secure”. In any kind of security effort, the best effort (including testing scans or independent verification) can only test for known vulnerabilities, and hackers are always looking for new ones.

So here are a few links about known vulnerabilities in common Web 2.0 practices.

http://www.news.com/The-security-risk-in-Web-2.0/2100-1002_3-6099228.html
http://www.net-security.org/article.php?id=949&p=2

Less esoteric but probably at least as applicable to the topic are these best practices:
1) 3rd party payment vendors specialize in collecting credit card data securely, and they have insurance to cover any issues that might arise. Use them for ecommerce websites.
2) Any kind of personal data collected by a website should be transmitted through a secure (https) connection.

So this was pretty long winded. I’ll try to keep it shorter in the future. I think the effort to improve the quality of the Web designers on Xemion is a good one and has great potential. Thanks for the opportunity to collaborate on it.

So… bearing in mind that the free market has a way of eliminating the chaff anyway, why not develop your Top Design Companies topic into an opportunity for recognition of companies that by Xemion standards are exceptionally good. You could then publish the standards and allow firms to compete for placement. You could still monetize the placement by adding an entry fee. Thoughts?