Revit Inside - Getting on the List

I started the blog Revit Inside back during April 2006. But when the Revit Structure blog BIM and Beam posted about it the other day I realized that I never really mention it much here on Revit OpEd. I do have a link for it on the sidebar.

It has been growing steadily, quietly for the last three years. I see a surge in requests when it is mentioned at a user group meeting, or a reseller happens to mention it during a conversation etc. There have been quite a few since BIM and BEAM's mention of it too.

The premise of the list is quite simple. Your firm name is a hyperlink to your company website with the relevant location information. The only thing we have to manage is a simple bit of information. Your own site does the selling.

Over the last three years I've had a couple of requests to make the list more comprehensive. There is much more that firms would like to know about your firm before contacting you. Such as How many projects you've completed, how many staff use Revit, How long have you been using Revit and many others. Another request is to allow the list to be searched geographically.

I've considered a Google approach to the list where you type in a search criteria and then provide a result but the list hasn't been so big that a short period of scrolling provides a comprehensive look at all the firms listed. For now I plan to leave it alone so the list is longer and more impressive.

As for providing more information that would require much more information from firms who want to be on the list. This would require joining the site, membership etc, so that you could edit your own information when it changes. Instead of going that route I think that firms that use Revit could/should provide a Revit page on their own sites that can provide the necessary background and do so in their own words.

Oh, as for actually getting on the list visit the Revit Inside site for instructions. If you are in a hurry you can start an email to me now.

Web Database and Revit Inside

I'm writing this here because I don't want to muddy the waters at the Revit Inside blog with a new post. First, thanks to every firm that has asked to be on the list. It has grown steadily and even more so lately. The number of requests has tripled in the last few weeks. Which brings me to the point of this post.

I lack the knowledge and time to take the Revit Inside list to the next logical level. I'd like to be able to provide a searchable list that provides more information to visitors and even makes the process of getting added more automatic.

I've received a number of suggestions lately that indicate to me that the list has reached the tipping point where it ought to become a bit more mature and informative. Let's face it I was selfish, I made it easy for me, sort of. It is just a list of hyperlinks to web pages. The burden is completely on the visitor to do the research. I still believe that responsibility remains with the visitor but I could do a lot more to make it easier to do that research.

For example a firm could provide: (based on some suggestions)
How long have they been using Revit?
How many active projects?
How many Revit users?
How many completed projects?
How many projects involving other Revit firms? (collaboration experience)

These are just a few of the possibilities. I don't want to get into judging a firm myself and thereby possibly insult or alienate a firm and its staff. So the site would permit each firm to do their own "talking" through various criteria.

The first step toward doing this is using a database. That's "easy", I know how to make databases. What I lack is the web side of making it accessible. Currently the blog is easy, it is free and hosted by Google's Blogger. Making it a web application means hosting elsewhere and that means cost. To avoid advertising or other funding approaches I'd like to first look at economical approaches. I could use "kindred spirit" help with the web development side. Are "you" interested? Let me know via steve at aecadvantage dot com.

Thanks to those who have contributed ideas, thanks for caring enough to do so.

Cheers!

P.S. Thanks to Chuck, the inspiration for it (Revit Inside) in the first place.