The Marketplace is under renovation. Thank you for your patience.
Behind The Firm List Blog
Goals
I sat down tonight and created another to-do list, or actually a set of goals for this site.
I've done this every few months, to lay out the things I wanted to do for the site as well as to guage where I've been.
Many of the things on the list, I will keep secret, as my personal philosophy in life is not to promise too much and then
disappoint if I don't get the chance to do it, but rather surprise people when I do manage to get it done.
But many of the things on the list are not secrets. Whether they are projects I've started and have appeared in some form
on the site, or whether at some point I've told a group of people that I was going to add something, they have been
announced in some way.
- I want to finish the regional resources for all 50 states by June, 2001. This one is a little ambitious, but with some
help, this could get done. I need any/all resource links you have. Take a look at the New York
resources section as an example of what I am looking for.
- I want to finally implement the forms and listings for individual designers/developers, which I have been planning to do
for a long time. This is not a full-fledged portfolio system, but rather a profile more suited to individuals which would
allow them to detail the important information, as well as keep them from being forced to submit a firm profile form which
may scare some people off. As part of this process, I would like for any individual designers to migrate their listings
over. Individual and firm listings will appear on the same pages, but will be distinguished in some way.
- I'm trying to figure out the best way to arrange the Canada, Australia and UK sections of the site. Just as I revised
the main page on The Firm List to streamline navigation, I hope to do the same for these listings, making them almost
standalone sites (how they were intended). Once I get that figured out, I will separate the US listings from the rest
of the listings and form The Firm List USA as well. I've done this with Canada, Australia and UK in order to make those
listings easier to get to (in many cases, reducing a step) and to provide a standalone site for those heavily trafficked
listings.
- I went through a 4 week period, where I got really good about adding new Spotlights to the site. But some snags in some
of the interviews I began, slowed everything down. I plan on trying to streamline this process, developing a queue of
Spotlights (so that production doesn't sideline the process), and ideally, I hope to add a few different types of interviews
to the Spotlight process (some firm visits, quick ICQ-like chats, etc.)
There's quite a lot more on the list, but I think this is a good enough start, to show you a little of what I have planned,
and the challenges I will be facing, keeping up with new firm submissions while adding new features. All of course in
my spare time.
