{"id":106,"date":"2008-09-04T12:14:52","date_gmt":"2008-09-04T20:14:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.fcsuper.com\/swblog\/?p=106"},"modified":"2008-09-04T12:14:52","modified_gmt":"2008-09-04T20:14:52","slug":"solidworks-online-community-efforts-are-on-par","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fcsuper.com\/swblog\/?p=106","title":{"rendered":"SolidWorks online community efforts are on par"},"content":{"rendered":"

Our SolidWorks online community currently seems to be based largely on individual contributor efforts.\u00c2\u00a0 Discussions regarding SolidWorks are scattered all over the internet in a multitude of forums, a growing number of blogs (though that number does seem to be stabilizing this year), and online resource sites.\u00c2\u00a0 In the past, these websites were far and few between.\u00c2\u00a0 Nowadays, they are fairly well interlinked.\u00c2\u00a0 It is this interlinking that really has started creating the sense of community.\u00c2\u00a0 A lot of the interlinking of websites comes from the 2006-2007 explosion of SolidWorks related blogs, and through the efforts of SolidWorks (namely Richard Doyle) to provide new resources to its user base.\u00c2\u00a0 In a way, Richard has been pulling double duty, by being the man behind the curtain for both the user group community and the online community.\u00c2\u00a0 These are intertwined, but they are different.<\/p>\n

SolidWorks is now giving more attention to the online community.\u00c2\u00a0 One of the earliest attempts was the revamping of 3D ContentCentral, with (in my opinion) marginal success.\u00c2\u00a0 A new and recent endeavor (this year) attempted to take advantage of “organic marketing” (or whatever it is currently called). \u00c2\u00a0This was the whole Smart Button <\/a>affair.\u00c2\u00a0 This new push was even alluded to at SolidWorks World 2008.\u00c2\u00a0 Of course, like most planned organic marketing campaigns, this project didn’t seem to go very far.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

Now, SolidWorks is researching how best to proceed.\u00c2\u00a0 I’ve seen some enthusiastic inquiry by SolidWorks staff.\u00c2\u00a0 Some of my suggestions and ideas have been previously mentioned on SolidWorks Legion to aid their effort.\u00c2\u00a0 Perhaps I should be working for SolidWorks?\u00c2\u00a0:)\u00c2\u00a0 Though some of my comments have warnings or cynical, I am grateful to SolidWorks Corp for supporting the natural organic growth that is going on.\u00c2\u00a0 Maybe they can tap into it more effectively eventually.<\/p>\n

That all said, there is one place where SolidWorks appears to have some level of success in the online community.\u00c2\u00a0 This is in their forums.\u00c2\u00a0 There aren’t thousands of people logged on at one time (and if there was, I imagine it would be chaos), but there is a large number of active users.\u00c2\u00a0 Discussions include the frequent how-to question and answers.\u00c2\u00a0 There are the occasional rants and raves.\u00c2\u00a0 Requests for software improvement are frequent.\u00c2\u00a0 And, included are tips and tricks.\u00c2\u00a0 Though the forums are moderated, it is not done so with a heavy hand.<\/p>\n

Perhaps the forums can be used as an example for SolidWorks on how they can tap into the online community more effectively.\u00c2\u00a0 Simply, provide a useful and engaging resource that will compel individuals to participate (or at least frequently lurk).\u00c2\u00a0 This seems fundamental, but it is something that escapes so many corporations.\u00c2\u00a0 So far, SolidWorks is running par for the course.\u00c2\u00a0 With some luck, maybe they can strike on an idea for the online community that takes off.<\/p>\n

<\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Our SolidWorks online community currently seems to be based largely on individual contributor efforts.\u00c2\u00a0 Discussions regarding SolidWorks are scattered all over the internet in a multitude of forums, a growing number of blogs (though that number does seem to be stabilizing this year), and online resource sites.\u00c2\u00a0 In the past, these websites were far and … Continue reading “SolidWorks online community efforts are on par”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[12],"tags":[264,265],"series":[],"class_list":["post-106","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-resource-review","tag-community","tag-online"],"yoast_head":"\nSolidWorks online community efforts are on par - SolidWorks Legion<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.fcsuper.com\/swblog\/?p=106\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"SolidWorks online community efforts are on par - SolidWorks Legion\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Our SolidWorks online community currently seems to be based largely on individual contributor efforts.\u00c2\u00a0 Discussions regarding SolidWorks are scattered all over the internet in a multitude of forums, a growing number of blogs (though that number does seem to be stabilizing this year), and online resource sites.\u00c2\u00a0 In the past, these websites were far and … Continue reading "SolidWorks online community efforts are on par"\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.fcsuper.com\/swblog\/?p=106\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"SolidWorks Legion\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2008-09-04T20:14:52+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"fcsuper\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@swsuper\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@swsuper\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"fcsuper\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.fcsuper.com\/swblog\/?p=106#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.fcsuper.com\/swblog\/?p=106\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"fcsuper\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.fcsuper.com\/swblog\/#\/schema\/person\/859d9f25668554f7193852892dbad92b\"},\"headline\":\"SolidWorks online community efforts are on par\",\"datePublished\":\"2008-09-04T20:14:52+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.fcsuper.com\/swblog\/?p=106\"},\"wordCount\":479,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.fcsuper.com\/swblog\/#\/schema\/person\/859d9f25668554f7193852892dbad92b\"},\"keywords\":[\"community\",\"online\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Resource Review\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.fcsuper.com\/swblog\/?p=106#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.fcsuper.com\/swblog\/?p=106\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.fcsuper.com\/swblog\/?p=106\",\"name\":\"SolidWorks online community efforts are on par - 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