The public, should not need to register to see the information if that is what you are truly about, otherwise you are using them.
What is your real purpose?
My mission is to help Civil Engineers and Designers create better designs. Civil 3D happens to be a tool that I think can encourage better design. Since I made that discovery almost four years ago, I have sought to put myself in a position that allows me to reach the most people with that message.
One of my earliest public expressions of this mission can be found here (and yes I realize interia is misspelled in the hyperlink.
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http://civil3drocks.blogspot.com/2005/07/interia.htmlAs I learned more, worked with more clients through my job as a reseller AE, then on my own projects as a freelance CAD designer, I found public discussion and my blog, Civil 3D Rocks, to be a great way to reach people. When EE asked me to join Civil3D.com and then their team, I found a way to reach more people.
Civil 3D Rocks still reaches about 300 unique visitors every weekday. At its height of technical posting, it reached about 500 per day. For comparison, Civil3D.com gets at least triple that. Often more. That means that every time I post to Civil3D.com with a useful piece of information, several thousand people can read it. Use it. And learn. With any luck, they can make more use of Civil 3D in their office and maybe get closer to that dream of better design.
The first EECast that I did had over 100 live attendees. Yesterday, I had about 100 again. Again, more people that I can reach, help and educate. More people who can tell me their experiences, their positives and negatives. More people that provide me with the energy and material to continue moving forward, doing more, reaching more, learning more.
Mastering Civil 3D is expected to sell a total of about 15,000 copies. Regardless of how anyone feels about the title, or the content, nobody can tell me that there isn't something to be gained and learned from this book. I saw a world that was fighting a software package that had minimal written material to learn from. I have them all on my self. Zimmerman, Ascent, AOTC, Ward, Ellis. Just like I have many Civil Engineering texts, and childcare books and books about keeping horses. Each book has something to offer and contributes to the collective understanding. I see Mastering as another way to reach people with useful information. They may not learn something on every page, but they will not have to fight to learn what is on every page on their own. There is something to begin with. A step towards becoming a user. A step towards better design.
So what is my real purpose? To reach as many people as possible and share what I have learned. They may go a different direction. They may choose not to buy our book or become our clients so that I can work even more closely with them. That is OK. I can only hope that they continue to seek answers and continue to work towards better design.
And with that, my baby boy has finished building towers and is ready for a nap. So I can move to the office again and get some writing done before his big sister gets home.
Bon Courage.
