Following input from DevCon 2015 we have decided to launch a free skills search engine for FileMaker developers.

http://www.devpowwow.com

These are still early days so feedback will be useful to shape it into a useful tool for the FM community (at the very least it will give you some free web exposure).

 

Thanks to everyone's input and support so far.

Dan Rosenstein

RadEffect Inc.

Can you expand on what the feedback from Devcon was?  Very specifically: what is the problem that needed to be solved?

 

(Not trying to be negative in any way, just trying to figure out where this fits in the overall landscape)

We often get too many leads to handle and have to turn down work and we believe that most sole developers have either too much work or not enough and have a hard time evening out their work load.

Large companies (say 10 developers or more) have more flexibility and are more focused on getting more business so have different issues.

The idea was to set up a network for lead generation and distribution and leverage the advantage of size when advertising (this was aimed mostly at sole developers).

The feedback was on the lines of 'we have enough work too but a collaboration network where skills are searchable would be useful'.

There are many FileMaker forums and different tools out there but they aren't focused on skills and some aren't free.

As I mentioned, this is a free site, people are free to join and leave, there is no obligation or cost.

Any constructive comments (which we are receiving and implementing already) will help shape this into a useful tool.

 

p.s. I'm not sure that the DevCon goers are a good representation of the average sole developer (many consider the cost of DevCon or the loss of work too high) so there may still be a place for a leads network

My first thought is, some Native Americans might be offended by this usage of "powwow." Why take a chance?

The idea itself sounds promising. It might be useful to have some kind of reputation feature, but that could be tricky.

The site's appearance is kind of dated to my eye.

PS: Dan, where's Toronot? Anywhere near Toronto?

Some of those fonts are difficult to read ( or cut off ).

 

Fitch: We did consider the name issue (I researched forums on the issue). I don't believe anyone will be offended or has anything to be offended about.

I agree about the dated look - as this is a non for profit venture I am limited in the amount of time we can invest in this for now (I've got a family to feed too). Once the site concept is proven, I will be open for redesign.

The reputation idea is coming up and will be addressed once we see the direction most people think will be appropriate (no point implementing until we reach a critical mass).

Toronot is native American for 'not Toronto' - just kidding, where was the typo? I don't see it... (update: just saw it, thanks)

 

Josh: I agree and had already planned to change the font (although, on all my browsers the text didn't get cut)

Thank you both for the input!

 

Edited September 23, 201510 yr by Dan Rosenstein

Thank you for offering this, Dan.  It will be helpful to many independent developers.  :-)

Thanks LaRetta. I hope it will.

Josh: I have changed the font to something generic for now, hopefully it's easier to read and doesn't get cut.