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BOOK REVIEW - GET CONNECTED
You're Just A Click Away From Useful
Industry Information
A book review this time of year is
similar to asking me to personally find the missing Mars landing
craft that NASA misplaced. There just doesn't seem to be enough
time in a day, that and its getting too dark for me to read in
traffic. So for this "book" review I will take on the subject of
the Internet.
From the first moment I turned on
my 286 personal home computer I was pretty sure it would crash,
smoke would come pouring from it and I would never be able to
"catch" up with the rest of modern society. Today I look back and
laugh at my ignorance; to be able to point this arrow thing and
then right click seems to me very easy. The next step in my
computer evolution was going to involve turning off the Solitaire
game and finding out how I was going to come up with the
information I needed.
My first step was to open the World
Wide Web - ahhhhh, a truly humbling experience. Whether you’re a
Microsoft or Netscape user makes no difference to me personally.
The key is to have Internet access. From here the choices seem
limitless and while the design of this article is to lead you in
the proper direction for information it also requires you to at
least for the time being stay away from espn.com.
For the architects of this world,
important sites are crucial to everyday design decisions.
Information available at the touch of a button is invaluable.
Several invaluable sites of interest are acquired through search
engines (Yahoo, Hotbot & Lycos). By typing the area of interest,
results are posted via direct or indirect common areas of inquiry.
For instance an easy inquiry of "awnings" via Yahoo yielded 10,044
hits. By using more specific words such as backlit, or
retractable with the word “awning” we can narrow the search down
to 151 for backlit and 604 for retractable awnings.
Trade associations such as the Industrial Fabrics Association
International (www.ifai.com)
allows for members and non-members to view calendars for trade
shows, email and phone numbers for contacting the association.
More specific divisions like the awning division (www.awninginfo.com)
have links to a wide variety of useful pages including a contest
for the best awning design. One especially important page linked
here is the fabrics and frames page. It breaks down byway of a
chart the characteristics of the most popular fabrics, frames, and
attachment guidelines.
Scott Campbell, President of Rainer Industries
and member of the IFAI Board of
Directors states "the IFAI web
sites are successfully driving local architects to our own linked
web site." For more information about the links or membership in
the IFAI; your just one right
click away. Vendors to the textile industry have also set up
useful web sites, which contain information for not only
contacting the company but also direct product information and
designs for use. The Steel
Stitch Company of Atlanta, Georgia (www.steelstitch.com)
has a section for architects, fabricators and consumers. Product
designs are shown in actual use and a simple layout allows easy
access to all of its features. The
Astrup Company of Cleveland, Ohio (www.astrup.com)
a supplier of fabrics, hardware and framing materials includes
their web site in all of its advertising. The site itself allows
customers to access specific product specifications. Janice
Shamblin of the Astrup Company
in Seattle, Washington said "our website has allowed customers to
access information after normal business hours."
The next ten years are now upon us
and, as we speed headlong into the next century, we all are
evaluating more efficient and productive ways of doing business.
Some of us are taking time to read in traffic (not recommended!)
as a way to catch up, others are buying gadgets to keep them in
constant contact with the world - Palm Pilots, cell phones and
digital pagers. With each business now taking time to computerize
for accounting or scheduling requirements it's time to take the
next step. Right click on the icon that says Internet; trust me it
won't hurt.
Steve Fredrickson
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