Some years ago I was talking with Jeff about the practical applications of a forum. I envisioned ways to use a forum to bring everybody to the same level of expertise.
This is what Jeff suggested. He would provide space for a private section devoted to Los Angeles County Building Safety. The County employees would be provided access and nobody else. The participants would be able to remain anonymous with the exception of the administrator.
My reasoning for doing this was that there are more than a dozen district offices and well over a hundred inspectors. Training would be easy to push out. A wealth of County specific knowledge could be created. The inspectors could post a picture with a question and one of the hundred County engineers could get a notification and deliver an answer within a few minutes. A word search would have that issue and answer available for years.
I presented the idea to the top guy. He thought that it was a great idea. At a gathering of inspectors, engineers and management, the Building Code Forum was put up on the jumbo-tron screen. The concept was explained.
The district office managers shot it down. They said that they would not have absolute control if we were all shown the page that we were supposed to be on. The top guy was not a leader and the forum was never mentioned again.
Large sums are spent on making permitting and plan checking an online endeavor. That makes sense given the amazing technology available. Not much has been done to enhance the performance of the inspectors. Oh sure, the codes can be on an iPad. And it is clumsy at best with no explanation of the situation at hand. A real time forum would open up possibilities.
So heres my take on why the County abandoned the concept and stops short of helping the inspectors. Every office manager that I worked with said that I write way too many corrections. I would ask them to point to corrections that I should not have written. They would always say that the corrections are valid but there's too many and that creates work for everybody. You know, people complain about the corrections.....they need to have their hand held. Because the managers, other inspectors, and contractors have a limited understanding of the codes.....not a lot of corrections are written.....and then I show up.
So when I tell the County office managers that a forum would level the playing field, they shudder at the thought of all that extra work. If you think about it, the BCF should be mandatory participation by every building department. Why is is not? It takes a passion for the trade. I have shown the forum to inspectors and contractors, some of which are friends, yet none have been interested enough to participate. How many of you have had the same experience?
As to the ads. I appreciate that Jeff has a forum worthy of advertising dollars. The more the better. If there's enough revenue from ads he might be able to buy a car.
