News
Today the Ingeneers Network Australia site is officially launched. It was already up, receiving many small adjustments, but now it is ready for members. And, it's about to revolutionise the Australian engineering community.
The network was launched with one goal:
Make it easy for any engineer in Australia to find and contact another engineer who can help them.
There are tens of thousands of engineers in this country. Many of them are members of Engineers Australia or APESMA or other more specialised organisations. Some of these memberships cost around $500 a year. However, there is still very little opportunity for engineers to really connect with each other.
If engineers can really connect with each other, then they will have a much greater opportunity to help each other improve their skills, knowledge and careers. There would also be a corresponding increase in the quality of engineering practiced in Australia, and a general increase in Australia's competitiveness.
Competitiveness is basically a country's ability to solve problems faced at home and abroad, and to find solutions. Engineering itself is basically about solving problems. That's why a strong engineering community provides a strong level of competitiveness; the country's problems can be quickly dealt with to make things better for everyone.
Engineers of all disciplines are invited to join. As long as they are the type of engineers who might be called ‘ingeneers' in other parts of the world. The invitation is also extended to technical professionals in related fields such as metallurgy and other sciences that naturally interface with engineering.
The key is to have something to offer the rest of the community.
Initially, only the free standard membership will be offered. This level of membership only allows members to set up their profile. However, once numbers are good, then a full membership level at $3 a month will be offered.
The nominal fee is simply to ensure that people think before they join, and that they are serious about participating in the community.
During the interim period between launch and the point when the full membership is offered it is expected that members will set up their profiles. That way they will be ready to take advantage of their upgrade to full membership.