For folks involved in putting up new web sites, having a Google ranking can be important, or one of the most important acts of promotion one can do. Definitely, Google rules when it comes to search. Thus there are whole industries dedicated to Search Engine Optimization (SOA).

Today, almost 6 months from when we registered the iMISCommunity.com domain name, and shortly afterwards went through the many of the steps for domain promotion, Google is finally giving the site some page rank. I suppose this corresponds to the 5-6 months others talk about on the web, in which Google puts new sites in a virtual "sandbox".

Here is a quick status report on progress on iMIS Community.

First, some statistics.

As of May 25, 2006:
There were 163 registered users on iMIS Community. That's about 100 ASIers and 60 partners and customers. I estimate 100 users are active.

There has been a promise for some time by Microsoft to support reporting services on SQL Express. It looks like there are finally delivering on that promise: SQL Express

I thought I'd write a bit about the purpose of iMISCommunity as envisioned by ASI, and how ASI, customers and partners can work together at this site to get even more out of iMIS. But first, a little background.

Web 2.0, collaborative groups and more

If you will, the world has changed tremendously over the last 5 years, and in particular, the last 2 years. According to Thomas L. Friedman's book "The World is Flat", there has been a general "flattening" of the world, the way we work, and the ways we get our information. Folks expect to be able to Google-up information on any subject. Many individuals prefer to find their own answers on the Internet. There are open source movements and some notably successful collaborative projects.