Replacements for Elsmar Cove

It’s been a few weeks since Elsmar Cove closed and folks are starting to regroup to continue the work that Marc Timothy Smith started.  Face it, pursuing quality within your organization can only benefit from open discussion with others, particularly in today’s global economic environment.  So you’re probably looking for replacements for Elsmar Cove and here’s my suggestions so far:

As I noted in my comments to my blog on the closing of Elsmar Cove, the first place that the moderators congregated was Ohio Bay Specialists at LinkedIn.  This remains a great first go-to site to get in touch with the moderators you “knew” in the past.  You have two choices to find them.  You can log into your account at LinkedIn and search for Ohio Bay Specialists.  Or you can go directly to their public LinkedIn Page at https://www.linkedin.com/grp/home?gid=8333501.

Now, it’s no easy task to operate a forum.  It takes time, expertise, and a topic that folks are interested in.  And all of the “replacements for Elsmar Cove” are in the early stages which means that there is not the depth of information that the long history of Elsmar Cove had generated.  However, each of the following forums has a good number of participants already.  One or more of them should be able to provide you with access to others interested in quality and quality issues!

QualityForumOnline was an early entry into the replacements for Elsmar Cove group of forums.  It’s located at http://www.qualityforumonline.com/ and uses the tag “Continuing in the Spirit of People Helping People” that resonates with Elsmar Cove users.  Here you’ll find your areas of interest divided up by specific standards and specific organizational topics.  So there’s sections for Quality and Environment Standards, Automotive Quality Standards, Aerospace Standards, Medical Device Standards and Regulations, and so on.  Since it’s been online since early July, there’s about 300 participants.  With the nice layout, good membership and thoughtful organization, it’s sure to be an easy forum to use.

QualityRecord started up in mid-July.  It’s located at http://qualityrecord.com/ and has a variety of sections of interest.  You can check out the topical interest items, daily questions or a selection of quality management standards and other topics like statistics.  A library of non-copyright information is provided.  And there is a section for off-topic discussions as well.  A section for lean manufacturing has been set up, but no activity there as of this review.  And if you’re interested, there’s a promotion area for book reviews, consultant listings and so on.  There are over 200 registered users, with about 25% of them posting so far.  There’s about 75 threads that have been generated in the month that the forum has been operational.  It is a forum for all types of quality issues, with no specific area of specialization at this point.

Next on our list is The Quality Connection.  It’s URL is http://www.batrich.com/ and is more limited in scope than the previous two suggestions.  You’ll find sections on 4 quality standards, general discussion, management, CMM programming and funny pictures.  Participation is limited at the moment as the forum was only recently begun.

To round up our list of replacements for Elsmar Cove, there is the more focused Medical Devices Expert Forums.  It’s at http://www.medicaldevices.expert/ and stays true to it’s name — medical devices and their standards rule the day.  There’s a section on essentials, then the site is organized by Medical Device regs, standards, health informatics, other meddev topics and miscellaneous topics.  Nicely organized, you’ll find it a breeze to use.  It’s another early contender, having been started at the beginning of July, and was the first of the replacement forums I was alerted to.  Again, you’ll find that the moderators are from Elsmar Cove so there’s that sense of continuity you’re looking for.

Of course, there’s no true replacement for Elsmar Cove.  The history of information that it contained has now been removed and is unlikely to ever be reposted.  However, you’ll be glad to know that the folks who worked behind the scenes to make it so valuable are continuing to have an active role within the community at large through these new forums.  I hope that you’ll soon find one or more that appeal to you and make use of them on a regular basis.

Meantime, when you need standards, be sure to obey the rules of copyright and purchase your publications from an authorized distributor like Document Center Inc.  You can order your paper format or pdf copies of over 500,000 different titles from our webstore, www.document-center.com.  Or check in with our staff about starting a multi-user Standards Online subscription service for a complete standards solution for your business.  You’ll reach them by phone (650-591-7600), fax (650-591-7617) or email (info@document-center.com.)  We’re your Standards Experts!