Our new Insider House logo!

There’s an interesting time between when a company defines goals and tasks for new projects and when the code for those projects is done enough to be tested and made visible. In a way, that time feels like we, as a company, disappear from view. We’re all busy working on our tasks and we sometimes forget to communicate with the outside world. So this blog post is about doing that communication and letting everyone know what we’re up to, what we’re doing, and give a little insight into our plans (without revealing too much, because some of the things we’re working on are going to be quite a cool surprise!)

First, allow me to present you with our new logo. This summer, we decided that our basic logo wasn’t quite cutting it. While we liked the concept of the “i” inside the “house,” we knew that it was time we got something a little more polished, so we hired a designer, told him what we liked and didn’t like about our logo, and were pleased with where he took it. Over the next few months, as we roll out our new versions and products, we will be using this basic design for all of our sites to create a consistent brand. This has been pretty exciting, because as we point out often, we’re programmers. We make incredible software, and now we’re working with some very talented designers to make it gorgeous as well. This will be reflected across all of our sites and projects.

Model Insider

Model Insider’s next version is looking very impressive. Our list of improvements was huge, and even after a major triage this past summer, we still had a very ambitious list of things we wanted to do. After our four day company meeting this past October, we prioritized the work and have been making serious progress towards the next major revision to the site. First and foremost is, of course, the issue of usability. The number one thing we hear about the site is that it’s incredibly powerful but terribly confusing and difficult to learn and use. We’re taking that to heart and, in addition to enhancing the functionality of the site, we’re simplifying how it works and doing a complete overhaul of the user experience. For better or worse, we took the path of “make it work right” first, and now we’re focused on “make it easy to use.” We think you’ll like it.

The Rocky Horror Online Community

The Rocky Horror Online Community at RockyHorror.org and Rockypedia.org have been more of a success than we could have hoped, and we’re not stopping to rest. We’re hard at work on a complete cast management system that will allow Rocky Horror casts to coordinate their shows, which cast members are available for each show, and many other components of running a Rocky Horror cast. We’re also moving forward with some ambitious plans for serious promotions in 2012 to get, as we like to say, more butts in seats. Rocky Horror is enjoying a resurgence of popularity and we’re doing all we can to help and expand that. Our Facebook page has over 21,000 fans and continues to grow.

Covocity

Covocity is the code name for a new project that will debut on all of our sites. What is it? Well, that would be telling, wouldn’t it? Let’s put it this way – we were discussing how we could improve and enhance some of our core functionality on all of our sites when we had the realization that there was an improvement that was just as obvious as it was evolutionary. Our first reaction was to ask ourselves, “why hasn’t anyone done this yet?!” We still don’t know the answer to that question, but we’re not waiting around to find out – we’re doing it. And soon, we hope, you’ll agree that it’s a giant step forward. We seriously intend to change the landscape with this project and can’t wait to debut it!

Add to all of this some sweeping design changes, and you’ve got multiple white boards full of progress for the first half of 2012. On the back of all of these improvements, we’re working on plans for marketing and promotion to take our platform up a few notches. We’ve spent just over two years getting to where we are now, and we see the first finish line in sight – but that finish line is just the completion of a lap, really, as it signals the start of our next phase of taking this incredible platform and turning it into community sites that far outpace anything else out there. It’s a heck of a goal we have for 2012, and we intend to hit it out of the park.