In you are an architect, engineer or construction professional, your work is governed building codes.
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The ability to research codes via the Internet will free professionals from the leash of the book and save them valuable time and money.
The International Code Council (www.iccsafe.org), a membership association dedicated to building safety and fire prevention, develops the codes used to construct residential and commercial buildings, including homes and schools. Most U.S. cities, counties and states that adopt codes choose the International Codes developed by the International Code Council (ICC).
For years these codes, which set the standards and minimum safeguards for everything related to construction from architecture to zoning (A to Z), were only available in printed text format.
- According to the International Code Council, for thousands of years, building codes and regulations have protected the public. The earliest known code of law—the Code of Hammurabi, king of the Babylonian Empire, written in 2200 B.C.—assessed severe penalties, including death, if a building was not constructed safely.
AEC Innovations, LLC, an Arizona company, last year (2004) reached a licensing agreement with the ICC, and developed GoCodes.com, which enables subscribers to access the building code books from any Internet-enabled computer.
The building codes are accessible in HTML format, but are not be available in a downloadable format. However, there are capabilities to cut and paste.
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AEC Innovation added value by making them searchable, cross-referenced, and linked. A convenient index feature makes for easy navigation. The publishers promise periodic updates to the database as they are received from the ICC.
GoCodes.com co-founder Jason Lee said, “The ability to research codes via the Internet will free professionals from the leash of the book and save them valuable time and money.”
Annual subscriptions range in price from $13 for the 2000 International Private Sewage and Disposal Code to $54 for the 2003 International Building Code. Volume discounts are available.
Additional information is available at www.gocodes.com.
Mequoda Comment
Putting resources such as building codes online is trend. The ICC could have taken the lead in making its database available online, but apparently opted not to do so. The entrepreneurs at AEC Innovations seized the opportunity and licensed their subscription website content from the ICC.
Doubtless there are other opportunities for web-savvy entrepreneurs to license content that, up until now, has only been available in print, and to publish it online on a subscription website.
