Category: Future

Google enters browser battle

When I was finalising my book manuscript in early 2005, around 94 per cent of all web users used Microsoft’s Internet Explorer, but as I noted on this blog later that year, other browsers – notably Mozilla’s Firefox – were beginning to nibble away at IE’s dominance (see Webware post for latest stats). And earlier …

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Permanent link to this article: http://extranetevolution.com/2008/09/google-enters-browser-battle/

Urban BIM

Two months ago, I wrote about Show Us a Better Way, the UK Cabinet Office’s Web 2.0 competition for ideas to unlock the potential of publicly-held information. The flow of ideas shows no signs of stopping, and while some ideas are repeated, there are occasional gems. Today, I noted a suggestion from a Michael Blom …

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Permanent link to this article: http://extranetevolution.com/2008/09/urban-bim/

Construction gets Twittering

On Friday afternoon, I got my first Tweets from UK trade magazines Construction News and New Civil Engineer, as two of the Emap Construct titles took their first steps into the Web 2.0 world of Twitter. Initially, @CNPlus went into overdrive repeating itself several times over but it’s now sorted out an RSS problem with …

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Permanent link to this article: http://extranetevolution.com/2008/09/construction-gets-twittering/

4Projects to open US and Canada bases

UK SaaS-based construction collaboration technology vendor 4Projects is looking to establish bases in the US and Canada, reports north-east England regional newspaper The Journal. A year after its private equity-backed MBO (see post), marketing director Duncan Mactear says “We have continued to increase revenue, turnover and most importantly for the region, we have increased the …

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Permanent link to this article: http://extranetevolution.com/2008/08/4projects-to-open-us-and-canada-bases/

AEC’s Software-plus-Services player to deliver BIMaaS?

I have talked before about Microsoft‘s much-discussed Software-plus-Services strategy before (here, for example), and it strikes me that there is an interesting corporate parallel in Microsoft’s approach to the rise of Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) in the attitude of Autodesk, albeit on a different scale. Like Microsoft, Autodesk has made its name by selling conventional, locally-hosted CAD …

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Permanent link to this article: http://extranetevolution.com/2008/08/aecs-software-plus-services-player-to-deliver-bimaas/

Chewing the CAD

Cadalyst Manufacturing has a thought-provoking viewpoint article written by J. Paul Grayson, CEO of Alibre, that suggests “the CAD software market is stuck in time, somewhere in the late 1970s or early 1980s, when mainframes and minicomputers were the primary platform of professional computing”. Despite the advances in personal computing in other fields, including the …

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Permanent link to this article: http://extranetevolution.com/2008/08/chewing-the-cad/

BIM for Building Engineers

The latest Cadalyst AEC Insight column, Modeling Technology for Building Engineers, by Jerry Laiserin talks about the particular challenges of coordinating designs produced by architects with the needs of engineers involved in designing mechanical, electrical and plumbing (MEP) services. It reiterates a message conveyed several times over the past year or so: there are different …

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Permanent link to this article: http://extranetevolution.com/2008/08/bim-for-building-engineers/

Next step: Collaborative procurement of collaboration?

Over on [my employer] BIW Technologies’ SaaStainability blog, we have been following UK government’s efforts to green its ICT operations. Following the publication of a new Office of Government Commerce delivery plan that talks about collaborative procurement of central goods and services, including ICT, we wonder if this latest sustainable procurement drive might extend to …

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Permanent link to this article: http://extranetevolution.com/2008/08/next-step-collaborative-procurement-of-collaboration/

CADaaS again

My discussions earlier this year about whether CAD solutions might be delivered as Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) applications (see CADaaS continued, for example), are being echoed by other bloggers. The latest to consider the Future of CAD and cloud computing is Lou Gallo on the Solidworks: Heard blog. Update (12 August 2008): Even one of Autodesk’s resident …

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Permanent link to this article: http://extranetevolution.com/2008/08/cadaas-again/

Think no more

Zerochampion blogger Phil Clark is today (Think RIP) coming to terms with publisher CMP’s decision to discontinue its sustainability conference/exhibition event, Think – the latest manifestation of which, Think 08, I attended earlier this year. As the event organiser, he lists various reasons behind the decision: Crowded market/branding Names – “we were too late to …

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Permanent link to this article: http://extranetevolution.com/2008/08/think-no-more/

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