Apr 24 2007

Seeing red

A recent Cadalyst article, Reviews Have Architects Seeing Red by Scott Mackenzie, talks about ‘CAD-less’ marking-up of drawings.

He writes: “Over the past several years, I have not seen a whole lot of electronic redlining going on,” before explaining: “The older generation of architects and engineers can be indifferent, hesitant or intimidated by the whole concept of electronic markups.”

He does, however, urge caution before architects consider dispensing with paper-based drawings altogether:

“The more we rely on computers to do redlines, the farther removed we get from the printed product. The young architects and engineers I see coming out of school today seem to have less respect for the printed construction document. They don’t have a good foundation in manual drafting, compared to us older folks. Every firm needs to have a member who enforces good graphics standards and consistency in the drawing set.”

Scott quotes a senior architect:

“I still rely on hard-copy and ink pens. I find this more satisfying because I can see more about the relationships between sheets in the set. Also, the whole WYSIWYG thing does not apply. We frequently see things [on the computer] that somehow do not print.”

Such views are certainly something that I would echo from experience in the collaboration field in the UK (see my November 2005 post, Moaning architects (4), for example).

Scott includes links to various tools used to mark-up drawings in PDF and DWF formats. There are references to Adobe Acrobat and Autodesk Design Review 2007, plus a few others (some server-based): AutoVue Professional (now apparently Vista-ready, according to AECcafe.com), Bluebeam Revu, DWGSee DWG Viewer Pro, CADwizz MaxxV3, View Companion and View Cafe.

No mention of IGC’s Brava! (used by several online collaboration platform vendors – as is Cimmetry’s AutoVue) or the more recent (and free) Autodesk Freewheel product, but Scott has requested readers to make other recommendations as well as pass back their opinions on the afore-mentioned products, ready for a follow-up article next month.

(Certainly, the needs of teams sharing designs online should be considered. I have previously written about various Flash-based review tools, such as ConceptShare or ReviewBasics – new version just released.)

Permanent link to this article: http://extranetevolution.com/2007/04/seeing_red/

Apr 24 2007

Wi-fi? Why worry?

Watching the local BBC television news bulletin last night, there was a brief story about the new City of London Wi-fi network, but the reporter couldn’t help but link it to a weekend news report about health concerns associated with wi-fi networks. Fortunately, such fears have been put into context in another BBC article, Wi-fi? Why worry? (see also Guardian newspaper item: The question: Is Wi-Fi bad for you?):

  • “… they should be calling for the closure of TV and radio transmission towers rather than asking us to turn off our wi-fi laptops. The modulated frequencies that carry Radio 4 and ITV into our homes are just as powerful as the wireless networks, and a lot more pervasive.”
  • “The Health Protection Agency says a person sitting within a Wi-Fi hot spot for a whole year receives the same dose of radiowaves as a person using a mobile phone for 20 minutes.”

Tags: BBC Wi-fi wireless networks City of London

Permanent link to this article: http://extranetevolution.com/2007/04/wifi_why_worry/

Apr 19 2007

BuildingSMART Conference, London

I attended the BuildingSMART conference in London yesterday and, as with many UK construction IT events these days (and despite the presence of significant delegations from Scandinavia and the US), found myself meeting a few familiar faces.

  • Asite people, including CEO Tony Ryan and technical director Nathan Doughty, were there in force to support a demonstration of their collaborative Asite collaborative BIM product (along with representatives of supporting technology providers Octaga and Jotne EPM), introduced by Mark Oliver of Laing O’Rourke. It seemed a slick, well-rehearsed presentation (although, over coffee afterwards, another less-than-impressed delegate said it looked good but he couldn’t see much difference between using a collaboration platform to exchange, workflow and track the audit trail of changes to BIM files and using one to do the same for CAD and other types of files). At one point, Asite referred to the product as cBIM, the same abbreviation used by Oracle (the main conference sponsor) to refer to its technology – Nathan assured me this was a pure coincidence and there was no Asite/Oracle connection.
  • Former Asite CEO Tom Dengenis was also at the event. He apparently liked my reference to him “resurfacing” at BearingPoint earlier this year; he is now chief executive of Coventry-based 4D software vendor Synchro.
  • Another demonstration was delivered by Vico Software, BIW neighbours in Woking (see last week’s post).
  • Recalling my past career at Halcrow, it was good to meet former colleague now technical director Doug Bevan and recent Halcrow recruit Tim Broyd (ex CIRIA); Paul King (formerly TPS Consult, now at Bentley) reminded me of my time at Tarmac Professional Services.
  • Former BIW colleague George Stevenson (ActivePlan Solutions) was there, as was former 4Projects salesman Chris Cook (shortly to take up a new post in the Leeds office of architect DLG); I also met Dushan Ruikar of Arup (husband of former BIW researcher Kirti Ruikar, currently at Salford University but set to return to Loughborough).

BIM: not yet

After my post on Tuesday (BIM – realistically, still over the horizon), I was interested to hear speakers’ forecasts about how long it would take for BIM and IFC technology to take hold. Some businesses (such as Skanska UK, represented by Nick Pollard) were aiming to have made the change by about 2010; others were slightly less optimistic, talking about 5-7 year time spans (with people and process issues the big hurdle – not technology). HOK’s Patrick MacLeamy, one of the founders of the International Alliance for Interoperability back in 1995 admitted that he had originally thought that it would take about five years for the interoperability issue to be resolved; 12 years later….

According to Steve Hagan of the American Institute of Architects‘ Technology in Practice knowledge community, several owner/operator organisations in the US are moving forward briskly with BIM standards, guides, roadmaps and pilot programmes (he mentioned the recently-launched National BIM Standard, the US Army Corps of Engineers’ roadmap (PDF) and information on the GSA website, among many other initiatives). Also US-based, my “Interesting quote of the day” came from Steve Hammond of the US Coastguard. Talking about how making data more visible in one part of the organisation created a virtuous circle of improved information elsewhere, he said:

“Transparency of data breeds self-correcting behaviour.”

Permanent link to this article: http://extranetevolution.com/2007/04/buildingsmart_c/

Apr 17 2007

BIM – realistically, still over the horizon

AECcafe.com has reprinted a couple of interesting articles from AIArchitect by Michael Tardif, both on the subject on Building Information Modelling (BIM):

BIM “not yet”

The first article starts by echoing an argument I made in my book in that, despite the advent of computer technology and 25 years experience of CAD applications in particular: “paper remains the principal medium of information exchange among project team members”, before adding (depressingly): “and there is little evidence that this overwhelmingly common practice will change any time soon.”

With optimistic claims being made about how BIM will revolutionise the industry, Tardif says the technology is available to achieve the vision. However, he then asks (and answers) the crucial question: “is it possible for players in the industry – owners, designers, builders – to implement this comprehensive vision in their businesses today? In a word, no. BIM technology simply has not yet matured…”.

(Recent related articles: Asite BIM; BIM and ‘lean construction’; Use of BIM)

BIM impact

The second article is a set of predictions about the impact of BIM on architects’ business and practice. Tardif suggests there may be fewer liability claims, due to improved quality of deliverables and use of tools to discover design errors and omissions earlier. He also predicts impacts on the quality of information, on the diversity and complexity of the building industry, and on the organizational structure of large design firms:

Large design firms will begin to look more and more like large construction firms…: They will have few employees and little equipment of their own relative to their workload and billings, and instead will manage large networks of highly specialized design subcontractors on a project-by-project basis. This will foster the growth of more—not fewer—small, highly specialized design firms able to command a premium for their specialized services.

Coincidentally, this is similar to a prediction I made in my book two years ago, but in respect of construction collaboration technologies (aka: ‘extranet’ systems) not BIM:

“… some AEC professionals have already opted to work as freelances or as independent consultants, undertaking a succession of contracts of their own choice instead of working for an employer. Particularly in the consultancy sector, just as small firms might combine with others with complementary skills and/or resources, so experienced individual professionals could combine with other independent practitioners to compete for work and then form part of the multi-disciplinary team appointed to undertake the project. Such teams would have a more direct relationship with the customer and this may help customers procuring a succession of projects achieve greater continuity of people…. Being formed of a group of independent ‘e-lances’ or ‘tech-nomads’, the operational overheads of such a multi-disciplinary consortium are also likely to be lower, making their services more cost-effective – an advantage likely to be underlined if the team also uses low-cost collaboration technology to manage and share its data.

Permanent link to this article: http://extranetevolution.com/2007/04/bim_realistical/

Apr 13 2007

ex-Graphisoft execs establish Vico

As previously mentioned, the BIW office in Woking is in a building which also houses software business Graphisoft – no, make that “housed”. Graphisoft… some of the firm’s executives have now set up a new business, Vico Software, having acquired the Graphisoft Virtual Construction product line following the December 2006 acquisition of Graphisoft by Nemetschek. Now, 21-25 Church Street West, Woking is Vico Software’s main UK office.

Good luck, guys – isn’t it time we had another drink down at Archee’s?

Permanent link to this article: http://extranetevolution.com/2007/04/exgraphisoft_ex/

Apr 13 2007

ePIN overhauls website (3)

Just over a year ago, I mentioned that, ePIN, one of the smaller UK vendors of construction collaboration technology had refreshed its website. This must be an annual task, for they have just done it again (ePIN director Robin Shipston told me in October that it was “being re-vamped as we speak”) – and it is one of the nicest-looking websites in the space.

The site has lots of white space, navigation is clear and simple, there is now a news section (but without any content at the moment), and the old, somewhat unconnected photos have been replaced by a more coherent set of … er … goldfish images.

Why are these relevant to collaboration? The analogy, perhaps, relates to “living in a goldfish bowl”, where there is great visibility or transparency about what is going on inside.

ePin-goldfishThis image, and the shoal of fish all pointing in the same direction (aligned perspectives, perhaps), work for me, but I am puzzled by the two images showing fish apparently trying to escape. Are these team members refusing to collaborate?! (More appropriately maybe, an image of a goldfish jumping out of one crowded bowl into another, empty one came up when I viewed ePIN’s vacancies page).

One possible downside of ePIN’s use of goldfish imagery is the common misconception that goldfish only have a short memory – not a good connection for customers to make when your applications need to retain knowledge and information audit trails about the project.

I even explored some of the website’s boring bits, and there are a couple of oddities (perhaps reflecting ePIN’s user of ‘boilerplate’ text):

  • the Terms of Use cover some currently irrelevant issues such as abuse of ‘Communication Services’, while any disputes will be “governed by the laws of the State of Washington, U.S.A. and you hereby consent to the exclusive jurisdiction and venue of courts in King County, Washington, U.S.A.” – a bit strange for a UK company based in Lincolnshire.
  • similarly, the Privacy policy talks about collecting ZIP codes (a north American term for what we in the UK call postcodes)

Finally, unfortunately, the site’s PDF document downloads weren’t working.

(Recent related post: Business Collaborator website overhauled)

Permanent link to this article: http://extranetevolution.com/2007/04/epin_overhauls_/

Apr 11 2007

Cadweb misclaims ISO leadership

UK extranet provider Cadweb says it “is the first Project Extranet to be certified to the new International Standard ISO/IEC 27001″. Its news release also says that it is “the only Project Extranet to be certified to this standard”. Wrong on both counts, Cadweb, and by over a year.

ISO/IEC 27001 concerns information security management systems, so it is the infrastructure and hosting regime that is the key issue – not the applications themselves.

BIW Technologies (my employer) deploys its services via managed hosting provider, Attenda, Europe’s first provider of Total Managed Hosting supporting complex applications developed on the Microsoft platform (and winner of the Best Managed Services Provider at the Data Centre Europe Awards last month). Attenda was one of the first UK companies to be certified against BS7799 part 2, and when this was superseded in October 2005 by ISO/IEC 27001:2005, Attenda was one of the first UK companies to be certified by BSI as compliant with the new extended standard (on 10 January 2006). With all BIW users’ interactions with the collaboration system being completely managed via Attenda’s infrastructure, this meant BIW’s collaboration platform was the first ‘extranet’ system managed on a system certified to ISO/IEC27001:2005 (see 21 February 2006 news release).

By the way, this is not the first time that Cadweb has tried to claim industry leadership on hosting. It made a similar, inaccurate claim in UK trade magazine New Civil Engineer in March 2002 – prompting BIW CEO Colin Smith to write to the editor pointing out that BIW’s hosting was also compliant with ISO17799 (see BIW news story).

Permanent link to this article: http://extranetevolution.com/2007/04/cadweb_misclaim/

Apr 10 2007

United Construction IT (2)

Last month’s update regarding the United Construction IT umbrella group has been quickly followed by an announcement from two of the UK organisations involved: the Construction Industry Computing Association (CICA) and its parent, the NCC.

According to NCC’s Michael Gough, there has been:

“a complete rethink of CICA’s offering and business model to ensure that we continue to remain clearly aligned with supporting our members’ needs and also at the forefront of the industry in driving value through the effective deployment of ICT”

A “new look CICA” is to be launched shortly, following some key changes, which, according to CICA chairman Roy Harper, include:

  • A complete overhaul of the business model to align CICA with the needs of its membership and the wider industry
  • A clearly defined suite of products and services.
  • A more transparent membership level structure.
  • A modern, yet subtle redesign of the CICA branding [the second in the space of two years].
  • The establishment of a new cross-disciplinary CICA Forum open to Premium level members.
  • A series of peer to peer networking Intra-Disciplinary Workshop events open to the whole membership and other invited guests (the first, on EDMS/EDRMS, will be on 20 June; the second, on Legal Requirements and Impact on AEC Sector ICT, will be on 7 November – both in London venues, to be announced).

I suppose I should be pleased, but, as I discussed more than a year ago (see Long overdue CICA changes, 24 February 2006), there is too much overlap between the various IT organisations and some rationalisation (as well as what Roy Harper refers to as the three R’s: reposition, refocus and rejuvenate) is needed – which is why I welcomed the United Construction IT initiative.

(As an aside, the reference material on the CICA website – particularly its guidance notes and case studies on ‘extranets’ – is still badly in need of an update (see 12 April 2006 post) – perhaps Roy should add a fourth R: refresh?)

Permanent link to this article: http://extranetevolution.com/2007/04/united_construc/

Apr 10 2007

From SaaS to ‘Webware’ (2)

Since my pre-Easter post regarding Phil Wainewright’s suggestion to rename Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) ‘Webware’, he says there has been some further debate, and he has started a poll. At 4pm GMT today, 69 votes had been cast and the leader was ‘webware’, gathering as much votes as ‘SaaS’ and ‘On-demand’ combined.

(PS: If you are a techno-babble lover, then James Maguire has defined The Top Ten SaaS Buzzwords at ASPnews.com.)

Permanent link to this article: http://extranetevolution.com/2007/04/from_saas_to_we/

Apr 10 2007

Salesforce.com acquires Koral

In November and December 2006, I was talking about Koral, a content collaboration business set up by Mark Suster (former CEO of UK construction collaboration technology vendor BuildOnline) and two BO colleagues. Today, the Koral blog says Koral has been acquired by Salesforce.com – adding: “Our entire [nine-strong] team has joined salesforce.com to lead the content management initiative” – while the Koral product has been renamed Salesforce ContentExchange (see also: Salesforce.com snags Koral’s Web 2.0 content management service).

Permanent link to this article: http://extranetevolution.com/2007/04/salesforcecom_a_1/

Load more