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Planning for 2009 TAP events is already underway. If you have
any suggestions, please send them to tap@aia.org.
Building Connections
The remaining TAP activity for 2008 is Building Connections, an
invitation-only Congress on Interoperability for the Architecture,
Engineering, Construction and Real Estate industries, which will be
held on December 8 in Washington, DC.
Interoperability:
"The ability of software and hardware from multiple vendors to
communicate seamlessly across diverse systems, platforms,
applications and networks using open, public standards for data
exchange."
AIA TAP believes that interoperability is critical to process
improvement throughout the building industry. Many groups within
the industry are working on this common issue: how can we agree on
standards for data exchange so that real collaboration can occur
throughout our fragmented industry? Each year TAP convenes the key
players in interoperability to discuss what they have accomplished,
preview upcoming publications and present current research. By
doing this, we hope these organizations will share knowledge, align
activities and avoid overlapping and duplicate efforts.
TAP KC Interoperability Priorities
Last year, we asked TAP KC members to respond to a brief survey
about interoperability and 215 responded. Only 23% of respondents
indicated that their organizations had a strong commitment to
interoperability. 35% answered that their firms had not yet
developed an interoperability roadmap and 20% replied that their
firms were in the process of developing a strategy and business
justification.
When asked about the interoperability strategy that best fit their
organizations, KC members were almost equally split between an
owner strategy to improve project delivery (42%) and a
consultant/contractor strategy to improve project delivery (43%).
Only 10% aligned with an owner strategy to optimize facility life
cycle value. This is of significance, because many of the
interoperability efforts underway assume that owners concerned with
facility life cycle value will drive the development and adoption
of interoperability standards. In fact, 38% of the responding 2007
Building Connections attendees, representing organizations actively
engaged in interoperability standards development, chose the
facility lifecycle strategy.
In response to the question, “When in the project lifecycle do
you think interoperability is most important/beneficial?” TAP
KC members overwhelmingly chose Design (47%). The runner-up, with
20%, was pre-project planning and business strategy.
Finally, when asked to select up to three interoperability
“discussion groups” that would be of interest to them, KC
members’ top choices were:
1. How to achieve interoperability between BIMs and energy and
sustainability analysis software (106)
2. How to use IFCs (or other standard formats) to ensure that
design firms will be able to access their own BIMs in 20 years
(103)
3. How to achieve interoperability between BIMs and cost estimation
software (99)
For more on interoperability standards and activities, visit AIA
TAP’s Building Connections website: www.building-connections.info.
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