CIB W102 web page
INFORMATION
AND KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT FOR A CHANGING BUILDING INDUSTRY
Third joint CIB W102-UICB meeting;
Melbourne, March 26 and 27, Auckland March 30, 2001
‘Quick Feedback Note’ prepared by Colin Davidson, May 1, 2001.
Contents:
Information for performance-based building
Information for the knowledge society
This Note provides a “stop-press” outline of the main themes discussed at the meeting. Links are provided – where appropriate – to full texts provided by participants.
Colin Davidson set the context for the discussions. He reminded participants that during the discussions that lead to the establishment of W102 in 1998 (three years ago already), the general statement of objectives included the following declaration:
“Information is an all-pervading ingredient in building, common to research and practice. By giving proper consideration to the flow of information, research results can be usefully translated into innovation and further adapted to provide the knowledge base for best practice. In an environment in which the tools for making information available are developing at breakneck speed, it is necessary to manage the whole spectrum of information forms in a way that reflects the realities of decision-making in modern building practice”.
In other words, W102 had to tackle information at several levels simultaneously and:
- follow the evolution of research interests in the building sector;
- follow the evolution of practice in the context of globalization and the increasing rapidity of work;
- keep abreast of changes in the information environment (specifically the new ‘tools’);
- know about current changes in the use of knowledge and its management for decision making.
Regarding the first of these levels, the question of performance-based building (the current priority concern of CIB), it had to be recognized that adoption of the performance approach to the design of buildings and the subsequent specification of materials and products, imposes novel requirements on the flow of information within and into the building process. While the adoption of the performance approach is not the only change that is impacting on the information requirements of the building process (the adoption of electronic communications and e-business, for example, are changing the way information can, and probably should, be made available to decision-makers), it has significant consequences. It seems that problem areas related to performance-based building, which are of concern to W102, include:
- the information required in order to proceed from the functional programming step to establishing appropriate performance criteria;
- the information required in order to evaluate the performance characteristics of a design in the course of its being developed;
- the information required in order to specify materials and products in performance terms.
For this third meeting of CIB W102, the plan of action called for (a) bringing out as much information as possible at the Melbourne part of the meeting, and (b) preparing a synthesis in Auckland to serve as a basis for communication to the CIB Congress in Wellington the following week. Papers were invited - particularly on the following themes:
- Information in a performance-based building context
- Innovation, information and knowledge transfer to Small and Medium Enterprises
- The flow of information from research to practice
- Information in the Internet era - technical and cognitive questions
- Contemporary information handling systems.
One of the key problems related to innovation can be summarized as “how-do-we-know” - and its converse: “how-do-we-tell”.
A case history report describes the Network of Construction Creativity Clubs in the U.K. Set up to facilitate interaction between innovators, users of innovations and academics, already 23 events have enabled 80 presentations to be made. It was important for the organizers to collect contextual information about the innovations before their presentation.
Innovations that have presented so far range from using geothermal energy for housing, obtained from a disused coal mine, to information technology in the supply chain, and from the use of IT in design to standardized tests for the analysis of asphalt.
The plan was to balance personal contacts, providing networking information (names, addresses, etc.) and publishing (in a newsletter, a book, and on a web site). Not surprisingly (bearing in mind the characteristics of the building industry), there was more interest in the meetings and person-to-person relations, and much less in the publications aspect. Click here for more information.
A specific problem relates to small and medium enterprises (SMEs), where it is necessary to develop means to get information about innovations out rapidly and in a way that will reach the concerned decision-makers. At present, most information transfer is made face-to-face, by telephone or the yellow pages.
A federally funded three-year
program has allowed the design of a dissemination program based on business
cases accompanied by technology demonstrations on how to improve SMEs’
efficiency. However, other models are available, such as the new ‘help-line’
for doctors’ patients.
First experience with this
program suggests a number of important principles: a) have something specific
to ‘sell’, b) reach the top-level decision-makers in the firms,
c) implicate the whole supply chain and d) explore alternative motivational
methods. In the specific context of the Internet – which is, of course,
rapidly replacing print – a number of caveats suggest themselves:
web hosting is not always profitable but users expect free information.
More broadly, one has to recognize that there is no participant in the
building industry whose role it is to ‘drive’ the dissemination
and use of information about innovations.
There is a link between technology
watch services and the deep knowledge of the ‘client’ and the
service itself.
A model has to take account
of:
- The information: private, public, industry-wide … ,
- The storage media: knowledge bases (which include how-to-use information) and information in people’s heads (obviously difficult to access),
- The sharing of information (since no AEC firms can take on complete projects on their own),
- The two natures of information: shallow (which is not much use without contextual information), or deep (which includes the contextual information).
- The structure of knowledge: ‘blobs’ (e.g. books), semi-structured (e.g. HTML – often isolated from other information), structured (e.g. databases supporting SQL),
- The ownership of the information and its pertinence (e.g. to the object – a column – or to the process – how to pour the column),
- Use of the information: for what decision procedures,
- Standards regarding the information: internal or external (e.g. encoding, structural standards such as ISO 10303).
In short, deep knowledge is powerful because the context of the knowledge is known. It can contain an added value function for industry.
Information
for performance-based building
New Zealand has nearly ten years’ experience with a performance-based code. Set up originally as a way of moving away from fragmented regulations, a rational approach based on the Nordic five-level format was adopted.
An educational program was planned to accompany the introduction of the code – particularly since it was recognized that the performance concept is very ‘intellectual’ and had to be inculcated into a ‘non-intellectual industry’. This education program fell victim to budget cuts; instead, there have been many presentations, articles and other publications. Nonetheless, full understanding of the principles is still poor; indeed there are understandable conceptual barriers in the communication process.
There is a five-step adoption process which can be described as: 1) Knowledge, 2) Persuasion, 3) Decision, 4) Implementation and 5) Confirmation (often communication stops at 2 whereas in reality it is important for there to be accepted models to help with decision-making). It is necessary to realize that the different stakeholders (particularly the smaller players) have different needs and that the different situations call for specific kinds of information about the code, notably regarding the durability clauses.
There are very few ‘numbers’ in the code, which can be a source of concern, particularly since the code is primarily a “designers’ document” related to the responsibilities of formal specification. There is a concomitant need to spread liabilities away from designers – interestingly, in New Zealand, there are “Building Certifiers” who can have appropriate insurance, and in Australia, Building Surveyors fill a similar rule but under conditions that vary from state to state.
From the New Zealand experience, a clear recommendation emerges: accompany the introduction of performance codes with the involvement of communications specialists and educators. Click here for more information.
Information – in the project context – is too often categorized in terms of the categories of participants in the building team; instead, emphasis should be laid from the outset on who uses the information. There are many subdivisions of the building process involving some kind of design and design information: program design, performance design, product design, … but these subdivisions do not correspond to particular socio-professional classes and can vary from project-to-project or from one country to another. The needed information does not fall into neat categories; for example there can be a difference between ‘contractor-needed information’ and ‘information produced by an architect because he or she thinks the contractor needs it’.
Depending on the project, information blocks can be variously sub-categorized into ‘advice’, ‘physical information’ and ‘indirect impacts’. Depending on the degree of specialization of the involved participants, the depth of information varies. It has been found that design architects can be involved in 8 projects at any one time, executive architects: 20, curtain wall specialists: 400, underlining the nature and the extent of the different information and documentation they will produce – and require.
When design information is related to the realities of the design process, it appears that in the past, there has been too much emphasis on systems for information management. Now it should be possible to take the ‘geography’ of the building team into account in developing information strategies.
Interestingly, Information Technology (IT) is having an impact on the spread of design tasks. Through IT, it is becoming easier to produce documentation ‘off-shore’ in low-wage localities; for example, because the wages are so much lower, production costs can be reduced to 10%!
It is important to stress that there is no longer a difference in skill levels because many students from low-wage countries have been trained in the developed countries. The production of knowledge – and the ability to produce it – have to be considered globally.
Information can involve routine, in-person or symbolic services. Routine services (e.g. billing) can be performed anywhere but in-person: regionally. Symbolic (problem-solving) services can be traded globally but have to be marketed through direct contact with the beneficiaries.
What, one must ask, are the barriers to this move to offshore document production? There must be stability in the home-country’s market, though the offshore firms can provide services to a number of firms. There must be careful coordination and control (which represent an added cost). There is a tendency to use ‘generic’ details (thus undermining the architectural ‘signatures’ of the home offices and the home countries. There is exposure to technological ‘glitches’ (such as a breakdown in the telecom. network) – suggesting the scope for providing work to offshore firms set up in well-equipped technology parks.
There are major implications in the field of information technology support.
Information
for the knowledge society
A European Union-funded project aims at facilitating access to information within the building industry. It is an attempt to answer the question: how to provide quality information across professional boundaries in an environment where there are few interfaces / portals.
The project is founded on the principle of providing a network of national gateways through a common platform. In this way, it is possible to access technical information (e.g. BRE’s on-line bookshop), product information (e.g. standards, not manufacturers’ information), software tools (e.g. for structural engineering), best practice guidance, information about specialized equipment and an industry who’s-who (by types of projects and types of skills). In essence, creating a ‘virtual technology park’ is the aim, making an ‘invisible assistant’ available.
Tools include classification tables, a thesaurus, user profiles, infrastructure for e-commerce, language translation, discussion forums and security.
At present the question of long-term financial viability is under study. Advertising revenues are to be excluded but other business models – depending on the services being provided – are examined, working through a kiosk procedure for collecting and holding funds. Click here for more information
It is important for W102 to be familiar with work conducted within W078 – IT for Construction. W078 sees its mandate as the application of integrated IT for construction, which is seen to include
- computer-integrated construction and construction processes,
- flow of information across systems,
- decision-support and intelligent systems,
- process modeling,
- product modeling,
- document and document handling (on the Internet) - within project teams,
- the Internet and how construction can best use it
- future studies on IT, model-driven approaches to project-information management,
- IT and life-cycle thinking,
- use of past knowledge and institutionalized learning,
- procurement, ordering and the use of bar coding.
Input to W078 is mainly through refereed papers (about 50 each year) and outputs include proceedings and an on-line Journal (which is less popular with members than expected). There are also proposals for standards and national strategies. It is expected that Working Groups may be set up to provide focused guidance to CIB on key issues.
IRB continues to run the ICONDA (the International Construction Database) which is available both on CD and on-line. At present 21 countries (about 30 institutions) provide inputs. The input partners have special conditions if they wish to access information from ICONDA.
Selector.com is a sales, production and technological innovation enterprise. It works on the principle that the information producers (the product manufacturers or suppliers) pay for the information, which is free for the users. It was decided only to include information about products for which relatively complete information is available – rather than also having summary information about almost all available products. The information is scanned from hard copy provided by the manufacturers and then checked with them.
The new version of selector.com includes the ability to retain a set of documents that have been examined by a visitor for ready recall and use e.g. with the possibility of downloading details for use in Autocad® drawings. Of course, a key factor for the success of a service such as selector.com is the presence of a computer on everyone’s desk and the ability to move through multiple images which can, for example, be superimposed on project drawings.
The Information Services of CSIRO provide a service to the 250 CSIRO staff members with a team of five people (four in Melbourne and one in Sydney); some questions also come from the public, but in general they are deflected elsewhere to services that can better answer them. Sometimes, information brokerage services are provided – at a charge of $AUS 125 per hour. In all cases, a lot of lateral thinking is required.
The ‘Information Services’ forms part of a network of library resources. Over the years, it has become a de facto knowledge manager – i.e. custodians of knowledge working with keyword + thesaurus search strategies. A meta-database is being established on an intranet – but this is turning out to be a difficult task, since those who hold information are reluctant to share it, even if it is ‘for the good of the institution’.
The scope of the work of the Information Services is revealed by typical questions, such as:
- What percentage of the construction industry is taken up by…?
- How nay mud brick houses are there in Australia?
- Are there any patents on … (a ‘none’ answer is what is hoped for)?
- How much of a noise problem is there in Australia?
- What is the aggregated cost of reworking failed construction?
- What is the on-cost of wind-loading resistance for houses in cyclone-prone areas?
- Is there a model for R. and D. organizations?
Experience shows that it is important to focus quickly on the subject behind the question. This suggests that it is important to focus on a ‘hidden Internet’, i.e. the databases behind the Internet which cannot be found through the normal search engines (indeed the information on the ‘visible Internet’ is often of poor quality.
BRANZ attaches considerable importance to ‘IT’ – interpreted to mean “Information Transfer” in order to give back to industry the value of the levy through which BRANZ is largely financed. The industry has, for its part, learnt the value of BRANZ’ information, considered to be reliable.
Research information is ‘reinterpreted’ (it is definitely not a simple task to design a communication at the right level for a particular audience) and communicated through accredited advisors, seminars, bulletins, the magazine ‘Build’ and Good Practice Guides. The draft papers are circulated to the BRANZ scientists to check that nothing has been misinterpreted during the reinterpretation process.
Regarding the accredited advisors, they visit sites to give advice and are required to give BRANZ a copy of their reports, thus keeping BRANZ up to date with what is happening in industry. The seminar program is a challenge to know how to present the subjects in a way that is essentially practical. Up to now, there have been 4500 attendees.
BRANZ technical publications never include publicity; the information is always generic.
At present, there is an emerging demand for electronic information; the position that has been adopted is to put on the web any information that is too expensive to print, e.g. appraisal certificates as pdf files. However, the web site will probably never be profitable.
1. Performance. It was
decided to look at the general barriers to the communication of
performance, possibly by making an inventory or model. This would include
the qualitative content of performance documents and the related knowledge-communication
aspects.
First steps are to be taken by Christl McMillan and Tony Conder.
2. Information distribution
in the context of a multi-industry. There is a fuzzy edge between
the various socio-economic categories found within the industry and the
tasks they are variously called upon to perform. Of particular concern
is information stemming from research and also being able to identify
success or failure (see also #3 below).
First steps are to be taken by Robert Amor and Colin Davidson.
3. Technology watch and
SMEs. It is important to collect models of initiatives in this area,
including eventually systems that have developed in other industries.
a) Target groups, b) existing services in context, and c) how they were
developed are as many aspects that should be recorded.
First steps are to be taken by Gaye McDermott, Branka Dimitrijevic
and Robin Drogemuller, with ‘secretarial’ support by
Colin Davidson.
4. Developing countries.
Though this subject was not on the agenda specifically, it was recognized
that – despite the absence of concerned members – W102 should
continue its ‘history’ of concern. In the past, W57 had an on-going
project on essential library requirements for developing countries (a
project lead by the Swedish member of W57).
It was decided worthwhile seeing how this project might be up-dated to
the current ‘Internet era’, particularly by investigating approaches
adopted in other sectors – if only to learn what to do and what to
avoid.
First steps are to be taken by Gaye McDermott (who will search
for precedents) and by Colin Davidson (who will check for any on-going
Swedish initiatives).
5. On-going research.
W57 had an unsuccessful project (called CIBORG) aiming at providing information
about ongoing research within CIB. It was felt that this subject, even
if it was not discussed in depth, was important and should be suggested
to the CIB Secretariat. It is believed that John Hinks may have some thoughts
on this subject.
First steps are to be taken by Colin Davidson (who will contact
John Hinks and then, if still appropriate, the CIB Secretariat).
W102 has been invited by the Zoran Djorjevic of the University of Belgrade to hold the 2002 meeting there – towards the end of June or early July; members will be consulted shortly about the preferred timing.
The meetings in 2003 and 2004 will probably be held at Strathclyde University and in Ottawa respectively.
These notes have been prepared from the presentations made by Branka Dimitrijevic, Christl McMillan, Elke Nuermberger, Gaye McDermott, Ian Close, Paolo Tombesi, Robin Drugemuller, Robert Amor and Tony Conder, and from notes of the discussions taken by Colin Davidson. Special thanks to all W102 participants.