After the Jan. 31, BIMStorm, this topic will be used to organize panel discussion material.

The Panel will have a virtual meeting on Feb. 15, 2008 to review all the projects and processes that occurred.

Some of that material that would be useful for the panel review are listed here:

http://onuma.com/forum/read.php?2,163,551#msg-551

We will also use this topic to assemble various comments that have been coming in by email and conversations with various players. We encourage players to expand on and post other comments here.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 02/18/2008 12:13PM by Kimon.

I hoped to add a few questions to the conversation today, but was unable to make the call. Perhaps these topics were covered --- if not, how do we solicit input from the participants?


[-1-] I am still very interested in tracking which data were most useful in supporting specific transactions; perhaps we can tease this out of the design participants tomorrow. The question may not have much meaning at this level of design interaction --- we may learn more from West Virginia project.


[-2-] Which additional methods of communication were employed / most useful? How were collaborative teams using IM, Skype, video, POTS, e-mail, blogs &c to stay in sync?


[-3-] Did participants feel they were in touch with other participants? In short, were the collaborations perceived as interpersonal transactions supported by technologies, or technological data exchanges which happened to support individual humans in their activities.


[-4-] Were teams able to absorb and apply input from other teams to inform their design? Specific examples would be enlightening.


[-5-] Did this experience change design team views on or approach to collaboration? How will they approach more traditional collaborations differently? Does this open new practical possibilities for collaboration at-distance? How does this process impact pursuit of Integrated Project Delivery methodologies?


[-6-] Do these exercises point to specific new developments the AECOO community should request form our vendors, service providers and standards giving organizations?

Discussion on Transactions During the BIMStorm.

24 Time Frame
As a starting point BIMStorm LAX was not a "normal" process, since it brought together so many people and focused on a short time period, and no one had every collaborated at this scale and time frame. Many had never used the tools. On the other hand having it focused in on a 24 hour period allowed us to see in an accelerated ways opportunities and weaknesses in the process. These came up much faster than if this was spread out over 6 months. I like to describe this as an "intentional creation of train wrecks", slow motion train wrecks keep on grinding but you may not notice them for awhile. Make lots of mistakes early and move on. For BIMStorm LAX we intentionally left some things to happen by chance rather than making them a "requirement". We felt that since this was a first of a kind, we did not want to burden the players with too much rigidity. In future events we want to increase some of the rigidity.

Level of Detail of Each Scheme
Since the BIMStorm LAX, was loose in the final requirements for projects, each team interpreted their level of detail on the project.
Some teams focused on the programmatic requirements and others went into more detail with structural and mechanical design. Others created operations and maintenance cost reports for a selected group of projects. At the base level all projects in BIMStorm were BIM and compliant with standards such as IFC and GSA BIM Guide at varying levels of detail. This all happened in the background. Putting a scheme in OPS and identifying the location in Google Earth automatically resolved the local coordinate system of BIM and the world coordinate system of GIS. This also happened in the background.

For example entering data in the BIM on Demand templates, automatically created an IFC file.
http://onuma.com/products/BimRequestsSimple.php

On the other hand there was other "optional" data that did not get entered by many of the teams. This data would show up in aggregated reports on this page:
http://onuma.com/products/BimReports.php
We wanted to get residential unit counts, but these would not happen unless each team entered the data in the schemes. This was not automatic since the designer would have to specify this information. Without the unit counts there was no way to aggregate the total units in a certain city block. The other data was the year of construction. If this information was left blank then the reports would not show a year. Other data that was possible was OSCRE space categories which would generate BOMA standard calcs for rentable area. These were also not always entered. The same for Real Property Unique ID. The bottom line is that a lot of data was generated, there was much more that could be created, but more planning will be needed. In future BIMstorms we are considering making some of the optional data a requirement. For this first one we did not want to burden all the teams with understanding all the various types of data that could be entered.

Communication
This was a common thread of discussion on the BIMStorm. In a traditional process, if we were managing 420 distinct projects, the communication part would have take more than 24 hours, or even 420 hours. I would say it would have taken more like 4200 hours. For this first BIMStorm we put some pieces in place to support communication. The eBoard, OPS, BIM Mail, Attachments, BIM Requests, etc. We encouraged teams to communicate with each other. Some did, some did not. At Onuma we intentionally discouraged us being the clearing house for communication, since those 4200 hours would have come through us. So in the end we stood back and watched what happened. There were several interesting things. Some of them noted in the AIArchitect article. There are several paragraphs here on our view of the communication:

http://www.aia.org/aiarchitect/thisweek08/0215/0215rc_face.cfm

We see the ultimate way to communicate is to eliminate the need to communicate on issues that the data should inform us on. For example, today we do not call the airlines to find when a plane is full. We log into Expedia and it tells us when it is full, by not selling us a seat. In other words the system or "virtual seats on the plane" tell the user that there are no more seats, or even how much that seat is right now.

Some teams were actively engaged with others, around the world, and others worked more isolated. Some prepared for weeks prior to the BIMstorm and some jumped in on the day of the BIMstorm. This varying levels of preparation and communication created a variety of results.

BIM Mail
There is a feature in OPS that I am not sure how many actually know it exists or the potential of it. Each user "owns" their scheme and can edit, attach comments or attach files to it. They can also decide to "share" their scheme with others. Once a project is shared, other users can "see" the scheme but not edit it. With one exception. Viewers, can attach comments or files to another scheme. So for example an architect may own a scheme and share it with a structural engineer. The engineer can then review the scheme and attach a comment to the 12 floor of the building. Or even a sketch, or model. That comment then gets automatically emailed to the owner, (architect) through the "You've got BIM Mail" feature of OPS. This in a sense is the BIM telling you that there is someone interacting with that specific place in the model.

http://onuma.com/plan/helpfiles/Attachments/

This is much different than getting a normal email from the engineer telling you they are commenting on the 12th floor of scheme number 1234. What version is that scheme? Did you ftp it or email it? This is where things start falling apart. Using the data as the ground truth reduces the confusion, but the users need to be aware of the new process.

The reasoning is the same, that you would not go to Expedia "print out" the result of the a query and then call the airline two weeks later to get that seat. It could be gone within minutes. The reason it works is because the data is the same and it is real time.

In the end we are not saying that communication will only happen in one way, just that the BIMstorm has highlighted how communication can happen in many different ways and we must look beyond just email, phone and face to face meetings to become more accurate and efficient.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/18/2008 02:41PM by Kimon.

Teams and Exchanges of Information
The new opportunities for assembling teams emerged with the BIMStorm. Some teams planned in advance and practiced before the 31st, others just formed on the fly. In a real world project scenario, there would be some preplanning and specific requirements set up. For example on a 54 story bank tower, we specifically set up a connection to the SSFM team in Honolulu and Manila. We told them that by 9am on the 31st, we will have the tower floor plates and core defined, and they could then start the structural engineering of the tower. We would continue to do more tenant space planning but not change the floor plates. By 3pm, we had the first version of the structural work coming in from Hawaii and later in the night another version of the structural was coming in from Manila. For the same building, an energy analysis was started later in the day by Ecotect. Meanwhile the tenant layout was continuing without an affect on the structural work. After the 31st and to this day, we are still working with other groups to complete a rendering of the exterior of the tower.

The bottom line is that there are specific exchanges that can happen in a project lifespan that must either be linear or can run in parallel. The goal is not to have to undo things, which happens a lot in the real world, since there are misses in communication. By working with open standards, and making the data live, teams can see the decisions being made and react to them at the appropriate time. In BIMStorm LAX the sequence was left rather loose, and some things happened as planned others by accident.

Interoperability of Data
If anything that came out of BIMStorm, I hope that this one was a message that is understood better by all. The 2nd part is that the interoperability cannot be left to just "happen" by hoping that each vendor will make it happen. There has to be a demand for it from the industry. Creating a demand requires an understanding of this first. For the most part I can say that not many, even the larger firms really understand this yet. The knee jerk reaction is, IFC does not work, so lets "standardize" on one set of software that does work. That is about the worst thing that can be done at this critical point in the evolution of standards. We must drive it as an industry.

Sustainability of Data or the "i" of BIM
Focus on the Data not the Tool. The data about your project or organization is the most valuable part, not the specific tool it is stored in. If the plan is to make the data sustainable throughout the lifecyle of a project, then you cannot rely on one tool. Using open standards supports this, and must be the benchmark on starting any type of effort to gather data in a BIM or other format. See what Norway is doing with Word docs and extend that out to BIM:

http://blog.wired.com/monkeybites/2007/05/norway_embraces.html

http://www.consortiuminfo.org/standardsblog/article.php?story=20070513180219689

http://virtuelvis.com/archives/2007/12/norway-mandates-html-pdf-odf

http://redmondmag.com/news/article.asp?EditorialsID=7330

Support of Design and Human Touch

In Michael Tardif's Aug. 07 article from AIArchitect
http://www.aia.org/aiarchitect/thisweek07/0817/0817rc_face.cfm

He writes:
"It’s not the design
Because OPS is able to express complex programmatic requirements so well graphically and spatially, many architects initially are taken aback by what they erroneously perceive to be a reductivist, requirements-driven approach to design."

Which is right on target. The entire process of BIMStorm will not automatically create a design. It gives us a dashboard to automate the mundane work to give us more time for design. There is so much waste in the industry right now on doing repetitive work, and gathering the same information over and over again. The opportunity here is to spend more of the valuable time that needs the human touch.

The Forum and RSS feeds.
Some participants were not as familiar with how RSS Feeds work from the Forum. The forum messaging and ability to filter through information that is relevant to each user is important. We often get comments that there is "too much email" in my inbox to deal, with. There are strategies on how to manage information and in a collaboration effort like BIMStorm we felt this Forum with RSS was a good way to get messages out to many invovled.

The RSS lets you scan and read a lot of message both from this Forum or other RSS feeds.

The RSS feed is active on the OPS Forum. Try Google Reader and paste the URL of the OPS Forum and it feeds right into that, then you can sort and search here.

http://www.google.com/reader

Pasting this:
http://onuma.com/forum/list.php?2
and this
http://onuma.com/forum/list.php?3

gets both RSS fees.





Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/18/2008 12:20PM by Kimon.

Comment:
Speaking of others, would be nice to have a in/out calendar on the website so we can tell who is online to directly chat. Architect for Humanity has this and it works great if you are working or discussing design issues on the other side of the world.

Response:
The Chat option is something we used to have and can implement again. Similar to a MSN or Skype Chat built into OPS. See who is online now and chat with them.

Comments from teams collaborating around the world on BIMStorm LAX.

From Paul Adams of Earth and Sky Architecture:

I had a lot of fun participating. I primarily worked with the State of Wisconsin team by exporting their buildings into ArchiCAD in an .IFC format, adding walls, doors, windows then exporting it into the Green Building Studio and running some basic energy analysis then posting the results back to the shared portal.

Green Building Studio is an online service that simplifies the process of analyzing a building's energy use early in the process. GBS provides a simplified interface that makes taking a building and running a variety of analysis through DOE2.2 (a sophisticated program with a notoriously difficult interface) a believable process. Typically, these analysis are run months into a project when it is difficult to impossible to make the important changes that impact the building's performance. By evaluating the scheme early at the 'napkin sketch' stage, it becomes possible to include the 'big moves' that really make a difference.

In addition, I tag-teamed with Design Atlantic and Corazon (A small non-profit builder) to discuss, refine and draw some entry level housing for communities near Tijuana, Mexico. Corazon physically built a house for a family in Mexico during the BIMstorm while Design Atlantic landed small communities of Corazon style buildings on both a hillside and a flat site near Dodger's stadium in the BIMstorm.

While I am really just getting started working with these tools, they profoundly leverage the 3D CAD models that I have been creating for years now.

From Paul Adams of Earth and Sky Architecture:

I found the Green Building Studio (GBS) to have matured a lot since I tinkered with it in the past. The level of information along with the methods for evaluating different building assemblies and systems is now quite rich and useful.

That said, part of the reason I didn't have more reports is due to the time needed to create the rough model in ArchiCAD for analysis. After exporting the .IFC from OPS, I spent about an hour and a half building the required walls (exterior only), doors and windows, then troubleshooting them in ArchiCAD so that they would run through GBS. It would have been better for the BIMstorm to be able to simply work with the zones as in Ecotect.

By the time I built the model and ran my GBS report, the rest of my team had not only moved, but eliminated the building in question. I moved on to an even simpler model only to find that THAT building had moved to a different site and orientation. While some of that is simply an internal communication issue with my team, the extra step of building the envelope in ArchiCAD clearly kept me out of synch with the progress of the team; the information from my side with GBS was too late to be helpful for that phase of design.

I had intended to work with Ecotect during the BIMstorm to make a side by side comparison with GBS, but their web site was out of service and I couldn't download the demo in advance of the BIMstorm.

In summary, the IFC translation worked better than I thought it might. As everyone knows, there is also a lot of room for improvement. I built a model of the Pasadena Train Station in advance of the BIMstorm as a training exercise; it was a simple model, but I couldn't bring through the curved roof or the simple guardrails on the platform, either.

As Kimon emphasizes, keeping the data from being trapped in a particular format is critical. I hadn't realized what a bottleneck ArchiCAD, my prime application, could be.

The BIMstorm was an amazing experience of the wealth of opportunity that is possible today. It also has emphasized the learning curves we have to deal with:
1. How to create design work as a group and effectively communicate on the fly.
2. How to include non-expert (the public) players and capture their feedback. If they can perceive their efforts make a difference, they will contribute--otherwise we will still be talking to ourselves.
3. How to create an office culture where learning new software tools and including them in the normal workflow is a routine occurrence, not a massive strategic initiative.

From Mary_Alice Avila of Cal Poly San Luis Obispo:

The BIMstorm LAX was a real eye-opener for me. My master's thesis centers on BIM, but I have to admit that I really didn't get it until BIMstorm. Also, I have been reading articles written by Lachmi Khemlani (AECbytes), and now I actually do understand the concept of an IFC building model and the true beauty of OPS. Thanks for helping to point me in a better direction.

From Karen Weber of Earth Our Only Home:

Question:
The one thing that is somehow still missing from the planning conversation is the potential of seeing the environmental impacts of the buildings, their designs and influence on the geographic/geologic space they occupy, notwithstanding green roofs! Is thre a way to be more mindful of this given the importance of sustainability today?

Answer:
Thanks. Yes, there is a way with this to see the impacts. In this first BIMStorm it was chaotic at times, but what we have now is a framework where we can start pointing to specific places and saying, ok if you plan on this building, with this material in this location, with this amount of run off from the roof and this much energy consumed, here is the whole story. I was hoping that some of the teams would have keyed into it more, but as it was there was so much going on and many newbies, that we just let it flow. My plan is in future ones, we will continue to crank things down to get more specific output. Your input is welcome. What we need are more eyes and specialists that can react to the data coming out of these designs and guide us to connect the dots early on in the process to be able to catch potential train wrecks or to give guidance to the design teams to allow them to make the right decision before its too late.

As you did in the BIMstorm, and jumped in and gave input , that was great. Imagine this next to the alternative, where the whole building is designed and "unveil" the design, but forgot to consider green roofs, or life cycle or anything else.

This is just the beginning.

Thanks

Kimon

Kimon

I have taken to many of the suggestions but it seems the Google Reader is behind as opposed to the email delivery, not sure why? I am seeing around a 15 minute delay, which is not that bad, except if you are working on something in a 24 minute period.

Thanks for all the insights on the communication possibities, now to see if I can see who is online.

Team F

Stan Rostas
Shook Kelley, Inc.

Yes, there is a little bit of lag on Google Reader. I would say there is a strategy to using Google Reader, Email, Direct entry in Forum, Real Time Chat, and Voice, Video, Screen sharing.

In our workflow, we have Skype running between our teams, and then have GoToMeeting ready to start at any time for informal meetings. Topics that need to be documented or in a group setting, we have a Forum type web site, eBoard that also sends emails. Each team needs to understand what the optimal flow of info and the speed of that is. Using OPS is real time, and then connecting eBoard or Skype to that allows for real time collaboration. What we do like to limit as much as possible it email. It is ok for certain situations but in team environments it is weak. Attaching files to emails, "lost" emails etc. cause problems.

Kimon Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> From Paul Adams of Earth and Sky Architecture:
>
> Green Building Studio is an online service that
> simplifies the process of analyzing a building's
> energy use early in the process.

FYI Autodesk Expands Sustainable Design Product Portfolio

SAN RAFAEL, Calif., Feb. 12 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Autodesk, Inc. (Nasdaq: ADSK - News) is expanding its portfolio of software solutions to support sustainable design in the architecture, engineering & construction (AEC) markets...
....Autodesk announced that it has signed an agreement to acquire substantially all the assets of Green Building Studio, ,,,,,,,

For what it is worth ?!

Wisconsin Department of Admin Memo

MEMO

DATE: February 1, 2008

TO: Mary Deering

From: Bill Napier

RE: BIMstorm LAX

The following is an initial report on our participation in the BIMstorm event that occurred on Thursday January 31st. The event actually concludes later today, and after receiving feedback from the participants, I will be reporting to Senior Leadership and the staff in the weeks ahead.

The BIMstorm experience demonstrated the power of emerging technologies when applied to capital projects and land use planning. We took the tabulation of space program areas and successfully created concept solutions in a real world context. The use of open standards for electronic data exchange allowed us utilize planning tools between different technology applications. Over 1.5 million square feet were sited and massed out within 10 hours by our team:

Block 7 Apartment Building 321,000 SF
Recreational Facility 10,000 SF
Block 10 Gallery 59,000 SF
Parking Structure 400,000 SF
Retail Center 40,000 SF
Block 8 Office Building 720,000 SF

TOTAL DEVELOPMENT 1,550,000 SF

Although at a very conceptual level, the reports obtained from this shared information include cost, sustainability, energy, and other information for early planning evaluations.

The more significant observation is not in the technology tools but the way people worked together in real time with those tools. Through the day, it became apparent that the way we work and interact with each other will be more transparent and collaborative in sharing the development of solutions and decision making for effective results.

Kevin Connolly sums up the day, “As powerful as these tools are they are far from being the “do-it” button. They are more like the “un-do-it” button, tearing apart the old ways of doing things and exposing a far greater potential. It will take time. However the main objective was achieved yesterday: We did it!”

http://onuma.com/forum/read.php?2,214,520#msg-520

Re: Wisconsin and Team A
Posted by: Karen (IP Logged)
Date: January 30, 2008 08:22PM

I hope your team is planning to add a green roof to your project(s). It is very imoprtant since we are striving to green roof the entire site and show the reduction in costs, increase in energy efficiency and overall benefits.

For questions or info, please contact me, Karen Weber, 617-522-5447 or earthouronlyhome@yahoo.com.

Thanks!

Re: Wisconsin and Team A
Posted by: padams@earthskyarchitecture.com (IP Logged)
Date: January 31, 2008 11:46AM

Hi Karen,

I have added a green roof to the Building 1, WI Block 7/10 that I am running through Green Building Studio.

Two offices interacting on project.

http://onuma.com/forum/read.php?2,161,387#msg-387

http://onuma.com/forum/read.php?2,184,541#msg-541

Note the comment:

"We awoke this morning to find other global participants added a façade rendering and mechanical systems to a couple of our buildings, The day was a whirlwind, and we ran out of time to collaborate with some folks we had contacted regarding structural design and cost estimating."

http://onuma.com/forum/read.php?2,324,416#msg-416

This says it all, if a standard is created for data sharing the applications that sprout up is great and the impact even greater. With the speed of communication today, only open interoperable standards will prevail and all the construction industry software creators need to get on board to advancing the IFC standards to handle more complex data sets that define objects. What do others think?

"""The announcement reflects a change in the market in the past couple of decades, said Ray Ozzie, Microsoft’s chief software architect, during a question and answer session at the press conference. “When Microsoft entered the game in the mid-80s, people focused on using the PC. They tended to use a small number of programs,” he said. Today, people use many more applications and they expect data from one program to be available in other products, he said. The changes Microsoft is making adapt to that change in the market, he said.

(Here is Steve the big gorilla being Steve) They will be left in the dust if they do not change their ways.

Still, Ballmer cautioned that end-users shouldn’t expect to see much change for some time. “Any opening up doesn’t happen overnight,” he said during the Q&A session. “I think it will be more like years than days” before end-users notice the effects of Thursday’s announcements, he said.

Microsoft finds it hard to predict what kinds of new products might become available to users because of this change. “One thing the Net has shown is that sometimes, constraints around standards can be quite liberating to developers,” said Ozzie. “Many times, new services pop out of nowhere once a standard is there and once interoperability principles are established, because we can’t think of the different potential uses of customer data and how to interface with products.”""

Team F

Stan Rostas
Shook Kelley, Inc.