News

bSa Monthly Report - January 2011

Jan 30 2011

Quite possibly the most important news for this month came Friday with the signing of a Memorandum of Agreement with the International Facility Management Association (IFMA) to work with the Institute and Alliance to develop open BIM standards. We now have agreements with 22 organizations throughout the facilities industry. They are all represented on our Board of Direction.
We are undergoing some significant improvements to our web sites over the next few weeks. There is already a new libraries section on the WBDG under the BIM tab. We will be posting the latest and most relevant information about BIM in this section. We are also now assembling various videos that are of interest and related to BIM. The buildingSMART alliance pages will also undergo a re-organization to make it easier to find information and to understand better your role in the Alliance. The NBIMS-US pages will be set up so that you can easily find what the status is of the various groups working on the NBIMS-US. Many of these groups are currently meeting weekly to prepare for the upcoming balloting. In an effort to reach the younger practitioner you can now follow me on Twitter - dekesmithva - now I just need to discern what good information to get out to people – and remember to do it. We are also looking to set up a YouTube page to get more video information posted.
Several presentations / webinars were made this month, one to Green Building Pro, one with EcoDomus on 3D Facilities Management- Visual Maintenance with BIM, one to the Transportation Research Board and at the BIMStorm Chicago (This introduction is out on YouTube). The Green Building Pro also included an article authored by Deke Smith and Birgitta Foster.
The focus on this update will be on the National BIM Standard - United States as most of the effort expended this month was related to that effort. It is starting to take shape and this report is intended to give you a feel for the different groups and their role. The Rules of Governance provide the details and they can be found here: http://www.buildingsmartalliance.org/client/assets/files/bsa/NBIMS_Rules_of_Governance.pdf.
You might want to keep this information handy so that you can better understand the workings of the NBIMS-US effort. Please consider participating on this team and joining the Project Committee, but be ready to roll up your sleeves and do some work to support the entire facilities industry!
- NBIMS-US Project Committee (PC) - This is the primary group. One has to request to be on this committee. This committee will be one responsible for the production of the NBIMS-US. All other committee members in any of the other groups below come from this committee.
- NBIMS-US Planning Committee (PLC) - This committee administers all the affairs, agenda and consensus process of the PC, establishes, sunsets, and otherwise oversees all of the subcommittees and workgroups. All members are chosen from the PC
- NBIMS-US Executive Committee (EC) - This committee advises the PLC on issues related to the overall implementation of the National BIM Standard as it will be implemented throughout the world. It is intended that the core of the NBIMS will be used by many chapters or countries with only variances covered in the chapter or country specific versions. Therefore, the Chair of buildingSMART International and the chair of buildingSMART alliance also sit on this committee.
- NBIMS-US Technical Subcommittee (TSC) - This committee is responsible for the inner circle of the three concentric circle diagram (available on the web under scope). This is the true standard as it will be verifiable that one has implemented the standard. It will be oriented toward the software vendors. It could be correlated to the inside workings of a cell phone. Many national and international standards allow it to connect to others and be interoperable however, few know what those standards are.
- NBIMS-US Implementation Subcommittee (ISC) - This is the group more oriented toward the end user, as they will deal with the outer two circles. The items in these circles will be based on the standards in the center circles, but are not true standards. They will involve industry consensus best practices.
- NBIMS-US Terminology Subcommittee (DSC) - This group defines the terminology used throughout the standard and will have links to the International Framework Dictionary (IFD). However, it will provide the definitions for all the terms used in the standard, not necessarily related to the content of a model.
- NBIMS-US Workgroups (WG) - The workgroups have oversight over a specific subset of the NBIMS-US. They will review proposed ballots, respond to comments and deal with the disposition of the ballot. They in concert with the TSC and ISC will determine if a ballot is ready to be balloted. They are the experts in the PC related to that subject area. There is also a balance of PC members associated with each phase of the Tetralogy. One must make a separate application and provide documentation of experience to participate on a WG. They will typically be 8-10 members in size. There will be a Design Workgroup (DWG), Procure Workgroup (PWG), Assemble Workgroup (AWG), and Occupy Workgroup (OWG)
NBIMS-US Ballot development is underway and will be delivered early in February for testing. This will include the ballot module on the portal, which is where all the ballots, comments, and resolutions will be posted. It will also be used to support the voting when the time comes. Four ballot items are being used to test the entire process so that we will be ready for you to submit your ballots beginning March 7, 2011. Start preparing now to identify items to be considered part of the NBIMS-US. There is a discussion related to content on the Forum of which you can take advantage.