Wayland, Mass., February 11, 2008 – buildingSMART alliance, the OGC and Sponsors of the AECOO (Architecture, Engineering, Construction, Owner and Operator) Testbed have today issued a Request for Technology (RFT). This document provides global software and research communities, business trade organizations and their membership an opportunity to identify their technology solutions relevant to the testbed's three focus areas:
- Decision support and general communications – connecting building models with business processes
- Energy analysis during design
- Cost estimation during design
These three focus areas were selected as offering significant business benefits to the global market for interoperable solutions. Respondents will provide buildingSMART alliance, the OGC and the Sponsors a current and accurate understanding of what technologies the software and research communities are ready to bring to the table for integration into an interoperable environment for commercialization. Respondents throughout the global industry are encouraged to identify their innovative solutions that meet Sponsor's requirements; by responding to this request, such solutions can be considered for inclusion in this major initiative.
Effective management of buildings and other capital facilities increasingly requires information exchange with all disciplines and professions that have a stake in the design, construction and operation of those facilities. Numerous information exchange approaches have been developed independently within the community. Understanding how particular exchanges and related technology might best support AECOO end-to-end business practices is a high priority for the industry.
The International Alliance for Interoperability (IAI) and its National Chapters and the National Institute of Building Sciences (NIBS) including its buildingSMART alliance (the North American Chapter of IAI) and National Building Information Modeling Standard (NBIMS) Project have large roles in the ultimate success of this testbed. It is through these organizations that results of the testbed will be delivered.
The RFT is available at http://www.opengeospatial.org/projects/initiatives/aecoo. Due date for responses is March 10, 2008.
The OGC® is an international consortium of more than 345 companies, government agencies, research organizations, and universities participating in a consensus process to develop publicly available geospatial standards. OpenGIS® Standards support interoperable solutions that "geo-enable" the Web, wireless and location-based services, and mainstream IT. OGC Standards empower technology developers to make geospatial information and services accessible and useful with any application that needs to be geospatially enabled. Visit the OGC website at http://www.opengeospatial.org/.
The buildingSMART allianceTM is a program of the National Institute of Building Sciences and is the North American Chapter of the worldwide International Alliance for Interoperability. The alliance was established to 1) coordinate the profound constructive changes coming to the fragmented real property industry in North America; 2) be the coordination point for fund raising and uniform marketing of member programs; and 3) provide a centralized process for strategic planning, resource allocation and decision making for the member programs. Our collective goal is open interoperability and full lifecycle implementation of building information models. The focus is to guarantee lowest overall cost, optimum sustainability, energy conservation and environmental stewardship to protect the earth's ecosystem. Visit the buildingSMART alliance website at http://www.buildingsmartalliance.org/.”