The Editor's Viewpoint

Sometimes it takes a neutral observer to put things into focus. Reading the comics recently, I read a strip that made the point many of us consider everyday. The woman in the strip, Sally Forth, said to her husband "Suddenly everybody at the office has a palm pilot. They're using it to store numbers, meeting times, directions. Everything you could just as easily do with a good old appointment book. Sometimes it seems like technology just repackages what we already have and makes us believe it's too great not to get". This immediately brought to mind Windows 2000, and much of the updated hardware and software that is being promoted as "the best thing since sliced bread". As John Voeller suggests in his article, a little "SQUINTING" is often appropriate.

On the other side of the coin, much of value to all of us is created by the broader use of computers, particularly by making computers and the Web available to those who otherwise would not have access to them. The recent action by Ford Motor, Delta Airlines and the other large companies, who are sure to follow as a competitive measure, will help to familiarize people at all levels of income with computers and their use. The impact on education and communication will be enormous. It will also help to make computer users more knowledgeable about software.

In contrast is the firm described in a recent issue of Architectural Record, whose owner, formerly a senior designer in a large architectural firm, joked about two guys and a fast computer.These, he claimed, could accomplish more work faster than the entire management heavy design department. His firm is now proving that theory with a four person team who designed a four building, 500,000 square foot corporate campus in only four months. There are an increasing number of small firms, many formed by computer literate designers from large firms. They are taking this approach to implementing design, as opposed to those who feel they lose design freedom when design is computer supported and implemented. Others see the need to use computer resources, as Caroline Woo, managing partner at SOM noted when she said "The IT revolution is mind blowing". Woo is quoted as saying "architects who want to be at the cutting edge of their profession need to listen and learn as much as they can as quickly as they can". Kenneth Young, VP of HOK's technology group, said "We need to look at how technology can contribute to firm uniqueness. To me, the future lies in the virtual coordination and collaboration needed through all phases of a project". Although computers are needed to accomplish this end, the Web may be a far more important factor in accomplishing the integration, coordination and communication that Woo, Young and many others feel is important.

Of course, most of this is not news to many large firms who have been involved in heavy process, refining, aerospace or similar types of construction. The Bechtels, Fluors, Rusts and Parsons could not build their complex, time sensitive projects without the coordination that the rest of the industry is just starting to adopt. All of these firms have had their own "web" for years, but called it a WAN, wide area network, often supported by satellite communication. The Stanford Research Institute laid out the plan for coordination of CONstruction COMmunications (CONCOM®)’ in the Stanford Report in 1967. It looks like the PC and the web will finally make it feasible and economically possible to implement their recommendations.

CRCJR

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©  Copyright 2007, The Construction Sciences Research Foundation, Inc.  Updated January 12, 2007.