Acoustic Dimensions is hosting meetings of the Global Design Alliance this week.  The topic and focus for this session is enabling collaboration through metrics, systems and business processes.  Conversations have explored technology infrastructure, new approaches to project delivery and enabling the “people” side of collaboration.

Kaizen is Japanese for  “change for the better.”  Primarily the term is used with regard to continuous improvement of processes in manufacturing, engineering, and  supporting business processes.  If you are serious about being part of the revolution going on in the AEC industry, you know there is no magic bullet.  Changing methodologies is a process.

Jeff Miller of our San Diego office and David W. Robb of our New York office were in Dallas this week for a cross-office brainstorming session to look at how data flows in the AEC industry and the relationships between data in Acoustic Dimensions’ offices.

David Weinberger, author of Everything is Miscellaneous, says that “Metadata is what you already know and data is what you want to find out.”   And while the digital world provides a wealth of information and tools to manage both, we find the we are still refining our methodologies for seeing relationships within data.  We remain firm believers that there is untapped power just beneath the surface and it is a company passion to unlock it.

Mobile phones have become ‘The Next Big Thing’.  Everyone wants a smartphone and everyone wants to be connected all the time.  At Acoustic Dimensions, with Twitter, Texting, and Buzz we feel out of touch if we aren’t connected 24/7.  And as “The IT Guy” at Acoustic Dimensions, the percentage of my work week related to handhelds is evidence enough that we have truly entered the Mobile digital age.  The impending explosion of tablet devices such as Apple’s iPad and the coming torrent of Android Tabs will only exacerbate this trend as mobile access is moved to a platform with a better user interface experience (read Larger Screen).  The Hardware, Data infrastructure and software industries will be hard pressed to keep up with demand. 

There are limitations though.  Currently, phones and tablets are really data consumption devices.  They are great at allowing users to access data quickly from anywhere.  But try creating a sophisticated document or spreadsheet on one of these and you soon reach maximum frustration.  Users who need to create data are still chained to a laptop at minimum, and high end users who require raw processing power (engineers, designers, et al) are chained to a desktop.

I predict that this will change.  And sooner than you think.  Raw processor power and data storage is getting smaller, less power hungry, and affordable.  Moore’s law is still in effect.  And data networks are evolving to be more robust, higher bandwidth, and accessible.  Granted there are still holes and reliability issues, but those will be resolved with time and money.

What is really needed is a new interface paradigm.  The QWERTY keyboard has finally outlived its usefulness.  As ubiquitous as it is, it really is too limiting for the Mobile age.  Just look at the coming Acer Iconia dual screen tablet.  No keyboard.  Instead you have a touchscreen that can serve up a keyboard, navigation ring, or any other interface you can desire. 

Have you ever tried to touch type on a touchscreen keyboard?  Oh, you can’t touch type?  You thumb type or do advanced hunt and peck? Then why would you want a qwerty keyboard?  They aren’t designed for that.

And just look at Kinect.  Wave your hands and interface with your device ala Minority Report or Iron Man.  Why have to touch a device at all.

The time has come for a new interface for using our devices.  Only then will we be able to achieve a truly Mobile digital age and use them as creation tools instead of just consumption tools. 

So come on all of you Geniuses.  With all of our millennia of knowledge about human thought, language, and psychology surely someone can design the ‘killer app’ for this one.

Acoustic Dimensions believes that we have the opportunity to be in the forefront of developing an open source international industry standard for BIM in AVL and Acoustics.  So, Thursday consultants from our Dallas, San Diego and New York offices—along with some of the major contractors in our industry—connected to discuss how BIM is changing the way we do business and the potential going forward for our trade as a whole.

Casey Sherred—part of InfoComm’s BIM Task Force—led the discussions which explored changes in existing processes and the promise that building information modeling offers for integrated design.

Craig Janssen was interviewed in InfoComm’s Special Report released this week on Integrated Project Delivery .  IPD has been the focus of conversation for multiple groups in which Craig is actively engaged in leadership including the Global Design Alliance, Mindshift, and InfoComm. 

The article presents an overview of IPD, outlines that the construction delivery model is changing and highlights the role that BIM plays.

Janssen believes that this shift presents opportunity for the AV industry. “We’re good at picking up technology quickly. Our strength is that we can learn fast,” he says. “We’re moving towards an open-source world, but we don’t yet know the power of Wiki thinking.”

In late 2010, the BIM Task Force—on which Casey Sherred of Acoustic Dimensions serves—will be releasing a comprehensive 30-page report explaining BIM and the role it can play in the AV industry.  In addition, InfoComm will begin taking steps to automate certain AV functions in BIM software, so that products will appear in a drop-down menu.