Geoconcepts Ontology, Skeleton Structure by avier Ruiz Aranguren at Trabajos Catastrales S.A. Two versions can be used: Geoconcepts Ontology v1.2, and v1.2 SWRL enhanced model.

People are building dictionaries and ontologies all over the place today. For example, researchers at the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid’s School of Computing are working on an original system for building multilingual dictionaries based on multiple term equivalences using what they are calling “universal words” - which will have huge impact to geospatial meaning. They claim system reliability and accuracy is 88%.

A HUGE effort impacting the entire design, architecture, contracting, construction, and facility management cycle is the Construction Specification Institute Project Construction Industry Terminology Initiative Task Team CITITT, refer to the article Words and What They Mean by chairman Gregg Borchelt PE FCSI.

In the Economist article Publish and Be Wrong, illustration by Adrian Johnson

What a call for participation. What huge kind of trumpet is needed for the participants to hear? What a showdown this could be between the subject matter experts to really explain building science. If so, what is the best way to handle scientific disputes or conflicts between publications?

Accuracy in scientific publications are tricky to begin with. For example, in the Economist article cited above, along with evidence in the maps of science, there are legitimate concerns about incorrect findings end up in print ~ then those findings hanging around as accepted fact for too long.

There needs to be better ways to compare concurrent and conflicting definitions in these dictionaries and ontologies. They suggest that, as the marginal cost of publishing a lot more material is minimal on the internet, all research that meets a certain quality threshold should be published online. Preference might even be given to studies that show negative results or those with the highest quality of study methods and interpretation, regardless of the results.

 How about a game or challenge? The construction industry terminology smack down.

These are a reminder that there is much beauty and love in the world.
Peace Profound,
Asalaam Aleichem,
Shalom,
God Bless You,
Blessed Be,
Sat Sri Akhal,
Namaste,

John

80 Series, Narrow Design, Sargent Co.

MANUFACTURING STANDARDS

American National Standards Institute (ANSI)/Builders Hardware Manufacturing Association (BHMA) ANSI/BHMA A156.3-2001 establishes requirements for exit devices and trim.

Hardware reinforcing in accordance to ANSI, SDI, NFPA standards requirements

Sargent’s Newest Innovations
“80 Series, Accept Nothing but the Facts!
Withstands Real-Life Abuse!
It’s the strongest, most durable exit device in the industry today! The SARGENT 80 Series continues to exceed ANSI/ BHMA Grade 1 standards.”

REGULATIONS

Laws or rules prescribed by an authority to regulate conduct.  State or local construction regulations incorporate codes and referenced standards.

“The International Building Code 2006 states that entrance doors in Occupancy…. Access control locking hardware must conform to the door’s fire rating…”

Contact PH Insulations about - Fire rated doors

TESTING

Passes positive pressure test standards UL 10C, UBC 7-2, and UBC 7-4
Door tests performed in accordance with UL 10B, ASTM E2074, NFPA 80, and NFPA
Tested according to NFPA 252 and UL10(b) and labeled up to 3 hours

LOCAL BUILDING AUTHORITY

Arlington County Virginia
Accessibility: 2003 ICC/ANSI A117.1
Building: 2003 International Building Code
Electrical: 2002 National Electrical Code (NFPA 70)
Energy Conservation: 2003 International Residential Code
Fire Prevention: 2003 International Fire Code
Fuel Gas: 2003 International Fuel Gas Code
Mechanical: 2003 International Mechanical Code
Plumbing: 2003 International Plumbing Code
Residential: 2003 International Residential Code

Department of Community Planning, Housing & Development
Planning Research and Analysis
Planning Division Applications & Forms Library
Construction Inspections, Permits, Certificate of Occupancy, Code Enforcement

Virginia Community Association Network - Understanding Building Codes
VBCOA Virginia Building Code Officials Association  Battlefield Chapter Region V
International Building Code General: Carolyn Majowka represents Arlington County

Map of VBCOA Regions

ICC current version “The existing code language fails to address the issue of hardware that is required as part of the door assembly to satisfy egress and security requirements …”

FEMA 453 / May 2006 Risk Management Series Safe Rooms and Shelters “The occupancy loads in the building codes have historically been developed ….. Source: Arlington County After-Action Report Designated entry/exit access …”

NATIONAL SAFETY

Maps from the International Code Council

“The International Code Council, a membership association dedicated to building safety and fire prevention, develops the codes used to construct…”

ICC Online | SMARTcodes™

OTHER SMART CODES

 SmartCodeStudio by TechnoRiver

QR Codes and Semacodes are similar in the sense that they’re squarish. ShotCodes, appropriately enough, mimic a bulls-eye. Unlike normal barcodes, these two-dimensional “matrix codes” can store much more data, aside from simple numbers. From Three Formats Promise to Turn Your Mobile into a Barcode Reader

i-Nigma codes are smart codes that act as links to websites. What makes them so amazing is how they are used. Refer to mydigitallife for a step by step explanation.

ACCURACY&AESTHETICS CODE TEMPLATES

Stack from the Open Knowledge Foundation (176)

Copia by Antonio Gaudí

“That man, the unsubmissive and first, stand in the opening chapter of every legend mankind has recorded about its beginning. Prometheus was chained to a rock and torn by vultures - because he had stolen the fire of the gods. Adam was condemned to suffer because he had eaten the fruit of the tree of knowledge. Whatever the legend, somewhere in the shadows of its memory mankind knew that its glory began with one and that one paid for his courage.

Casa Milà, 92 Paseo de Gracia, apartment block built between 1906 and 1910 in Barcelona for the Milà family by Antonio Gaudí“Throughout the centuries there were men who took first steps down new roads armed with nothing but their own vision. Their goals differed, but they all had this in common: that the step was first, the road new, the vision unborrowed, and the response they received - hatred. The great creators - the thinkers, the artists, the scientists, the inventors - stood alone against the men of their time. Every great new thought was opposed. Every great new invention was denounced. The first motor was considered foolish. The airplane was considered impossible. The power loom was considered vicious. Anesthesia was considered sinful. But the men of unborrowed vision went ahead. They fought, they suffered, and they paid. But they won.”No creator was prompted by a desire to serve his brothers, for his brothers rejected the gift he offered and that gift destroyed the slothful routine of their lives. His truth was his only motive. His own truth, and his own work to achieve it in his own way. A symphony, a book, an engine, a philosophy, an airplane or a building - that was his goal and his life. Not those who heard, read, operated, believed, flew or inhabited the thing he had created. The creation, not its users. The creation, not the benefits others derived from it. The creation which gave form to his truth. He held his truth above all other things and against all men.….in development more to type from Howard Rourke’s soliloquy about design, construction, and blowing up the buildings that failed to meet his design intent, will intersperse architectural images below and more…..work in progress Aqua, to be completed in 2009 Chicago USA: This skyscraper will seem traditional from a distance, however up close, the ripple/jelly effect created by variously sized balconies becomes evident from top to bottom.“Chicago Spire, to be completed in 2010 Chicago USA: Will be the world’s tallest residential building and the tallest building of any kind in the western world.CCTV Headquarters, to be completed in Beijing China for the 2008 Olympics: The shape, described as a ‘z criss-cross’ results in a very high, seemingly unsupported corner at the front.Regatta Hotel Jakarta Indonesia: Complex of 10 towers referring to Indonesian ships with while the biggest construction represents a lighthouse.Residence Antilia IndiaRussia Tower, to be completed 2012, Moscow Russia: Topped with an Observation Deck, Russia Tower will become the tallest building in Europe, twice the height of the Eiffel tower.Penang Global City Center, Malaysia: Following months of speculation and sturdy opposition, this project is in the final stages of approval and apparently construction will start soon. Due to the size it will take at least 15 years to completely transform the small island of Penang.Gazprom Headquarters, St. Petersburg Russia: Will appear to change color up to 10 times per day depending on the position of the sun.Burj Dubai, to be completed 2009: Will be the tallest man-made structure in the world and the tallest building by a long shot with a predicted height of 818m. C urrently the tallest building on earth, excluding an antenna, is Taipei 101 in Taiwan which stands at 509m.

Open standards for building and geospatial information are rapidly changing.  So much is being figured out at the same time its hard to know which of the many parallel tracks will eventually meet in the distance.  For example:

Performance Specifications:  Proprietary versus generic names of things are very tricky ~ the CSI Construction Specification Institute International Framework Dictionary is currently being developed;   

Data Exchange Policies:  Recording brand names, model numbers, and manufacturer’s warranties as performance specifications, designs and data change hands from Architect, to Contractor, to Owner ~ COBIE Construction Operations Building Exchange is currently being developed;  

Building Codes:  Construction type and use group are able to align with building data by facility type and location ~ ICC International Code Council SmartCODES are currently being developed;  

Space Definition Rules:   BOMA calcs and owner program requirements ~ OSCRE Open Standards Consortium for Real Estate are currently being developed;  

Geospatial Coordination: OGC Open Geospatial Consortium has already made a huge impact, open standards continue to be developed with an impressive focus on interoperability amongst the standards themselves;  

Sustainability: Owners, Architects, and Contractors understand how to go for LEEDS points now ~ USGBC US Green Building Council has already made a huge impact, standards and requirements continue to be developed;  

Tools for Public Inquiry:  How can environmental organizations assess their area using USGBC/LEED data, GIS Watershed, BOMA Calcs, SMARTCodes and all the above while OmniClass, MasterFormat, UniFormat and all the words we use are constantly evolving?

BIMstorm and OPS provide an opportunity for non-technical people to like and understand the potential of BIM and open standards in simple ways.  Room Criteria Sheets and Google Earth are OK, regular people can play out a variety of scenarios without liabilities, deadlines, or costs.  It can’t be only technical people who solve these problems.   The main benefit of using the BIMstorm process and OPS is being able to figure out how open standards SHOULD work together with commercial technology.  Open standards need to be vendor neutral, but it takes vendors to help develop these standards along the way.  There is still a tremendous amount of work ahead and true interoperability will never be “done”.  Until then, using the BIMstorm process and OPS provides a unique opportunity to work together towards the same shared end goals.  Can’t get there without using real products and technology.

Deborah L. MacPherson AIA, CSI CCS
Specifications and Research, WDG Architecture PLLC
Projects Director, Accuracy&Aesthetics
NBIMS National Building Information Modeling Standard, Consensus and Model Implementation Guide Task Teams
Member of the buildingSMART alliance

A&AStructuredBackgroundCombination

Components starting with Michael K. Bergman on AI3 Adaptive Information, Adaptive Innovation, Adaptive Infrastructure. Not all components below are shown above.

Lack of Road Signs Causes Collisions and Missed Turns (459)

One Possible Road Map (515)

Full UMBEL Graph (496)

From Wikipedia: An umbel is an inflorescence which consists of a number of short flower stalks (calledpedicels) which are equal in length and spread from a common point, somewhat like umbrella ribs. Umbels are a characteristic of plants such as carrot, parsley, dill, and fennel in the familyApiaceae, and ivy, aralia and fatsia in the family Araliaceae. A compressed cyme is called unbelliform if it resembles an umbel.

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More:

OpenCyc Selected Vocabulary and Upper Ontology

Linked Open Data

Frank Gehry’s Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles at Daily Dose of Imagery

Crochet Model of Hyperbolic Plane by Daina Taimina, presented by the Institute for Figuring

Ontoforms by Accuracy&Aesthetics Director Ken Fields

Standard Upper Ontology Working Group (SUO WG)

terrain2 by Matthias M. Giwer at the Internet RayTracing Competition May-June 1999

There are too many facts and opinions to choose from and currently no way to stack conflicting and current points of view against each other in a simple format limited to a specific, narrow context, rather than the context of everything. In a medical situation, understanding all the options for medical reasons is unfortunately only part of the picture, there is also a need to become an instant expert in the swirl of confusion that is the insurance industry, not to mention the information pharmaceutical companies publish for public access. All three industries collide on a regular basis. Simple decisions may be influenced by a large number of conflicting viewpoints that may not care as much about the outcome as much as untrained users trying to learn new terminology to understand the pros and cons. Maybe FLIPP explainers could be used to understand the options, for example, IF hospice care is initiated THEN Medicare benefits will change.

FLIPPexplainer by David Cox

Having access to endless research, benefits, and reports does not make the decision easier or fix things in the real world. Diagrams can help see in overviews to consider what doctors are telling you, compared to what the industry position is, compared to what you can observe yourself to decide what is realistic, what to expect, how you can help. What is needed is something like a holding bin or personal visual dashboard to collect, analyze, and keep only the pieces that matter in your puzzle. For example, Figure 5 from Context Driven Topology drawings shows:

Instead of a curator, scientist, and detective - what if the points of view were brother, brother, and sister? From left to right, one approach is to integrate bits and pieces information into a solid position, another may choose to undertake a comprehensive survey, another may simply be trying to separate fact from fiction. A consensus across all three points of views and ways of making decisions may only intersect at one point. Too bad that point can’t be guided by all the medical, insurance, and pharmaceutical information.

How would such a point be derived? Maybe through Linked Open Data

Linked Data at DBpedia.org

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COMMENT FROM JACK PARK ON THE CODE TEMPLATE CONCEPT

“I see this as a topic map question with a good query mechanism that would allow you to match patterns and bubble to the top the requisite variety of solutions to the query.

There is something you see and talk about that I rarely do, the ability to fold, twist, and reveal. I have no clue how one goes about that except along the lines I suggested in an earlier post about manifolds, intersecting them, and playing them using something like a GBG (will ask: one of these or Glass Bead Network?) as an interface.

An old (late) friend Iben Browning used to talk about using evolutionary program and “spring” metaphors to let things like this self organize. The idea is that you arrange nodes in relationship to each other and add springs between them. You can watch this happen with touchgraph - the nodes jiggle around until the dust settles. You can tweak spring coefficients until something “makes sense” - - that’s what evolutionary programming does for you.”

See the big picture of clusters and interrelations within your data, and zoom in on whatever catches your interest, by TouchGraph.

___________________________

 FEEDBACK FROM NICHOLAS NISBET MA (Cantab) DipArch (UNL) Director AEC3 UK Ld.

RE: “Set of data structures, or code templates, to extend semantic relationships that already exist in CSI and OCCS classifications to capture and describe building information by construction type, use group, code requirements and so on.”

I see (in the pdf below) that you are linking core concepts (Uniformat and MF2004 names) to various the classification systems and specification clauses (step 1 ,2) and related these to their usefulness for some building types (step 3-5 Looking at ICC allows  you to relate some requirements to ‘core concepts’ and/or ‘building types’. COBIE exposes the  classification of spaces, systems and registered types. Lastly your spreadsheet mentions standards that are relevant. Overall you have a tree of references and relationships.

___________________________

Developing a set of code and classification templates to track and standardize building information modeling exchanges. See pdf for explanation.

S30_13SpecificationSchemeExplanation

and the following links

bimSMART lab

COBIE

BuildingSMART Alliance

Building Code templates are a way of understanding the design of buildings and also what happens inside there. Some of this information is private, some is related to overall energy awareness and efficiency concerns, some are public services that could be shown on Google maps, some are simply where a person lives with preferred and ranked restaurants around them. Whatever the concerns, how do you get from all the possible information and building control system readings to the necessary and sufficient information needed for the general public to live their daily lives and participate in the governance of their local, regional, national and global community? Code templates are a stab at it. It is assumed every building type can use the same Division 01, General Conditions in their contract documents while being built. Its still unclear what happens after that in terms of the building lifecycle. Where building codes fit is still being figured out but probably in another band above Division01.