ecobuild Design Technology Programme

The ecobuild Design Technology Programme is now finalised:
- http://www.unlimited.com/ecobuild/

Construction Industry Attitude to New Technology

At NBS we have recently carried out a survey on the construction industry's attitude to new technology.

90% of 500 respondents said they had a positive attitude towards new technology with those over 55 proving the most willing to embrace new technology. Over half would increase their investment in new technology while over a third now use a Smartphone as part of their working lives.

To check out all of the findings go to theNBS.com...
- http://www.thenbs.com/topics/PracticeManagement/articles/theTechnologySurvey.asp

And featured at bdonline.co.uk...

- http://www.bdonline.co.uk/news/survey-says-construction-more-it-literate-than-thought/5011752.article

Beta Testers Wanted

At the CIBSE BIM Conference in December I mentioned that at NBS we are currently working very hard to develop our specification software and data. We are turning our specification content from what currently is simple clause paragraphs of text into "objects" that have relationships and meaning.

John Gelder from our Technical Team also wrote about this in his article Near Future Specification Systems.

This will have enormous benefits to those involved in writing specification. In particular, the specification will become a document that is worked on throughout the time line to firstly create an outline specification, then the same document can be expanded to either a performance specification or traditional full specification. At each stage in the time line no information will have to be re-keyed and no information will be lost.

As this document will consist of  "objects" that have relationships and meaning then the user will be able to report on this content as they wish to easily create  contractor action reports, manufacturer products reports, reference document reports etc...

In February the NBS Beta Testers will be getting their first look at our developments.

If you are an existing NBS customer and would be interested in being one of the first to see and then feedback on these developments then please contact the Beta Test Coordinator Seth Okai seth.okai@thenbs.com.

Ref: http://www.thenbs.com/support/betatesting/

NBS Plus on manufacturer websites

I wrote a short article for the RIBA Insight January monthly briefing on how manufacturers can display their NBS product specification on their websites:
- RIBA-Insight.com

The screen-shot below show how Knauf AMF display their NBS Plus data on their website...

"One of the most popular recent additions to NBS Plus is its built-in facility to allow manufacturers and suppliers to display NBS product specifications on their website. The advantages of this include: 

1. That smaller practices that specify low-budget projects by writing notes on drawings can now easily also add a robust, concise NBS product specification from a supplier's own website
2. When a supplier's NBS Plus content is updated (by a qualified member of our in-house NBS technical team), it's also automatically updated on the supplier's website
3. Clear visibility of NBS Plus branding, making it easy for visitors to quickly identify 'NBS Plus suppliers' (companies that are clients of NBS Plus) and to feel confident that they are dealing with a trustworthy name."