HELP PRESERVE FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT'S LAURENT HOUSE!

 If you're in Rockford, Illinois on June 1, consider attending this event which will benefit the effort to preserve Frank Lloyd Wright's 1949 Laurent house, which was occupied by the Laurent family from it's construction until just recently. The home and it's Wright-designed furnishings are said to be in original condition. 

I live about a mile from the Laurent house and I've viewed it from the street many times.

Help preserve this great work of art in Rockford, and mellow out with a glass of wine.

I'll see you there.

THANKS TO JOY DAVIS AND THE CSI SOCIAL MEDIA COMMUNITY!

Yesterday evening, May 17, 2012, Joy Davis and a panel of CSI social media users across the country presented SOCIAL MEDIA FOR CONSTRUCTION PROFESSIONALS by webinar to our Northern Illinois CSI Chapter meeting in Glen Ellyn, IL.

Thanks to Joy Davis and the panelists for generously sharing your time, and your experiences with social media, with us in the Northern Illinois Chapter.

We had 21 people at the actual chapter meeting at the Crowne Plaza Hotel, and at least one member who tuned in to the webinar from his home.

Your efforts made a difference in persuading several people to try social media.  Here's a little feedback:

• Dewain Peterson and I followed the accompanying Tweetchat #SMarchitect.  Looking out at the audience, I saw several people working their smartphones from time to time, presumably following the Tweetchat.  (I hope they weren't just idly surfing the web or checking email.)
• Several people approached me after the presentation, and told me that they were going to try Twitter, and/or expand their current activity on Twitter, now that they can see it's not just a way for teenagers to convey personal messages.
• This morning, I got an email from an experienced product rep who attended the meeting in person last night. He indicated that he, too, was going to try Twitter out, and that he may be contacting me for help occasionally.  If he asks a question I can't answer, I know I can call on the CSI social media community for help.
• We didn't convince everybody, though.  After the meeting, one person, obviously agitated, told me that social media "just delivered too much information", and that he was concerned that he couldn't keep up with the flow. I tried to reassure him that he didn't need to read everything that he gathered in a social media feed, and tried to draw an analogy between reading a newspaper and using a social media feed.  He didn't buy it.

Personally, I'm just using Twitter and Linkedin currently.  As I get more proficient, I'll probably expand to use more social media platforms.

MASS NOTIFICATION SYSTEMS - NICSI FREE WEBINAR

I'm writing today to let you know about an informative, FREE, Northern Illinois CSI Lunchtime Roundtable Webinar on Wednesday, April 25, 2012.

The topic is Mass Notification Systems, and it's being presented by Greg Small, Director of Technology at Larson & Darby Group in Rockford, Illinois. The webinar will cover the following:

• Overview of the basic fire alarm system.
• Overview of a basic audio paging system.
• Explore utilization of a fire alarm system with integrated mass notification to address emergency alerts for fire plus tornado, chemical spill, workplace violence, and other scenarios.
• Examine compliance requirements to NFPA 72 National Fire Alarm and Signaling Code - 2010 regarding amplification of first responder signals within a facility.

Disclosure:  Greg is a colleague of mine at Larson & Darby, and does technology design for many of our building projects, as well as prime technology projects for other clients.

The event is free, and you can join the webinar from wherever you and your internet device happen to be.

Here's the event flyer on the Northern Illinois CSI website.

Just contact NICSI Roundtable Chair Ken Moore at usconsulting@earthlink.com or 815 498-1260 for details on how to register for the webinar.

GLIMPSING THE FUTURE OF BIM?

I just finished reading Finith Jernigan’s new book Makers of the Environment: Building Resilience Into Our World One Model At A Time.  I borrowed a copy from the public library, but it’s so thought-provoking that I intend to buy a copy for myself.   You can read more about it here.

Don’t be put off by the unwieldy title.  This book gives us a big-picture glimpse into the rich and fascinating potential of information modeling in general, not just building information modeling.  It’s not a software manual.  It’s a prediction of what information modeling will be able to do for everyone who deals with the built environment, not just those of us in the AEC business, in the very near future.

The author explains BIM’s future capabilities by the literary device of a  “fictional case study” set a few years in the future, of a community’s response to twin disasters: a terrorist attack and a very destructive hurricane.  

Makers of the Environment is not an easy read, but I heartily recommend it to anyone interested in the future of the AEC industry.


Next, I'm going to read Mr. Jernigan's previous book BIG BIM little bim.

THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS

A question from one of my students about how products and work results are categorized in CSI’s MASTERFORMAT got me to thinking about one particular number/title that seems to me to be an anomaly.

MASTERFORMAT has a great keyword index, and is indispensible in my efforts to organize and package construction information. And what I do all day, every working day as a spec writer, is package construction information for my firm’s projects.

What the Dewey Decimal System or the Library of Congress System do for librarians, CSI MASTERFORMAT does for spec writers.

(Before you read the next few paragraphs, I need to apologize to all those public-spirited volunteers who participate in the consensus processes that generate and update CSI’s MASTERFORMAT.  I really appreciate what you do. I really do. I use MASTERFORMAT every day of my professional life.  I was just too busy - doing what I can’t remember right now - to participate in the last review of MASTERFORMAT. I don’t mean to criticize your work. I promise I’ll make time to comment on the next update of MASTERFORMAT.)

So here’s the anomaly I’m thinking about:  Unframed mirrors.  

MASTERFORMAT puts unframed mirrors in Section 08 83 00 - MIRRORS, subordinate to Section 08 80 00 - GLAZING. This is in Division 08 - OPENINGS.  So the question that occurs to people, me included, is:  In what sense is an unframed mirror an opening? Unframed mirrors are only fixtures for reflecting images. They’re for grooming or decor purposes, and don’t open in any sense. Nothing passes through a mirror, not people, not air, not even light. I know, I know. We’re supposed to be talking about work results, not products, and in a sense glazed mirrors are glazing because most of them are made of glass, and maybe installed by the glazing trade.  But they’re still not openings.

Framed mirrors - at least the ones in bathrooms and toilet rooms - don’t open either, except for mirror-door residential medicine cabinets which are definitely in Division 10.

It seems logical to at least consider putting unframed mirrors in Division 09 - FINISHES. Some mirrors are used as wall finish, decor if you will.  You can see such applications of mirrors in restaurants and sometimes in retail situations.

Maybe the authors of MASTERFORMAT put unframed mirrors in Division 08  - OPENINGS because of a wistful hope that  mirrors will one day work as openings to another world, like the mirror in Lewis Carroll’s ThroughThe Looking Glass, and What Alice Found There?

MICROSOFT TAGS AND FINITH JERNIGAN’S NEW BIM BOOK

This week I started reading Finith Jernigan’s new book Makers of the Environment - Building Resilience into the Environment One Model at a Time .

I’m not far enough into the book yet to say much about it’s premise, but the book already introduced me to something new: Microsoft Tags.  Tags printed in the book are part of the author’s goal to “...make this book an information model itself...”

Surprisingly none of my friends, online or offline, had heard of Microsoft Tags either.

Finith Jernigan says that Microsoft Tags “...establish direct links to more information and let one embed information into a printed book. Think of them as a glossary on steroids.”

Microsoft Tags seem to act like the QR codes that are now appearing frequently in print ads for construction products.  Once you download the free Microsoft Tags app, you can use your smartphone to access the links in the book. Once in the Microsoft Tags app, you simply point your camera phone at the tag. The app takes you directly to the link.

Check out the website for the book at http://4sitesystems.com/iofthestorm/

If you’re an Android phone user, go to the Android Market to download the free app for your phone. The Apple App Store has it too.

STAY INFORMED BY FOLLOWING CSI BLOGGERS

A few years ago the predominant way for CSI members and others in the AEC industry to express themselves in writing professionally, and reach a national audience, was to write articles for industry magazines and newsletters. It wasn’t easy to get published in magazines.  Your message had to fit into the magazine’s overall editorial focus. And it took months for an article to progress from the draft stage all the way to its appearance in a hard-copy magazine.

All that’s changed now. The Internet has eliminated the magazine monopoly on expression by making it easy to get one’s message directly out to the industry by establishing and writing a blog. Lots of interesting, experienced, well-informed AEC industry specialists have jumped into blogging.

Here are just a few CSI member blogs. Some write about CSI governance and the CSI experience; others write about their areas of consulting or construction expertise.

Some write frequently; others only occasionally. 

Some appeal mainly to CSI members; others have achieved a much wider audience.

All accommodate, and usually publish and respond to, reader comments, enabling great dialog. If you haven’t already discovered their blogs, I urge you to check them out.  

• Charles Hendricks, CSI, CDT (@thegainesgroup): http://harrisonburgarchitect.wordpress.com/
• Liz O'Sullivan, CSI, CCS, CCCA(@LizOSullivanAIA): http://lizosullivanaia.wordpress.com/
• David Stutzman, CSI, CCS & Randal Reifsnider, CSI, CDT (@dstutzman @conspectusinc @rreifsnider): http://www.conspectusinc.com/blog/
• Michael Chusid, FCSI, CCS (@MichaelChusid ) : http://www.buildingproductmarketing.com/
• Eric Lussier, CSI, CDT (@EricDLussier): http://ericdlussier.wordpress.com
• Neal Turner, CSI, CCPR (@draperinc):  http://blog.draperinc.com/about-the-authors/neal-turner/
• Ron Geren, CSI, CCS, CCCA (@specsandcodes): http://specsandcodes.typepad.com
• Robert Dye, FCSI, CCS, CCCA (@robert_dye): http://www.robertdye.us
• Mitch Miller, CSI, CCS (@m2architek): http://m2architek.wordpress.com
• Sheldon Wolfe, FCSI, CCS, CCCA (@swolfearch): http://swconstructivethoughts.blogspot.com
• John Guill, CSI, CCS, CCCA (@specmonkeynorth): http://specmonkeynorth.posterous.com
• Lori Greene, CSI, CCPR (@LoriGreeneAHC): www.idighardware.com
• Tara Imani, CSI (@Parthenon1): http://www.indigoarchitect.com/
• Marvin Kemp, CSI, CDT (@BaltoCSI): http://felttips.blogspot.com

Come to think of it, why not share your expertise with the AEC industry by starting a blog?

Tap into your inner writer and join the club. Your fellow bloggers will engage with you, and help you promote your message by spreading links to your blog around the Internet like the proverbial Johnny Appleseed.