1996 Annual Meeting

1996 CIB W78 Annual Meeting
Bled, Slovenia
Wednesday June 12

Minutes of 1995 Meeting

These were accepted as a true record.

Actions Arising

These were all covered elsewhere on the agenda.

The Work Programme

Use of Internet - A verbal report on the background to the project and progress over the last year was made by Ziga Turk, Bo-Christer Bjork, Dana Vanier and Per Christiansson. This expanded on the many discussions on the issue, and on how the commission is dealing with the subject, that had occurred during the workshop. The relationship of the work to the ESPRIT-funded SCENIC project was discussed. It was agreed that:


• the excellent work with the electronic journal should be continued and greater coverage would be given within CIB publications
  • action: Ziga Turk, Bo-Christer Bjork, and Wim Bakens
  
  
• the way the Internet had been used in the organisation of the conference was commended as having been excellent and should be made more widely known and available to future W78 and other CIB meeting organisers
  • action: Ziga Turk, Martin Betts, and Wim Bakens
  
  
• all attendees at the workshop who were not currently on the W78 mailing list should be added
  • action: Ziga Turk
  
  
• the Construction Resources guide being prepared be Ziga Turk and Matti Hannus should be adopted as an element of this part of the commission's work programme, badged with the CIB and W78 status and offered to CIB as a starting point for a Guide to the Internet. This would require further input and investment which might require financial assistance from CIB for which a funding proposal should be made by Ziga and Matti and submitted to Wim Bakens
  • actions: Matti Hannus, Ziga Turk and Wim Bakens
  
  
• members of the commission were in a position, with support from CIB, to be able to attend meetings of other commissions to advise them through a presentation of how the Internet could be used for supporting a commission and to support construction research generally
  • actions: Ziga Turk and Wim Bakens
  
  
• Virtual Building Model
  The background and progress with this element was verbally reported on by Matti Hannus of VTT. National funding for this work within Finland was to be made available later this year and all other members of the commission were invited to participate in the work through their own funding. By the time of the next commission meeting, progress with an initial examination of feasibility was expected
  • action: Matti Hannus and any interested commission member.
  
  
• Product Modeling in Practice
  The background and progress with this element of the work programme was verbally reported by Matti Hannus of VTT. It was agreed to:
  • undertake an international state-of-the-art review of use of product models in practice as an activity between now and the next workshop/meeting in 1997
    • action: Martin Betts
    
    
  • invite a number of national representatives to prepare similarly structured papers documenting best product model use practice in a format to be designed by the leader for this project who would be identified by the commission coordinator
    • action: Martin Betts
    
    
  • arrange for a special session of the next workshop to include presentation of these state-of-the-art papers
    • action: Robin Drogemuller
    
    
  • publish the state-of-the-art papers together with a commissioned introduction to product models and a glossary of product modeling terms as a separate CIB W78 publication
    • action: Martin Betts and Wim Bakens
  
  
• National IT Strategies
  The background and progress with this element of the work programme was verbally reported by Bo-Christer Bjork of KTH and Martin Betts. The relationship of the work to activities under an ESPRIT funded SCENIC project was described. It was agreed to:
  • undertake an international state-of-the-art review of national IT strategies as an activity between now and the next workshop/meeting in 1997
    • action: Martin Betts
    
    
  • invite a number of national representatives to prepare similarly structured papers describing national IT strategies in a format to be designed by the leader for this project
    • action: Martin Betts
    
    
  • arrange for a special session of the next workshop to include presentation of these national IT strategies papers
    • action: Robin Drogemuller
    
    
  • Relationships to Other Working Commissions
    During the course of the 3-day workshop it become increasingly clear that W78 was developing more extensive links with other CIB commissions and that a new element of our work programme should be to maintain links with these other commissions and to develop policy on our links.
    Dana Vanier of NRC in Canada was selected as the leader of this element of work.

Future Meetings

1997 - a presentation was made of the case for the meeting and workshop to take place in Cairns, Australia led by a local organising committee to be chaired by Robin Drogemuller of James Cook University. The location of Palm Cove in Cairns was chosen. The theme presented of IT Support for Construction Process Reengineering was accepted and welcomed. Alternative dates in early to mid July were discussed. The need to avoid overlap with a W92 meeting in Montreal in June, and the ASCE and AEC meetings in the US, was noted. The desirability of linking up with other related activities in East Asia or Australia was seen to be desirable in justifying travel and encouraging attendance. The local organiser and commission coordinator were left to confirm a date within these constraints and guidelines and to publish it as soon as possible
• action: Robin Drogemuller and Martin Betts.

1998 - The possibility of this meeting coinciding with a joint workshop on IT and the Environment as part of the Triennial World Congress activities was raised and welcomed. It was also proposed that the 1998 meeting might also coincide with a more industry-oriented W78 meeting to take place in Stockholm possibly as part of the activities under the SCENIC project. A more detailed proposal would be made at the next meeting
action Bo-Christer Bjork, Martin Betts, and Wim Bakens.

1999 - The possibility of this meeting coinciding with meetings of a number of CIB commissions linked to a conference on Durability of Building Materials and Components was raised and welcomed. A more detailed proposal would be made at the next meeting - action Dana Vanier.

Review of Past Meetings

Nothing but praise for the excellent technical and social programme was advanced in relation to the Bled Workshop. Ziga Turk was congratulated for having organised such a successful event.

Links to Other Working Commissions

The importance of this issue was already noted by the adoption of the subject as part of the work programme. A further issue was raised by Wim Bakens of the need for CIB to identify a major theme for its overall activities for the period 1998-2001. One possibility was that enabling technologies could become such a theme for which IT and therefore W78 may be major features. The commission was invited to put forward a case for this by writing a position paper looking to draw a road-map for how IT could influence a range of CIB related subjects as an enabling technology. It was agreed that this should be done as part of the exercise of drafting a triennial coordinators report outlining major research themes for the next three years. This would be done by August 1996 by the coordinator in consultation with the commission board and with any other member of the commission wishing to become involved
• action Martin Betts and W78 Board.

Any Other Business

The issue was raised of the potential conflict between a number of national and international research coordination activities emerging within different countries for whom subscribing members were being sought which might be in potential conflict with CIB and with the commission fulfilling its own objectives. It was agreed that there should be correspondence between the commission and the CIB programme committee on the subject and every attempt made to reconcile the aspiration of groups such as Construct IT, the Swedish Construction IT Centre, SCENIC and CIB. - Action Martin Betts and Wim Bakens.

The Coordinator thanked Ziga Turk for having hoisted the meeting, the Board for their support during the year and all for attending.

M.Betts
June 16, 1996