Coordinator(s)

  • Subashini Suresh, University of Wolverhampton, UK
  • Ellyn Lester, Pennsylvania College of Technology, USA

Objectives and Scopes

Information is an all-pervading ingredient in building, common to research and practice. By giving proper consideration to the flow of information, research results can be usefully translated into innovation and further adapted to provide the knowledge-base for best practice. In an environment in which the tools for making information available are developing at breakneck speed, it is necessary to manage the whole spectrum of information forms in a way that reflects the realities of decision-making in modern building practice.
In this context the Objective for the Working Commission is to cover concerns that are related to information and knowledge management, both theoretical and practical. Special points of attention are the following:

  • interface between general information and the building process and especially the dysfunction in the flow of information between researchers and practitioners. The questions why research results are not put into practice, and how research results and feedback information can be converted and refined to be of practical use will be considered
  • contemporary information systems bearing on the information needs of the building industry.

Current Work Programme

The case-studies approach (of information successes and failures in the construction industry) will characterize the Commission’s work. Tasks to be performed during the period 1998-2001 include preparing the following deliverables: i) scientific products for a broad building industry audience, ii) practical products for the benefit of other CIB and UICB members and iii) products of immediate use by the Working Commission’s own members.

In addition the Commission started the following Projects:

  • joint W060 – W102 project Information Models for Performance Based Information Management and Documentation. Information Contact: Prof. Colin Davidson
  • Technology Watch / Technology Transfer to SME’s. Information Contact: Ron Sharpe, CSIRO, Australia
  • Information Models for Performance Based Procurement and Design

Planned Output

Internet based database, including: i) case-histories, ii) comparative material on national and international standards and guidelines, iii) ongoing research in the field of information and iv) available information tools

  • Book on Enhancing Knowledge Management in Construction Organizations: A Practitioner Guide
  • Publication of a Research Roadmap on Information and Knowledge Management in Building

Internal Structure

  • Organization of the Working Commission’s yearly meetings will be ensured by an ‘executive committee’, comprising the Coordinator, a member from the ‘host’ venue and one other member of the Working Commission.
  • Information will be exchanged by electronic means between meetings.
  • W102 established a Working Group on International best practices for disseminating new knowledge and technologies to SME’s. Working Group Leader: Dr. Ron Sharpe, CSIRO, Australia

Membership

Members of this Working Commission have to be either a Representative of a CIB Member Organization or an Individual CIB Member.