You said it: most read BIM opinions in 2023

He took us through a quick history of COBie, before delving into what might come next, including the ‘Son of COBie’.

Trimble BIM ambassador Leif Granholm detailed his vision for open-standard BIM.

He wrote: “Until now, the BIM industry has been very much focused on the modelling of human-readable documents. That’s why 80% of software is for production and about 20% is for consumption. But we are in the midst of a dramatic transformation, as we are increasingly publishing and sharing machine-readable data.

“My vision for BIM is to automate the way this data is received and read by software. This would have big implications for change in the whole industry, but it brings huge opportunities for innovation in the development of new kinds of data-consumption software.”

Paul Shillcock, managing director of Operam and the author of ISO 19650-2, questioned the structure of the ISO 19650 series and asked if we should have two standards for one information management process.

He wrote: “I am now concerned that having two standards for one information management process may have inadvertently shored up the silos we are so desperately trying to break down. Whereby designers and constructors only use [19650] part two, operators and maintainers only use [19650] part three.

“On reflection, I wonder what would have happened had we combined the two standards to create an end-to-end information management process that all parties could adopt.”

Dr Marzia Bolpagni, associate director and head of BIM international at Mace, detailed the five trends that could impact digital construction in 2023.

AI and ethics; automation; environmental, social and governance; hybrid communication; and digital minimalism all featured Dr Bolpagni’s list.

How did her five trends affect you and your operations?

The most popular opinion expressed on BIMplus in 2023 certainly caught a lot of people’s attention and became part of a wider industry debate about digital adoption.

Morta chief executive and founder Mo Shana’a set out to question the sustainability of relying on Word and Excel and to promote no-code solutions. He noted: “The convergence of current and incoming legislation for building safety and sustainability, as well as the information mandate, means the need and requirement to connect data, track processes and have clear audit trails has never been greater.”

Don’t miss out on BIM and digital construction news: sign up to receive the BIMplus newsletter.