B3 - BIM and technology in the next 10 years

While the video we watched in class on Thursday showed where Revit and other programs can bring us in the near future, I think that a 10-year plan is a bit too fast paced. One of the main issues I see in this is the willingness of people (mainly the older generations) to utilize this technology. Technology changes every day, and as Professor Mitchell said towards the end of class, once you hit a certain point there doesn’t seem to be enough reason to learn something new and complex. A way of fixing this was making the program user friendly, but that along could take 10 years to master. With making the programs user friendly (easy enough to learn, etc.) you could realistically make these different programs accepted in the older generations still working or to those who were never introduced to the project from an early time.

Another doubt with such a short time frame is the fact that one particular program isn’t used universally and getting a program to be used throughout a profession could be extremely difficult. For example, using programs on Macs vs. PCs can make the experience difficult or easier because many of these design programs are built for just one. Past that, there are many different programs that are utilizes and convincing people to stick with one specific program might be difficult – and if there are multiple programs in use, finding ways to overlap them would become necessary if the technology is fully integrated.

While I don’t think it will be fully integrated within a decade, I think technology will be more integrated than now. I think with programs improving at the rate they currently are and other extensions coming out, more people will be pulled to using it and it will start to become an easier platform to work with as more people use it. Along with that, the younger generations are utilizing technology a lot more, and with time, those who are against using these different programs will retire or see the benefit in them are start using it. I think associating a timeline with when technology will be fully integrated is putting a date to something that doesn’t need it – I do believe these programs will be a large part in the future, but it’s impossible to know when as the rate that technology is improved, and programs are created are constantly changing.

Comments:

To Nick Maloney – I completely agree with where you’re coming from. Something you talked about that I did not mention is the costs associated with the programs. Often times, especially with it’s the “newest and greatest” thing, it’ll be extremely expensive and not realistic to purchase for smaller companies. That also creates a time delay of sorts for when technology will be integrated to the highest potential.

To Harvin Bhandal – I think you bring up some great points. The fact that what’s considered “old technology” or “old school” to many still functions for their purposed and many people prefer it. I think that will also limit people’s willingness to work with newer technology and make it even more difficult to integrate it across all platforms.

To Jackie Lord – I think you bring up great points, but I think there’s the separation between big companies and smaller ones. Big companies, like AECOM are able to spend the money on more expensive technology and have enough people where they can train everyone (and not take away from their projects), where smaller companies can’t do the same thing. That’s where I think the ten years is a bit fast, because I’m not sure it’s realistic across the board.