10 ways social media can help your construction client

Many of the construction industry’s customers are major brands in their own right (Sainsbury’s, Barclays, O2, Network Rail, BAA, etc). Thus, any part of the supply chain delivering projects should be acutely aware that their goods and services could have a direct impact on the ultimate client’s reputation – and vexing that customer is not [...]

Future-gazing construction ICT

This morning I discovered a SCRI Research Report, Future Generation of IT (PDF), published in June and reporting on discussions held at a ‘vision planning workshop’ hosted at Salford University back in January (2009). The aim of the event was to “identify possible futures that the construction industry might face and to start developing a [...]

‘Over half of US workplaces block social networks’

Via a Webware.com article published last week, I learned that more than half of United States workplaces block social networks such as Facebook and Twitter. A survey of about 1,400 US chief information officers by consulting firm Robert Half Technology shows 54% block social networks “completely,” while 19% allow social networking “for business purposes”.
While Caroline [...]

Be2camp expanding

As a co-founder of Be2camp, the online network for people interested in applying Web 2.0 approaches to the architecture, engineering, construction and property sector, I am – of course – completely biased about the achievements of the community. Take last Friday, for example….
… On a zero budget, we managed to organise a Be2camp North workshop [...]

Ada Lovelace Day: a salute to Pam Broviak

“Ada Lovelace Day, 24 March, is an international day of blogging to draw attention to women excelling in technology. Women’s contributions often go unacknowledged, their innovations seldom mentioned, their faces rarely recognised. We want you to tell the world about these unsung heroines. Whatever she does, whether she is a sysadmin or a tech entrepreneur, [...]

Ten things to manage in a recession: 2 – meetings

This is the second in a series based on my friend Ross Sturleys’ Ten Things to Cut in a Recession Before You Cut Your Marketing (presented at last month’s CIMCIG conference and in recent Construction News marketing e-newsletters) – number one was “Cut association memberships”.
Number two: “Cut meetings”
Ross starts his diatribe against costly and time-wasting [...]

Will the future of events be virtual?

Phil Clark has just blogged about the potential impact of virtual worlds such as Second Life on the management of conferences and other events. He believes that we will see “an amalgam of live and online events” begin to develop, where a live event coincides with a virtual one and the two feed off each [...]

Let’s make construction more ’social’

[This is a re-post of a blog article I wrote for Building Sustainable Design, which launched this week - also reproduced on ExtranetEvolution.com.]
I have spent more than half my career in the architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) and property industry looking at issues relating to collaboration, and since 2000 have been focused on how to [...]