Building a Digital Family of Trust

We use Trust to create our Building Digital Family. No longer can anyone know it all so we need to partner with Digital Families of Trust.

One of our recent chapters, Beyond Twins & Triplets, discusses the wireless wave supporting our new, connected family, helping us to share, work and play.

My head hurts, from so much information in just the last week about Building Digital Family from these two major industry events, Controls Con (where I was pleased to deliver the virtual keynote) and Haystack Connect.

These events were presented on new virtual digital platforms which linked us all seamlessly, providing a new virtual touch and feel, networking us with speakers and other attendees while connecting easily to the social media channels of all attendees.

The different virtual presentation platforms for each were a big part of the total message about the future of how conferences will occur. Once conferences are virtual they become timeless, never-ending, global, with information easily shared, discussed, and documented on whichever platform an attendee prefers. Physical travel for most is eliminated—good for COVID control and for the environment.

The takeaway from both events, for me, was the amount and speed of technological change and the need to educate (myself and everyone around me) about that change. Self-Education is everyone's new focus and is likely to take a good percentage of our time in the future. We need to keep abreast of both the big-picture concepts and the gory details of each innovative new product.  

New technologies are solving old problems while creating new concerns. To move forward we need to find a community we trust. That’s why Building Digital Family is so important.   

To return to the recent industry events I mentioned, here’s an outline of Controls Con, the Smart Buildings Controls Conference, from Scott Cochrane, CEO of Cochrane Supply:

Come One, Come All to the Greatest BAS Show on Earth!  

Witness never seen before products, software, and CONCEPTS that will shape the next decade in BAS technology!

Thursday, May 6^th—Our BIG KEYNOTE DAY!!!!!! 

Mind blowing, mind sharing!!! We will uncover the truth vs. myth of the MASTER SYSTEMS INTEGRATOR. Staring myself, Jim Young (Founder/CEO, Realcomm) and Ken Sinclair (AutomatedBuildings Extraordinaire), with more than 100 years of industry vision asking big BAS questions to companies like Tridium, Honeywell, Johnson Controls, and Distech Controls!  

Ken and Jim are cornerstones for the BAS industry and I couldn’t ask for better cohorts when it comes to geeking out about the technology within. Ken, whom is my Dalai Lama of BAS, brings us a wealth of experience mixed with big thoughts to entice us to think in new directions. Jim is a madman—he never stops trying to uncover the tech story behind big buildings and is bringing vision into some of the biggest real estate portfolios on earth. Together, I know we will push the envelope...

This was one of our sessions:

BUSINESS TRACK For sales professionals, managers, executives

How to Successfully Utilize Master Systems Integration

This track is going to focus on case studies and implementation plans relating to Master Systems Integration, highlighting instances of how people are hiring or working with Master Systems Integrators. It will additionally, highlight best practices/current trends on how the industry is evolving to take advantage of new technology amidst modern challenges, like data management.

Scott Cochrane - President & CEO, Cochrane Supply & Engineering – President, Canada Controls Jim Young - Founder & CEO, Realcomm Ken Sinclair - Editor, Owner, & Founder, AutomatedBuildings.com Robert Reale - Managing Director of Strategic Operations, CBRE Sabine Lam - Building Operating Systems Global Lead for Real Estate and Workplace Services, Google Donny Walker - Partner, Newcomb & Boyd Bobbie Tincher - Utilities Systems Manager, University of Kentucky

Want to learn more?

The great thing about virtual events is the ability to easily record and capture all of the extremely valuable content and then have it accessible long after the live event comes to an end. The Controls-Con team received such incredible feedback about the content presented and questions about how others might be able to access it, that the team decided to open up the opportunity to register for a Post-Controls-Con Access Pass.

Occurring just before and crossing over this event was Haystack Connect.

Here’s an article from John Petze, Executive Director Project Haystack and Marc Petock, Executive Secretary Project Haystack, on some of the history of both the project and the event:

Project Haystack Marks 10 Years 

2021 marks ten years since the beginning of Project Haystack. Wow, ten years. Who would have thought?

As we celebrate Haystack’s 10-year anniversary, we want to thank the global community—our founding members, associate members and the independent contributors for their commitment and effort. Thank you to the curators of the methodology; thank you to the multitude of working groups; thank you to the industry manufacturers who have made it part of their technology and solutions; thank you to the integrators who have utilized Haystack in well over 30,000 facilities; thank you to the owners, operators, facility managers and government organizations who are using Haystack in the daily operations of their buildings and IoT deployments. 

We are very excited to see what the future will bring. Here's to the next 10!

This is a fun interview with John Petze and Jame Dice about John's evolution and that of Project Haystack:

#044: John Petze on Tridium's early days, founding SkySpark, and 10 years of Project Haystack

Want to learn more?

The gang at Project Haystack are right now hard at work editing and organizing videos from the virtual event. When they are completed they will be linked within the event schedule at: www.haystackconnect.org/schedule/

This a must-read from Sabine Lam, Google Building Operating Systems (BOS) Global Lead for Real Estate and Workplace Services (REWS):

How building digitalization is changing the Master Systems Integrators focus area 

It is well recognized that the number of IP devices is exploding in the real estate industry and is growing faster than previous technical advances.

Here’s a link to the latest ControlTalk podcast, featuring Eric Stromquist and myself discussing a lot of the themes of this column, including the Wireless Wave, Communities of Practice, Communities of Trust and the new Industry Rules of Engagement.

In this article, Nicolas Waern writes about A Future that is bigger than the past.: 

Is the Building Automation Industry Broken?  Or is the Building Automation Industry poised and ready to leapfrog into the future?

The upcoming four episodes tell a tale about the past, present and future of building automation worldwide. It will be about the connectivity platform for all, how to work with ontologies and taxonomies at scale and building the foundational layers for AI to take charge. It will be about the much needed sense of urgency, where it will come from, and in depth discussions about the need for meaningful data and reducing friction for digital onboarding.

I have said on numerous occasions that the building automation industry is broken. I have heard about it. And of course, I know that we can do things better. But it always depends. Is the industry behind? And if it is, behind of which industry? And where? And what kind of assets?

Want to learn more? 

Here’s a newsletter/podcast jam-packed with information:

Welcome to Beyond Buildings!

The only thing we want to do is to solve all problems that exist anywhere in the world. This means we have to go above and beyond to predict what the Smart City future looks like, with an opinionated view of how buildings fit in a Smart City context. It is supposed to be a guide in achieving faster times to value creation, meant for anyone who wants to create value, based on facts and collaboration.

The upcoming four episodes tell a tale about the past, present and future of building automation worldwide. It will be about the connectivity platform for all, how to work with ontologies and taxonomies at scale and building the foundational layers for AI to take charge. It will be about the much needed sense of urgency, where it will come from, and in depth discussions about the need for meaningful data and reducing friction for digital onboarding.

Interested in the growing wireless wave? Phil Kopp, CEO Conectric Networks discusses it in this article, The Future is Now :

Change has thrown so much at us over such a short period that everyone, literally, every single human on the planet has had to adapt to a new reality that simply didn’t exist a little over a year ago.

The adaptable building would have all the capabilities inbuilt to undertake these requirements by plugging in new systems and modules brought in on delivery trucks. With wireless networks bridging these systems together to eliminate the constraints of fixed reading and control points, programmed remotely in real-time, and automated to meet the specific requirements of the current use, capacity, and environment. It may even be customized for local energy supply and demand conditions, as mated with other on-demand buildings and movable energy resources.

This article by Hope Reese writing on the TechRepublic.com site provides further scope: 

How smart buildings can take care of themselves and help the environment

As smart buildings evolve, experts are looking at ways to retrofit existing buildings, which make up the vast majority of a city's landscape, to smart standards, rather than working on developing them from scratch. Laurent Bataille, executive vice president of the Digital Energy Division at Schneider Electric, has been working on helping apply smart principles to existing infrastructure, using sensors, solar power conversion and other tech.

Smart buildings will be the bedrock of next-generation smart cities, he believes, which can have both environmental benefits, getting us closer to Net Zero CO₂, and financial implications, helping save money on things like heating and power.

Please take your own thoughts online. Share via the social media medium of your choice with your trusted networks of folks. For me, replacing 50 years of linear, unconnected thinking with the younger mindsets in my trusted network has helped solve a lot of the problems associated with digital transformation—but, of course, that process means I now have brand new problems to contend with.   

It all reminds me of myself at the start of the Direct Digital Control Revolution 30 years ago, when I could be found letting the air out of those old pneumatic folks with a completely new and different way of doing what they had been doing forever.