Author Archives: martin brown

be2camp and sxsw

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Be2Camp

Here in the UK SXSW is probably best known as a music festival in Austin Texas, but the ‘event’ is actually three festivals in one with internet interactivity and film . Plans for the SXSW Interactive 09 Festival are under way, and in true interactive, unconference style , with panels open for comment and votes.

I was struck by the panel on Green Building, struck by its similarly to the objectives of be2camp. Looking forward to the possibility of forming a relationship between these two ‘events’

Sustainability requires that green building be profitable. By careful design we are rapidly substituting knowledge and virtualization for matter and energy, building structures that use less material and require less power for construction and operation, and rely more on information systems – opening opportunities for ultra-green builders to compete with non-sustainable conventional techniques, and for creators of information systems that support sustainability.

Be2camp is happening in London on Oct 10th – details here

SXSW 09 Interactive is happening in Austin March 13-17, 2009 – details here

(Voting and comments on the Green Building panel – to ensure it is included in the SXSW 09 schedule closes on August 29th …..)

ultimate job offer?

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“Men wanted for hazardous journey. Small wages. Bitter cold. Long months of complete darkness. Constant danger. Safe return doubtful. Honour and recognition in case of success”

Shackleton’s advert for the original crew is surely one of the classic job descriptions, as indeed is the manner in which he selected his team.

And now 100 years later the offer is being made again. The 100 year celebration expedition to retrace Shackleton’s journey to the south pole (well, 97 miles short of !!) is advertising for a member of the public to join the party. Only this time there are no wages! The conditions will be more palatable though. (Read the story on the Guardian site)

Applications can be made on line at www.matrixgroup.co.uk/shackleton

Shackleton has long been a ‘leadership hero’ of mine as he demonstrated many excellent leadership traits which today’s project managers would do well to consider. He has been called the greatest team leader bar none, this despite the fact Shackleton failed in nearly every objective he set himself.

I have even been known over the years to deliver presentations and workshops on Shackleton’s style of leadership and its relevance to today’s construction project management: a style that can be summarised as

Team selection – putting together a dream team
Vision and Emergence
Common Goals and shared understanding
Learning and Sharing
Personal example and connectivity
Manage out conflict
Celebrating and having Fun

the future of conferences?

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The organisers of the be2camp event met on-line late Monday evening (well it was breakfast in Sydney, tea time in Illinois, and late here in the UK!) to continue with the development of this project and event.  The agenda and arrangements are now shaping up very nicely. (It was noted that this event development and the communication between the organisers has not yet needed one email between us)

For an excellent  insight as to this type of event, read Pam Broviak’s report of her attendance at a Chicago event. Pam, a Public Works Director in Illinois comments:

I retained more from this conference than I normally would at a more traditional event and met more people

So is the unconference, low cost, free (as in free speech) barcamp event going to replace the high fee corporate control-organised events? .  Time will tell.   But surely, as budgets bite and delegates and organisations question the value from attending high fee conference events, the knowledge gained (and retained) and the networking value, bar camp and other non-conference events will undoubtedly become more common and popular.

Be2Camp – a barcamp type non-confernce event, exploring the use of Web 2.0 approaches in the built environment will be held in London, at the Building Center, Store Street, on October 10th.

Register for free here.

The backstory to be2camp:

The concept for be2camp started as a Twitter conversation between Martin Brown (built environment advisor) and Paul Wilkinson, (Comms Director BIW) following Martin’s attendance at barcamp type events, suggesting we do ‘something’ for the (UK) built environment. This discussion was picked by Jodie Miners in Australia, (Construction Collaborative IT specialist)  again through Twitter, and through conversations within Second Life with Pam Broviak (Director Public Works) from Illinois, USA. The timing of the event has been fixed to coincide with Jodie’s visit to the UK. We do hope Pam will be able to attend, if not she will be coordinating the be2camp Second Life activities. So now you know who to contact, praise or blame!

seren-dipity timelines?

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Over the last few days a number of people have asked for information on Dipity or the link to Route to Zero timeline I use in presentations, or have set up timelines such as Paul on his EvolutionExtranet and for be2camp.

Dipity is incredibly easy to use and allows the aggregation of a number of sources ( news feeds, google searches, RSS feeds from blogs etc) into one timeline, as a flip book, a list or even as a google map. It provides a great and quick way to search through any topic, following the news or developments.

It also provide a futures timeline potential, either as a organisational planning tool, or a futures foresight approach. I am working with an organisation to visually map out their business plans, intentions, strategies or milestones, and in discussion with a construction project to record progress on site.  This is an obvious use of timelines, as the Walter Mill Ateliers project demonstrates

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roof top driving school

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From green roofs to multi use roofing – this driving school on top of a Tokyo  building illustrates creative use of existing buildings.  One wonders if there would be any additional insurance requirements for the instructors.

Source: Worldchanging

pPod – a new housing carbon challenge

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English Partnerships have issued a Vision for a ‘community of the future’ in a press release today announcing the next carbon callenge project:

The development of an innovative, zero carbon neighbourhood in the centre of Peterborough moved a step closer today as pPod – a consortium consisting of Morris Homes, Gentoo Homes, and Browne Smith Baker architects – was selected as the preferred developer for Phase 1 of the city’s South Bank. The project will meet the highest level of the government’s Code for Sustainable Homes, as part of English Partnerships’ ground-breaking Carbon Challenge.

Homes will be zero carbon, meeting Level 6 of the Government’s Code for Sustainable Homes, years ahead of the 2016 target for when all homes will have to be built to this standard.  All commercial units will be built to BREEAM Excellent standard – one of the highest levels of energy efficiency and environmental performance.

(Comment: if this is a challenge project shouldn’t the BREEAM level be outstanding, not ‘just’ excellent ?)

eco facilities management for government?

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The UK  Government has come under criticism recently for not tackling environmental issues with enough vigour to be seen as a role model or exemplar, and failing to meet its own targets.

See: the Sustainable Development Commission report two thirds of departments were not on track to meet the target of reducing emissions by 12.5 per cent by 2010, while a similar report from the National Audit Office criticised civil servants for failing to keep accurate carbon emissions data. Those reports were accompanied by another study from the Commons Public Accounts Committee which claimed rules on sustainable procurement were being widely ignored by civil servants.

Now Companies providing green products and services can now expect a major boost after the government yesterday unveiled its long-anticipated delivery plan for meeting its targets on environmentally sustainable procurement and carbon emissions.

Following on from its recent commitment to ensure all government IT operations are carbon neutral by 2013, the Cabinet Office released a 167-page plan outlining how it intends to ensure departments consider environmental sustainability when making procurement decisions and better meet targets to cut emissions, waste and water use across their facilities.

We can expect these requirements to trickle down the supply chains for service provision (facilities management, IT  and construction) reinforcing the notion of supply chains based on environmental and carbon management, not just cost, and certainly not lowest cost

Source and Links:

UK Governments sustainable procurement and carbon emissions delivery plan announced

Government outlines green procurement overhaul

Sustainable Construction and Purchasing Manager

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Elevate East Lancashire are advertising for a Sustainable Construction and Purchasing Manager, details here

Elevate are currently recruiting for a Sustainable Construction and Purchasing Manager to manage the relationships with the five Local Authority partners for all purchasing activity of the Elevate East Lancashire housing market renewal programme; to ensure all purchasing is compliant with Elevate’s procurement strategy and achieves Elevate’s overall objectives and outputs in line with the Government’s Best Value agenda. Additionally the post holder will promote the principle of sustainable construction and ensure that best practice is applied in both the procurement of works to improve the housing stock and the new build programme.

a smart eco house that daydreams?

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Following recent communication with Adam Somlai-Fischer at Zuiprezi, who I hope can get to talk at the be2camp event in October, I took a look at the Reconfigurable House, a concept environment developed by Adam constructed from thousands of low tech components that can be “rewired” by visitors.

So far so good, but reconfigurations can be made endlessly as people change their minds, so that the House can take on completely new behaviours.

Smart homes actually aren’t very smart simply because they are pre-wired according to algorithms and decisions made by designers of the systems, rather than the people who occupy the houses.

so the user gets to configure the usability level, excellent, but:

if the House is left alone for too long, it gets bored, daydreams and reconfigures itself….

The Reconfigurable House is open source, registered through Creative Commons which seems to allow you to download the code and create your very own reconfigurable home, or upload your own configurable devices into the house suite.

Arguments as to who has control of the remote may take on a whole new dimension.

Sustained summer reading and listening

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Stuck for a rip-roaring read or an essential soundtrack to your summer break?  BSJ online asked 13 loyal readers of the sustainability channel to put forward their cultural favourites for the holiday season. Try out this über list of print or plastic (or MP3) which range from the sublime (Proust, Glenn Gould) to the ridiculous (Howard Jones and a singing bear)

You can find the full list of the favourite books on the LibraryThing.com website

Contributors (a who’s who of the UK sustainability and blogging world?):

Mark Brinkley, Housebuilder’s Bible author and blogger.

Paul Scott, Head of Fire and Risk, Faber Maunsell

Sophy Twohig, Director, Hopkins

John Goodbun, Architect, founder, WAG

Mel Starrs, housing team, Inbuilt, and blogger

Rob Annable, Axis Design Architects

Brian Scannell, NES

Julian Crawford, Sustainable Committee lead at Gensler Architects

Martin Brown, founder, Fairsnape and blogger at isite

Andrew Warren, Director, Association for the Conservation of Energy

Paul Wilkinson, BIW Technologies

Paul Crossley, sustainability manager, RLF

Jim Webster, director, 3d Reid Architects

Phil Clark, editorial director, Sustainability

Michael Willoughby, reporter, Sustainability