Dan Rossiter shortlisted for Smartest Blog BIM Award

Nomination Category: Smartest Blog

Name: Dan Rossiter

Company: BRE

 

Dan tells us in his own words how his blogging career all began, with bricks and mortar.

I am thrilled to be a finalist for the BIM Awards 2018 smartest blogger category.  My life as a blogger started back in October of 2015 when my wife and I were buying our first home.  Throughout this process we were being provided with a myriad of loose bits of paper to manage our home with.  We were amazed that the most expensive purchase we had ever made could be managed like this, and it was in that moment I had an idea.

What if I applied my skills as a Chartered Architectural Technologist and my expertise Building Information Modelling to produce an asset information model of my own home?  With an asset information model, I could take those disparate bits of paper and turn them into an intelligent digital representation; empowering us to make better decisions about our home.  Truth be told I had never actually done the full BIM Level 2 process, so I thought this was the perfect opportunity to practice what I preach and produce an exemplar information model.

In addition, as an employee of the Building Research Establishment (BRE), I have always tried to follow their mission to ‘build a better world together’.  Producing this asset information model would certainly benefit me; but what about anyone else?  Therefore, I decided to share my experience by blogging about it; giving birth to ‘There’s no BIM like home’ (www.BIMblog.house).

Through ‘There’s no BIM like home’, I have spent the last two and half years blogging about my journey to produce an asset information model.  I have tried by best to use plain language and humour to ensure that the content is both informative and engaging.  A key principle has also been transparency.  I have refused to present ‘Blue Peter’ deliverables, instead I have shown my information as it develops, owning up to errors and omissions, encouraging followers to interrogate and find anything I have fix or improve.

I’m glad to say that because of my hard work, (attempted) humour and transparency, ‘There’s no BIM like home’ was been positively received.  Getting around 17,000 views a year, this blog has been integrated into BRE training, supported by the UK BIM Alliance, a regular feature in the Chartered Institute of Architectural Technologist’s AT magazine, presented at key industry events, used by many organizations within their own standards, methods and procedures, and has even been presented to Central Government.

This simple and pragmatic asset information model, aligned to the appropriate BIM Level 2 standards, methods and procedures has helped demonstrate that BIM doesn’t have to be complex and that when it comes to managing information, there’s no BIM like home!