March / April 2004  
Editorial
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Editorial Comments by Ken Sinclair

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Lots of excitement in the air.  At the XML/Web Services meeting In Anaheim  when asked to introduce myself and give a reason for being there I stated "I Smell News."  I was right and being in the business of providing content for an online magazine that informs the industry of the latest trends in Large Building Automation this movement has been a windfall. Lots of articles and interviews about the industry's next big event, BuilConn, but also lots of our traditional information flowing.

When I started our original web services forum in 2002 we had hoped to have a demo for AHR 2003 Chicago. Our web services forum which has now become history stated  "It now appears clear that the AHR Expo 2003 in Chicago will be too soon to provide a good demonstration and discussion. The general movement of the IT industry into turning the excited web services concept into a reality has taken much longer than originally estimated and discussions still go on.  We will revisit this demo at next year's AHR Expo."  We did not make that date either but we did have a very successful XML Symposium.

Well this demo is finally going to happen at this year's BuilConn.

In one of the conference call surrounding the setup of the XML Pavilion the question was asked "Can anyone not port their XML data into a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet? There was no reply from anyone, not even a question. This made me feel that my April Column for Engineered Systems called Entering the Enterprise Through the Office was very timely. Also one of the deliverables for the XML Pavilion is Microsoft Office Integration - This demonstrates how some of the newer generation Microsoft® Office products such as Excel 2003 (Professional Edition with XML support), FrontPage or InfoPath can 'consume' web services from different building systems and display their data. 

A lot of interest has been generated by BuilConn's Buildy Awards (The equivalent of the Academy Awards for our industry). A lot of folk who have been soldiering on without recognition of their efforts and their project successes. This year's short list has been prepared - BuilConn: Announces Finalists “Buildy” Awards so come out to the BuilConn event and cast your vote, plus be sure to get involved in nominating next year's Finalists.   

What is the Buildy Awards Program?  See http://www.builconn.com/buildy/index.htm

This month's Review:  Content and Quality of presenters keeps BuilConn 2004 Fresh provides insight and connection to the over 90 presenters & content contributors for this exciting event.

If you feel that BuilConn is dominating our magazine for the last few months it is because they are generating a lot of the industry's news and April is their month to shine. Last month's editorial follows with more info about the event.

Welcome to our March The Build-up to BuilConn issue. As you can see we have a lot of information about this event, which this year includes the first ever industry awards called the Buildy Awards. Be sure to read my interview with Tish to find out more about these new awards and how you can participate. I am pleased to be a track leader as well as a moderator for the BuilConn event. I have summed up my feelings about last year's event the subsequent year in my March building automation column for Engineered Systems. This year's event is also being co-hosted with the M2MExpo. I feel that this will provide another valuable step in the total convergence process.

The folks at BuilConn have provided a 10 % discount for all www.automatedbuildings.com readers click here for more details. Here is a link to the BuilConn Preview PDF file (1.2MB)

Lots of new articles in this issue, be sure to check them out.

In this month's review I provide a quick review & connection to the exciting world of aecXML which is a Standardization of the eXtensible Markup Language (XML), an interoperable computer language, for use in the Architecture, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) industry. I was made more aware of this new dimension in our industry at the xml symposium in Anaheim. Take a look at some of the linked web resources on this topic. Last month's review on the Ethernet University was very well received.

Lots of new global events; check out our Events Calendarsection to see how they will benefit you. As usual lots of great articles about your new way of doing business.

Thanks to all Our Sponsors for allowing us to provide our industry online information service to you for free.

Send comments and suggestions to news@automatedbuildings.com


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