Metaverse, digital twins and the civil engineering surveyor
I FIRST got an insight into BIM back in 2012 while at a CPD event at Salford University by Jason Underwood. Back then I wrote this:
“If BIM isn’t the right name, what is?
Here’s a few alternatives:
PAM DPM DFM PPM CSM
PAM = Profitable asset management
DPM = Digital project management
DFM = Divn’t fret mate or digital facilities management
PPM = Profitable project management
CSM = Construction site management or common sense management.”
I still agree with Jason’s original assessment that BIM was the wrong name and shake my head at the amount of time and effort wasted explaining what those three letters actually mean. Which brings me to our responsibilities as members of a professional institution dealing in civil engineering surveying.
It is our duty to understand, decipher and explain these terms to our clients. Cut through the noise and understand exactly, the implications of using acronyms and throw-away phrases in our communications with ‘the public’. I’m a supporter of plain English yet guilty of casually throwing the sentence, ‘of course if you’d selected RTK GPS for your GCs then you’d have been in better shape’. It’s a work in progress.
Join me in cutting through the jargon, not hiding behind technical explanations and explaining precisely what the civil engineering surveyor does for the construction industry.
Andy Evans FCInstCES, President