Capabilities needed in Information management for a digital built Britain

Network FOuNTAIN is the Network For ONTologies And Information maNagement in Digital Built Britain, a project funded by the Centre for Digital Built Britain. The vision of the Network is for all stakeholders in Digital Built Britain (DBB) to be able to meet their information needs. With the establishment of concepts such as Building Information Modelling and Common Data Environments, built environment design, construction and operation are becoming increasingly information-intensive. The Network undertook five workshop activities between July and December 2018. This paper summarises the proceedings of these workshops, and in particular establishes future capabilities needed to realise the vision of DBB. The first workshop sought to establish the scope of “Information Management”. It was concluded that the capability to gauge Information Management Maturity was needed. The second and third workshops focused on ontologies and reviewed the variety of standards currently available. It was concluded that the capability was needed to establish the appropriate scope of standardisation, and to design or extend existing ontologies in general. The capability was also needed to develop current classification systems, schema and frameworks, Uniclass 2015 in particular, to maximise the potential to share data. The fourth workshop explored system requirements; it identified three modes of consuming information and the corresponding software requirements for each mode. The three modes identified are: Search & Retrieval, Browsing & Expiration and Information Delivery. The fifth and final workshop focused on business models and concluded that the capability was needed to identify and derive business value from Information Management. The paper closes with a research agenda required to deliver those capabilities. Fundamental research is needed to formulate a process of establishing the appropriate scope of standardisation for Information Management at project, organisation and industry levels. This research needs to unfold in the context of emerging related international standards.