Online AEC Communities - finding construction people on Facebook, LinkedIn, Ning, etc

pwcom.co.uk

London, October 2009

Online communities in the AEC industry

by Paul Wilkinson(pwcom.co.uk)

pwcom.co.uk

• From learned societies to business breakfasts

• Intranets and internal wikis (eg: Arup CoPs)

• Drivers (technology, economy, mobility)

• Now moving into Web 2.0

eg: RIBA NING SITESWEB 2.0 FACEBOOKTWITTERINTRO LINKEDIN

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• Face-to-face• Written word• Hand drawings• Telephone• Telegram• Telex• Fax• CAD• Email• Groupware (eg: Lotus Notes)• File transfer protocol (FTP)• Websites• Intranets, enterprise portals• Video- and tele-conferencing

• Extranets• Web-conferencing applications• File-sharing (P2P)• Instant messaging• Discussion forums• Home pages (iGoogle)• Wikis• Blogs, micro-blogs• RSS• Social networking• Social search, tagging, sharing• Mashups: Mapping, time-lines,

etc• Virtual worlds

Web 2.0

BIM

SaaS

Cloud computin

g

mobile


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Web 1.0 was about … Web 2.0 is about …

reading writing

companies communities

one-way two-way

lecture conversation

advertising word-of-mouth

owning sharing

(Sources: Joe Drumgoole’s Copacetic; Darrenbarefoot.com 2006)


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RIBA Knowledge Communities

• beta project initially• relaunched within

RIBA earlier this year

• hosted on Elgg• 918 site members

(at 8 October 2009)


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RIBApedia• Research

and education site

• create profiles, share links, blogs, etc

• built on MediaWiki


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Twitter• loads of people,

companies, etc• @UKConstruction• TwitterLeagues• Twibes


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Facebook• lots of people,

pages, groups groups

• Difficult to find effective use of Facebook

• “Under Construction”– Page status– Rock band name


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Architect HOK• HOK careers• Part of integrated

HOK web 2.0 effort– Blog– LinkedIn– Twitter– Delicious– YouTube, etc

eg: RIBA NING SITESWEB 2.0 TWITTERINTRO LINKEDINFACEBOOK

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LinkedIn• lots of AEC groups• 85 “AEC”• 1,350 “architecture”• 2,135 “construction”• easy to join groups• some still very

recruitment-focused


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• Be2camp launched 31 July 2008

• Built on Ning• 310 members (as

at 6 October 2009)

• Targeting a niche interest

• Events key to growth


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Be2camp membership growth Aug 2008 - 6 Oct 2009

0

50

100

150

200

250

300

350

400

aug sep oct nov dec jan feb mar apr may jun jul aug sep oct nov

month

To

tal B

e2ca

mp

mem

ber

s

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

Join

ers

in m

on

th

cumulative total

monthly joiners

Be2camp

10 Oct

Be2camp

North

15 May

Be2camp

Brum

12 Aug

Be2camp

WB

7-8 Oct

eg: RIBAWEB 2.0 FACEBOOKTWITTERINTRO LINKEDIN NING SITES

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CE Collaborative Working Champions

• Founded Jan 2009• Initially private• Public from August• Cause-focused• 67 members• Forum used to

create guidance

eg: RIBA FACEBOOKTWITTERINTRO LINKEDIN NING SITESWEB 2.0

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CE G4C• Founded July 2009• Initially private• Public from Sept• Cause-focused• 48 members• Autumn

membership drive to start shortly


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AEC Network• 342 members

(as at 8 October 2009)

• Also built on Ning• using networking

events to grow


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• Property Week launched network

• ‘Soft launch’ 25 September

• Grew from 57 members to 82 in 11 days – strong brand helps

• Good Ning customisation

• endorsement of Ning? or inexpensive PWk experiment?


pwcom.co.uk

London, October 2009

Thank you

Contact: Paul WilkinsonBlog: www.extranetevolution.com

Email: [email protected]: +44 (0)20 8858 1104

mob: 07788 445920Twitter: @EEPaul

Online AEC Communities - finding construction people on Facebook, LinkedIn, Ning, etc

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