(*This is a re-post from an earlier blog written in January 2010.)
I have actually been prompted to scribble something here as a result of picking this month’s edition of ‘RICS Business’ and finding that much of it is devoted to encouraging RICS members (AKA chartered surveyors…) to get going with online social networking. This is to be applauded and it is commendable that the RICS has seen fit to devote a great amount of space to flagging the issue at the start of the year when thinking is supposedly fresh and people open to new ideas.
As one who battled away in the mid 90′s evangelising about ‘the web’ and digital media to bemused and largely sceptical audiences of chartered surveyors, I do hope that 2010 does indeed turn out to be the year when the digital penny finally drops.
It is nevertheless disappointing to see yet again in hard print that, despite all that has come to pass in relation to the digital world in the last decade, the perception apparently remains that the UK surveying profession is ’…lagging behind other sectors…’ in it’s embrace of new technology.
Indeed, if we were to momentarily leave aside the more generic elements of digital media marketing and social networking, how many surveyors would know what the terms BMS or KNX mean and their role in energy management and sustainability? – or instantly make a connection between SMART phone GPS awareness, ‘tag’ reader technology and their implications in relation to a potential myriad of property sector related applications?
Admittedly as an RICS member I know I am rather uncharacteristic of my breed and was an exceptionally early adopter of emerging new technology back in 1992 after I left my role as development director of Balfour Beatty’s Specialist Homes division to focus on property and construction related ICT.
I suppose that I was fortunate in having a bit of head-start as a result of my exposure to some fledgling new technologies that emerged during my time at BB – ’SMART’ building concepts in particular – but which were then very much in their infancy and required a basement full of kit to fulfill the simplest of functions. But at least the possibilities were evident and given that this was a time when early PCs were poised to become ‘ubiquitous’ thanks to Windows 3.0 and the future seemed quite bright – if not entirely orange at that stage.
The advent of the internet, CompuServe and HTML 1.0 had certainly signalled the start of the online revolution by the mid 90′s and their was at least a hum beginning to develop about what it all might mean (despite BT’s best attempts to have you believe that the Information Superhighway was just around the next bend and perfectly cruiseable via 64k ISDN.)
As a result of my early efforts to generate sector interest in the new online world via my establishment of an industry-focused property and construction network – ’PROCONET’ (possibly the first sector-specific attempt at what would later become known as a ‘portal’) I was invited to become involved in two EC funded R&D projects concerned with the potential for broadband applications within the property and construction sectors. (Highly interesting stuff which I will allude to in a separate blog.)
The knock-on effect of this, was that I was also asked to produce three CPD videos for the Television Education Network aimed especially at helping educate chartered surveyors in relation to the new digital world.
This also led to invitations to deliver CPD seminars and lectures – especially for Westminster University and The Wilson Centre in Cambridge – and which for the first time brought me face-to-face with the great, the good and the highly sceptical.
It cannot however be said that there was a lack of interest. The lectures at Westminster were packed. But all that anyone really wanted to know was if email would be the ’KILLER’ application. As for the relevance of the WWW to real estate agents this was almost immediately dismissed – mainly on the grounds that by posting property details online this would obviously prove to be an enormous invitation to burglars. But still, it was eventually built, the world came to visit and the crime rate stayed much as it had.
Having disappeared in the late 90′s to work with other sectors and professions on digital media projects, it’s actually really interesting looking back on all of this now. The technology that supports the web and the applications that run on it have matured beyond all recognition and online communication has become a seamless and transparent part of everyday life – and yet the surveying related sectors are still perceived to be lagging behind.
I don’t see this with doctors or bankers. They are typically pushing me to introduce new ideas and technology elements. Much of this highly functional stuff is relatively cheap and easy to implement so it can’t be about cost or availability. So is it about attitude of mind, not-invented-here syndrome, technophobic luddite-ness…? Why is it that the industry seemingly still has to be deliberatley prodded to wake up to this stuff rather than embracing it, trying it out , seeing what it can do, breaking it and in the process let ideas and suggestions for useful and pertinent applications be generated.
The UK surveying profession has led the world in many aspects of real estate and the built-environment. Here’s hoping that 2010 sees this extending to the increased adoption and development of new technology.
Mark Wilderspin 