The AEC industry has long been in need of effective modes of information
exchange and knowledge sharing, but their practice in the industry is
still far from satisfactory. Fundamentally, the industry lacks a culture
of information and knowledge sharing. There are three major interlinked
obstacles in the AEC industry: the fragmented nature of the AEC
industry, the lack of formal and interoperable knowledge representation,
the linear communication model in the industry. In order to effectively
coordinate information and knowledge flow in the AEC industry, this book
presented a framework for an information system - a Construction
Information and Knowledge Protocol/Portal (CIKP) which integrates within
it a publish/subscribe system, Semantic Web technology, and Social Web
concepts. Our aim has been to break down linear communication through
social involvement and encourage a culture of sharing, and in the end,
the CIKP framework has been developed to specify desired services in
communicating information and knowledge, applicable technical approaches
and the functions required to satisfy the needs of a variety of service
scenarios.