Construction knowledge task group

The construction industry is not maximising the value it extracts from its knowledge, and so it is less productive, less innovative and more likely to make mistakes than it should be.

Whilst industry data and information have entered the digital age with the development of Building Information Modelling (BIM), the internet of things and digital twins, construction knowledge remains firmly in the past. It is unstructured, fragmented, inaccessible and largely in dumb formats - essentially digital versions of paper documents. To use the analogy of BIM maturity levels, this is the equivalent of BIM level 1 - when CAD simply produced digital versions of paper drawings that were difficult to collaborate on and hard to find, compile, manage and update.

The Construction Knowledge Task Group (CKTG) includes representatives of institutes, associations and the wider industry. Its purpose is to optimise the creation and dissemination of documented, practical, applicable knowledge that enhances productivity and supports compliance by making it as easy as possible for practitioners and other industry stakeholders to:

• Find the right knowledge when it is needed.
• Access that knowledge.
• Extract the maximum value from that knowledge.

To deliver this vision, the CKTG has developed an industry standard for construction knowledge, 'The Specification for Discoverable Construction Knowledge', that will allow knowledge producers to achieve Level 2a of the smart knowledge routemap.

This is the first industry-wide standard to make construction knowledge more discoverable. It will help practitioners find the knowledge they need when they need it, making it easier for them to keep up-to-date, follow best practice, adopt innovations and comply with standards.

The next step is to develop a proof of concept tool that demonstrates the potential of the standard in enabling rapid searching, filtering and management of construction knowledge from multiple sources with single queries, and the potential for integrating knowledge into project workflows alongside data and information.

You can contact the CKTG by emailing [email protected].

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[edit] CKTG meetings (most recent first)

• The fifth meeting of the CKTG Tools Working Group was held on 6 July 2021.
• The fourth workshop of the Construction Knowledge Tools Working Group was held on 18 March 2021. See notes.
• The third workshop of the Construction Knowledge Tools Working Group was held on 11 February 2021.
• The second workshop of the Construction Knowledge Tools Working Group was held on 7 January 2021.
• The first workshop of the Construction Knowledge Tools Working Group was held on 30 November 2020. See notes.
• A full meeting of the CKTG was held online on 25 September 2020 to agree the next steps. See a recording of the meeting.
• A workshop to agree the draft standard was held on 30 July 2020. See slides and recording.
• Two workshops were held on 23 July 2020.
• An online workshop was held on 3 June 2020 to develop the draft standard.
• An online workshop was held on 21 May 2020 to develop the draft standard.
• An online workshop was held on 22 April 2020 to discuss the draft schema for construction knowledge developed by Barbal.
• An online workshop was held on 24 March 2020 to update members on the work of Barbal in drafting a knowledge standard.
• A kickoff workshop was held on 13 February 2020 at the London offices of Pearson to begin the process of agreeing a classification system for construction knowledge. The workshop was facilitated by Barbal who have obtained funding from the Lloyds Register Foundation with the support of the Open Data Institute. Notes of the workshop are available here.
• The fourth meeting of the CKTG took place on 12 December 2019 at the London offices of CIOB. The CKTG Vision and Routemap were adopted, and it was agreed that a workgroup would be established to deliver level 2a. The possibility of undertaking a pilot project to assess the practical benefits of level 3 was discussed.
• The third meeting of the CKTG took place at the offices of RSHP in the Leadenhall Buildings in London on 1 July 2019. The CKTG Project Initiation Document and Memorandum of Understanding were adopted, and feedback was heard from the three workstreams.
• The second meeting of the of the CKTG took place on Thursday 17 January 2019 in the offices of Cundall. The meeting agreed that three workstreams would be created to scope knowledge indexing, knowledge searching and access to knowledge.
• The first meeting of the CKTG took place on Friday 28 September 2018 in the London Offices of CIOB during which it was agreed to undertake an industry-wide survey about knowledge use in the UK construction industry (see below for results).
• On 9 May 2018 an industry-wide meeting was held at the offices of Buro Happold in London to establish the level of support for creating a Construction Knowledge Task Group.

[edit] CKTG resources

• Own the build podcast. Gregor Harvie talking about the task group. 20 December 2021.
• YouTube video of Tom Bartley talking about the task group. 26 March 2021
• YouTube video of Gregor Harvie talking about the task group. 26 March 2021
• How to apply the Specification for Discoverable Construction Knowledge to web pages. 27 August 2020
• Construction knowledge comes out of the dark ages. Press release 27 August 2020
• About the Discoverable Construction Knowledge specification. 27 August 2020
• Specification for Discoverable Construction Knowledge. 31 July 2020
• An interoperable construction industry. Article. 2 July 2020
• CKTG press coverage.
• Notes and recordings of workshops held to develop the construction knowledge standard.
• Tom Bartley talks about the CKTG to the Open Data Institute. 10 July 2020
• Trial knowledge lookup add-on for Firefox. 31 March 2020
• Newsletter. 3 March 2020
• Vison and routemap. 12 December 2019
• Newsletter. 11 July 2019.
• Memorandum of Understanding. 18 April 2019
• Construction Knowledge Survey results in full. 10 January 2019.
• Construction Knowledge Survey results. Press release. 10 January 2019.
• Construction Knowledge Survey launch. Press release. 1 November 2018.
• Knowledge gap survey responses. 28 May 2018.
• Construction knowledge gap meeting. 9 May 2018.
• Example industry search engine. May 2018.
• An example RESEARCH FINDINGS article. March 2018
• Research findings dissemination template. March 2018.
• Fit for Purpose launch event. 21 September 2017.
• Fit for purpose - Big data reveals the construction knowledge gap. 21 September 2017.
• Reports calling for better construction industry knowledge. Live document.
• Construction knowledge sources. Live document.

[edit] Participants

Organisations involved in the CKTG include:

• AEC3 UK
• AHMM
• Arup
• Barbal
• BRE
• BSi
• BSRIA
• CIAT
• CIBSE
• CIOB
• Cohesive
• Constructing Excellence
• Construction Leadership Council
• Cundall
• Designing Buildings Wiki
• Geniut Group plc
• Hoare Lea LLP
• i3P / KTN
• ICE
• IHS Markit
• Invennt
• Loughborough University.
• Mace
• National Physical Laboratory
• NBS
• Nottingham University
• Pearson UK Ltd
• RIBA
• Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors
• Rider Levett Bucknall
• SRM
• Stride Treglown
• Stroma
• Taylor & Francis Group
• The Get It Right Initiative
• UKGBC
• University of Dundee
• Workman