These new software platforms are focused on stitching together other software products and allowing them to talk to each other in a particular way.

Sharing data for a better future.The possibility of digitising our built environment clearly holds the potential for a wide array of valuable benefits.

Miranda Sharp has been working on a demonstrator project focused on information share between utility providers in order to facilitate better decision making.She says that sharing data in this way could have a significant impact on our progress towards net zero.Another example is Gavin Stark’s Icebreaker One project, which seeks to improve efficiency in data sharing.

One challenge surrounding the issue is that bilateral sharing arrangements can actually create a significant amount of difficulty for other people.Sharp says that what we really need is something more free-flowing, and adds that we should be nudging the market in the right direction as it develops so that we end up with an optimally connected set of systems..

However, we’re also going to need to definitively demonstrate that the sharing of data will lead to capturable benefits, because such benefits are distributed, and until we demonstrate that, people won’t be motivated to take things forward.

We want the people who invest to continue to invest.There’s a certain amount of security in taking a brief and just doing what has been asked of you.

Companies have worked out a way to survive in this way.However, we need bravery.

The benefits of this new way of working warrant the risk, and there is a risk when suggesting something new and different.Success will come from approaching it like a journey and doing things collaboratively..