January 7, 2019 - Building Automation
By Ken Sinclair
"Opening to 2019" is mostly about opening our minds to the edge of change that is upon us.
I cannot resist a play on words so whether you use "open" as an adjective, verb, or noun, the title of our next chapter is "Open 2019.”
A chance to open the new year with more about our digital transformations is keeping us on our crusade to open software, open hardware, and open everything. "Open 2019" is mostly about opening our minds to the edge of change that is upon us.
Please read our “Open 2019 Review.” "Open" is now the focus of our digitally transformed lives.
To accept the radical changes of "open" that will usher us into 2019 — which will lead us to 2020, the year in which much radical change has been predicted — we need to start thinking younger in a hurry. Which begs the question: How can we be open to growing younger?
I have found only one method of growing younger, which is to look at the change through the eyes of our trusted younger mentors. Using their eyes and minds. we can quickly grow younger in ours and better understand the change that is upon us. To younger minds it is not change, it is simply their understanding of the present problems. Our resistance to change is an indication that we have not made the necessary mind shift to view clearly what has changed. These younger mentors’ eyes come with a clear understanding of present digital dynamics, which makes these mentors indispensable in our acceptance of change. By the way, most of my younger mentors have their own trusted younger mentors and they tell me, "You will not believe what these kids are thinking." In the ongoing struggle for open in our changing connection communities, we need to open 2019 sharing through the eyes of those who have grown up and only know the digital era.
This post on LinkedIn has been very well received and will allow you a peek at an open world through our younger mentors’ eyes.
Want insights into their thoughts? Read more fresh thoughts from this panel, “Opening Up Our Buildings,” AHR Expo 2019 Preview. Brad White offers his thoughts on how open systems are poised to change the BAS world, and offers a preview of what attendees can expect.
We all are very busy planning our travel to Atlanta for our 9 free education sessions @AHRExpo. Be sure to read my opening speaking partner Scott Cochrane's take on “BAS is About to Get Bumpy!”
Our Contributing Editor Anto Budiardjo has just created yet another session: “Let’s Talk BAS Cybersecurity.”
The New Deal for Buildings is hosting a Cybersecurity Summit at the AHR Expo 2019 in Room B310 of the Georgia World Congress Center on Tuesday, Jan. 15.
Please join us to open your mind to growing younger. Be sure to download the app and put us on your show planner custom agenda so we know you are coming.
This article speaks to open workplaces: "Caught My Attention" by our Contributing Editor Marc Petock. “One of the biggest change agents we’ve seen over the last few years has been the emergence of more flexible, open workplaces from traditional office spaces. With this change has come the importance of the occupant experience — the workplace environment and its effect on overall occupant productivity and wellness.
“We have come to understand there are new ways of looking at comfort, productivity, and the utilization of space. We are creating better spaces that promote employee well-being and healthy environments that are responsive and engaging to the people who work in them. In addition, we are coming to realize the health and well-being of occupants isn’t just the purview of human resources anymore. Owners, operators, facilities managers all play an important role in ensuring that employees who work in their buildings are healthy, happy, and active.”
How do the major players view open? They all focus on their own dominance and keep throwing sand in each others’ gears, creating their own definition of "open" that hurts us the people.
The "major proprietary dragons" of our building automation industry are slow to warm to open, but are using open source to catch up. All want to use “open” but none want to be open, which would loosen their grip on their proprietary market share. But open is slowly happening because bigger dragons like Google and Amazon are breathing fire on their tails ... or is that ... tales ... big smile.
Google and Amazon are built on the open source they use to get where they are going and now are using their dominance to create barriers to true open.
Is Amazon an open source? According to a Dec. 2, 2016, article in Fortune, “While the core software itself is free, the customer pays a vendor to get formal support and more advanced versions of the software…. While Amazon lists several open-source projects on Github, a popular library for open source software, Amazon's projects are generally focused on AWS-specific tools.”
Is Apple an open source? According to a Dec. 8, 2015 article on ZDNet, “Historically, Apple grows its software from open-source seeds, but the company's developers rarely contribute much code back. The prime example of this is the Mac operating system. OS X is based on Darwin, a BSD Unix.... This is not how open-source development works.”
Is Microsoft an open source? According to a June 9, 2016 article on ZDNet, “'More and more specialist hardware has been replaced by open source software running on generic x86 boxes.' So it is that almost every technology company, including Microsoft, is shifting over to open source for its development. Sure, Microsoft will not be open-sourcing Windows or Office.”
Moving forward our humanistic emotional mindful controlling building bots built with open or near open natural language, machine vision, and open everything will be a mashup of the dragon's den of the major players. Open software and open connection communities must be supported by all to guide and clearly expose any intentions of proprietary market manipulation.
Happy "open 2019" to all and the best of the season to you and yours.
Ken Sinclair is the founder, owner, and publisher of an online resource called AutomatedBuildings.com. He writes a monthly column for FacilitiesNet.com about what is new in the Internet of Things (IOT) for building automation.
