buildingSMART International (bSI) and Open Design Alliance (ODA) Sign Letter of Cooperation

London, (September 10, 2019) – buildingSMART International (bSI) and Open Design Alliance (ODA) have signed a letter of cooperation to further develop standards and technologies related to their respective programs. By strengthening the relationship between organizations, bSI and ODA are promoting better collaboration and cooperation throughout the building and infrastructure lifecycle. By focusing on improving the digitization for owners and project delivery firms, the mutual aim of both organizations is to enhance broader use of standards and solutions.

Some of the joint projects include the accelerated development and adoption of IFC releases, including IFC2x3 and IFC4. This also includes the early development and testing for software deployment. By harnessing joint resources and expertise within both communities, this cooperation agreement will help focus the needs and requirements to deliver the technologies that support standards.

Richard Petrie, Chief Executive, bSI said, “We are pleased to sign this letter of cooperation with ODA. By focusing our efforts collectively, I believe we can make a real impact by accelerating the development and deployment of software solutions. Collaboration is a key requirement for success, and we look forward to progressing joint projects together.”

ODA President Neil Peterson said, “With bSI focused on standards creation, and ODA focused on standards implementation, there’s a natural synergy between the two organizations. We are pleased to work with bSI to leverage this synergy, for the benefit of both organizations and for the broader community.”

About buildingSMART International

buildingSMART International is a vendor-neutral and not for profit body that leads the development of open digital information flows across the built asset economy. Its mission is to proactively support industry participants who want to develop open standards for planning, design, procurement, assembly and operation of buildings and infrastructure worldwide. It provides the international network plus the necessary technical and process support. Its members, who range from across the built environment spectrum, collaborate under the buildingSMART organization. buildingSMART is engaged with other international standards bodies such as ISO, the European Committee for Standardisation (CEN) and the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC). Its core Industry Foundation Class (IFC) standards achieved ISO approval in 2012. Further information is available on the Internet at www.buildingsmart.org.

About Open Design Alliance

Open Design Alliance is a non-profit technology consortium that develops high-value SDKs for engineering applications. Our product portfolio includes solutions for interoperability, visualization, web development, facet modeling, publishing, and more, running on all common desktop, mobile and web platforms. More information is available at www.opendesign.com.