Past, present and future of Jiri Featured

None of this was planned. I was probably the first kid in our school to get a computer (Commodore VIC20) around 1983 and have been interested in computers ever since. But when it came time to choose a profession I decided to do something completely different and started studying architecture. At the time I started my studies in 1990 in Aachen (Germany) architects had nothing to do with computers, on the contrary, using computers was widely frowned upon.

Somehow I got sucked in anyway and instead of doing architecture I ended up developing software. My first software company developed an energy calculation application for buildings for the German market (Wärmepass+) and it even had a module for CO2 calculation - in 1996!

In 1997 things started to get really interesting when I got the job as the secretary of the VIP -project in Finland. The task of this project was to assess if IFC should be adopted in Finland. Once that decision was made, I was sent to the USA to be part of the team that developed IFC (STF / Specifications Task Force). The full story is interesting by itself, and I can tell it some day over a glass (or bottle) of wine, but I in addition to becoming the assistant technical director I ended up as the secretary for all of IAI (today BuildingSmart). In this role I participated in all international meetings of all the different groups (STF, ITM, IC and Excom) and took the notes in all their meetings. This way I knew everybody and everything that was going on, and after the initial enthusiasm faded, I wasn't impressed. I got to know a lot of great people, was always treated well and had a ton of nice dinners - but the actual thing we were trying to accomplish started showing cracks. In 1999, after some rather unpleasant fighting inside the organization, I decided to leave. But I never abandoned IFC.

In the following years I made one of the first IFC implementations (Microsoft Visio), helped create the first IFC model view definitions (BLIS) and organize the first IFC certification (IFC2.0), was probably the world's first BIM coordinator in the IFC pilots in Finland that proved that IFC can be used in real projects, was the co-author for some of the first BIM requirements (Senate Properties) and, going briefly back, introduced together with Sakari MVD to BuildingSmart and was the first international MVD coordinator of BuildingSmart. To round it all up, I managed to finally get my master's in architecture in 2003 (after 13 years of studies) and did some BIM research and teaching at the university in Tampere (Finland).

And then we finally come to Simplebim. In 2009 we realized with Sakari, after trying really hard to make it work, that data exchange in our industry will never work without some new ideas - and new kind of software. So, we founded Datacubist and started developing Simplebim. In the beginning we did everything with Sakari, but as the team grew I have been focusing on the technical development. In practice this means that, in addition to being the CEO, I'm still spending roughly 2 days each week coding.

My personal hope for this community is to learn something new. I always try to be happy when I'm proven wrong, because every time I realise I have been wrong, I have learned something new. Let me share an anecdote about what I mean. When I was still a firm believer in ‘pure IFC’ around 1999 we visited a quantity take-off software company in the USA. They had studied the IFC specification and had arrived at the conclusion that they only needed a few classes from IFC, the ones that deal with material - because for them everything is just material. At the time I thought that they just don't get it, that they are frankly a bit stupid. When I later worked at a quantity take-off software company in Finland (Tocoman) I finally understood what they were saying. When you look at the inner workings of a quantity take-off application you really won't find any wall, door, window, slab etc. objects. What you find is a ‘table of things’ and one of the many columns in that table may be that a row represents a wall, door, window, slab etc. I always look back at this as a good example of a case where I was arrogantly sure of my beliefs, just to find out later that it was actually me who had been the stupid one.

This means that you will immediately become my hero when you help me re-define how the world actually works. It won't be easy, but since I have been wrong many, many times in my life, it is by no means impossible. So, let's keep discussing, trying and learning - together.