Washington, DC & New York City – August 6, 2003. The National Alliance for Building Regulatory Reform in the Digital Age, its Secretariat, the National Conference of States on Building Codes and Standards, FIATECH, the New York City Department of Buildings, and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), jointly announced today the start of a seven month initiative to speed the development of technologies and requirements needed to advance the creation of a state-of-the-art integrated interoperable building regulatory system in this nation.

The project brings together a core work group of representatives from National Alliance partners to develop interoperability guidelines for use by New York City in its proposed procurement and in the Alliance’s existing model procurement guidelines. Interoperability allows independent hardware and software systems to work together by enabling data to be seamlessly passed from one application to another as well as the dynamic interaction of software components that complete common tasks or business functions. Interoperability makes it possible for various enterprises (government, owners and industry) to build bridges between disparate systems based on agreed upon standards and frameworks without extensive software development. Such a system also enhances the ability for jurisdictions and the private sector to rapidly share over secure networks critical information about buildings in response to manmade or natural disasters.

The National Alliance for Building Regulatory Reform in the Digital Age is a public-private sector partnership comprised of 42 national organizations representing state and local government, the construction industry and several state governments and federal agencies. The Alliance was formed in July 2001 to enhance both public safety and the economic competitiveness in the global economy by developing and promoting streamlined model building regulatory practices that enable state and local governments to make effective use of information technology to enable our construction industry to "build faster, safer, better and at less cost."

In its work over the last two years, the Alliance has noted that a lack of interoperability in hardware and software was a significant factor in the limited funding and use of current information technologies in building regulatory processes. While excellent off-the-shelf software has been developed for state and local jurisdictions to use in online issuance and tracking of building permits, plans review and oversight of field inspection work on construction sites, less than 7% of the nation’s over 40,000 jurisdictions that enforce building codes utilize these technologies.

The objective of the National Alliance is to work cooperatively with government, the construction industry and software providers to expand the number of jurisdictions making use of information technology in their building regulatory processes. The interoperability of such software will make it easier for jurisdictions to acquire and maintain streamlined regulatory programs giving them greater flexibility in the use of future technologies. Greater interoperability of such software also will enhance homeland security by enabling neighboring jurisdictions with interoperable data systems to rapidly exchange critical information regarding building design and construction that first responders use in their response to manmade or natural disasters.

Steps to be taken by the Alliance in this project include:

• assemble a core work group and draft, in August, an "interoperability statement" that defines how interoperable hardware and software should perform;

• hold a summit in New York City with the software and construction industries in mid-September to identify common data requirements for currently available software and to identify actions that the public and private sectors can take together to generate national standards for interoperable hardware and software; and

• produce a report on next steps that the Alliance, the software industry, state and local governments and the construction industry can take together to transform the interoperability statement into a national standard and incorporate it into the Alliance’s existing model procurement guidelines.

Update progress reports on the work of the Alliance will be given during the FIATECH annual meeting October 8 & 9 in Houston, Texas, and at the Third National Forum on Building Smarter in the Digital Age October 20 in Portland, Oregon.

The National Conference of States on Building Codes and Standards (NCSBCS) was founded by the nation’s governors in 1967 to promote the development of an efficient, cooperative system of building regulations to assure the health, safety, and welfare of the public within the built environment. Under cooperative agreements over the past two decades, NCSBCS has provided technical support to the National Governors Association and to the Council of State Governments. NCSBCS also provides secretariat services to the Association of Major City and County Building Officials, the Industrialized Buildings Commission–an interstate compact, and the National Alliance for Building Regulatory Reform in the Digital Age.

The National Alliance for Building Regulatory Reform in the Digital Age Mission Statement: Strengthening the public’s safety and the nation’s economic competitiveness by streamlining the nation’s building regulatory process through the use of information technology to enable the nation to build faster, better, safer and at less cost.