Why was USIBD created? Around the 2010-time frame, a group of leading-edge professionals engaged in documenting buildings (measuring, representing, and visualizing them) noticed a rash of new problems in the market involving the use of some new technologies. Rather than just commiserate about those problems, several top practitioners decided to do something about it. They founded USIBD.
The problems were rooted in the rapid adoption of certain new technologies: mostly 3D laser scanning and BIM, but also 360º imaging, HDR, VR, AR, advanced photogrammetry, drones, and others. Skilled early adapters of these new technologies were reaping big benefits and word of those successes had spread quickly. The technologies were also becoming easier to acquire and access, which attracted lots of new, but inexperienced, participants. Many of these new participants didn’t yet understand important intricacies of the technologies and how to take best advantage of them. That’s when problems emerged – projects were being poorly specified, bid, and executed. Clients, practitioners, and stakeholders were feeling the pain and in some cases the technologies were getting a bad name.
Newcomers needed efficient help, but, at the time, there were no regulated qualifications, no useful “published best practices”, no comprehensive industry standards, no focused peer network, no single, un-biased resource for practical information for “What is it?” and “How do we best use it?” To address that need, a group of leading practitioners formed USIBD.