Thinking Out Loud in an Industry of Change

I am extremely pleased with our April issue as all of our contributing editors have opened their minds and provided us their thoughts on the radical changes needed in our industry. They have done what AutomatedBuildings.com does best "Think Out Loud". It is this process and using the power of the internet, that has enabled us to inform, educate, change minds and connect industry leaders to take our industry to the next level.

We all will support evolution that we feel we have been part of. When groups meet behind closed doors with narrow agendas and withhold information for

perceived market advantage our industry suffers. Our seemingly broad open agendas have become very narrow as we converge and connect our rapidly evolving industry. New players and new directions abound encapsulating unheard of opportunities. We all need to think out loud to quickly guide our industry to the next level and set plans for the future. Even the name of our industry is under discussion. Please read each article carefully and allow yourself to think out loud about what this means to your future and the future of the industry. Examine your agendas and allegiances in light of out load thinking. We live in a world where the application of a new technology or a single web service or a cell phone feature will radically change our focus. Thinking in traditional terms in pods of special interest groups is dangerous as it does not allow the necessary convergence of all available ideas. Ideas from the convergence model abound and we must make them part of our industry or those lacking the millstones of traditional thinking will. I just heard a new term "Grid Integrator". A "Grid Integrator" is a person who integrates buildings with the electrical grid. Some in our industry would call him a building integrator. We must unhinge our minds and find new pivot points from which to build our future.

Please share your "out loud" thinking with us, we already are staging articles for our May issue.