Visualizing information structures and its impact on project teams: An information architecture for the virtual AEC company

An information architecture was developed to provide a common technical platform between all partners in the building process. This is to support the formation of virtual companies in the AEC industry. The objective was to augment the current computing environment with support for information sharing and collaboration, in support of existing practices and concurrent to existing applications. Eloquent visualizations of the information structures resulting from the collaborative activities will empower participants in an analysis and understanding of these processes and, consequently, increase their effectiveness in such collaborations. Experience and discussion with industry partners is provided, and extrapolated from extensive experiences with comparable examples in educational settings.