Conclusions

Creating software in the form of bcoWeb compliant applications and web services results in a new generation of co-operative software tools that, by definition, are able to work as a team and in a team including human partners, and that enforce the re-use of existing information and knowledge to the Client's advantage. Because of the availability of the bcoWeb Semantics, it is possible to precisely describe relevant information and knowledge for re-use. Web services do not necessarily imply human activities and therefore may well be available at lower cost. Also the fact that users (1) only pay for the actual usage and (2) don't need to buy a license, nor (3) need to follow a course, makes the approach attractive. Also the fact that the software vendors run the software on their own web servers is interesting, because many problems with software distribution and maintenance disappear.

The initial development of bcoWeb based web services already clearly demonstrates the power of the new information and knowledge sharing paradigm. Because bcoWeb contains the Semantics of the BC industry itself, it is not a difficult task to create a web interface for an existing tool that requires semantic communication and turn it into a web service. This feature will provide an easy growth path from existing tools to a future Ontology-based alternative.

With all the Semantics available it also becomes possible to create applications in the form of web services that can do very smart things, like for example code and regulation conformance checking, common-design-error database searching, constructability rules enforcement and much much more.