The bcXML: supporting eCommerce and knowledge management in the construction industry

The eConstruct IST project has developed a communication technology called Building and Construction eXtensible mark-up Language (bcXML), which provides the European Building and Construction industry with a powerful but low cost XML-based language that primarily supports the eBusiness communication needed between clients, architects, engineers, suppliers, and contractors for the procurement of products, components, and services. BcXML also handle multi-lingual issues required when a virtual construction enterprise operates over the borders of the individual European member states. In order to enable the bcXML communication language to be demonstrated and tested, the bcXML Reference Architecture was designed and a prototype demonstrator was implemented. A number of client applications have also been implemented within the prototype and demonstrated the proof of concept for bcXML. Moreover, BcXML has been adopted as the format to import taxonomies into the construction-oriented ontology that is developed in the IST e-COGNOS project, which is implementing a KM infrastructure tailored to the construction needs. This paper describes the bcXML Reference Architecture, the implemented prototype and how bcXML has been used in e-COGNOS.