0:00 | -1:07:22 |
âYou hear so many arguments defending the status quo.â
âAndrew Rodgers
Welcome to Nexus, a newsletter and podcast for smart people applying smart building technologyâhosted by James Dice. If youâre new to Nexus, you might want to start here.
The Nexus podcast (Apple | Spotify | YouTube | Other apps) is our chance to explore and learn with the brightest in our industryâtogether. The project is directly funded by listeners like you who have joined the Nexus Pro membership community.
You can join Nexus Pro to get access to a deep dive into my reaction, my top highlights of this episode, and a full transcript of this and all episodes. Pro members get these weekly deep dives, access to the Nexus Vendor Landscape, and can participate in exclusive events with a community of smart buildings nerds.
Episode 20 is a conversation with Andrew Rodgers, co-founder of ACE IoT.

Summary
This is a masterclass on what the word open means for buildings. Open is a very controversial and murky topic. I think Andrew clears some of that up in this conversation⌠itâs about choice. Itâs about self-actualization.
Donât let the deep nerdiness of this conversation scare you away. If we could unlock the data in our buildings and open up communication, we could do things like help mitigate climate change, create healthier indoor environments, and finally automate our buildings.
Andrew and I talked about myths, definitions, and walked through each layer of the smart building stack to unpack it in depth, including how we can learn from slime molds, which have it all figured out.
And much, much more.
Mentions and Links
ACE IoT (2:24)
VOLTTRON (2:34)
Mike Brooman, Vanti (8:49)
JCI OpenBlue (9:40)
Oracle (20:49)
Arm (24:23)
Deepinder Singh, 75F (24:41)
I²C (25:24)
Calvin Slater, AHR Expo (26:07)
Joe Aamidor (32:40)
Local Law 97 (35:25)
Deb Noller, Switch Automation (37:40)
ASHRAE 223, Googleâs Digital Buildings (42:50)
Kubernetes (51:52)
MongoDB (56:26)
Niagara (58:47)
Advanced Supervisory Control 1.0, ASC 2.0 (1:04:16)
You can find Andrew Rodgers on LinkedIn
Enjoy!
Thoughts, comments, reactions? Let us know in the comments.
Music credit: The Garden State by Audiobinger
THE ABOVE AUDIO, VIDEO, SUMMARY, AND LINKS WILL ALWAYS BE FREE. PODCAST DEEP DIVES WITH MY REACTIONS, MY TOP HIGHLIGHTS, AND THE FULL TRANSCRIPT ARE EXCLUSIVELY AVAILABLE TO MEMBERS OF
NEXUS PRO
.
Hereâs this weekâs deep dive outline:
My reaction, including highlights:
Andrewâs answer to my favorite question is the pain-consumer distance and how the market isnât self-regulating
The difference between open ecosystems and open source
How it all comes down to capabilities that are unlocked and personal preference
Open vs. interoperable
Where open source fits
Walking up the stack from the edge and what open means at each level (hardware, BACnet, APIs, platforms)
Why closed ecosystems wonât help us realize our future vision as an industry and how slime molds have it all figured out
The VOLTTRON open ecosystem and how it innovation happens with that model
How open-source can solve our workforce shortage
Examples of other tech from other industries going from closed to open and how open source is free like puppies.
How open is Niagara?
The vision for VOLTTRON and how AceIOT deploys it for their clients
Full transcript
1 | 2 |
James, thank you so much for having me, I really enjoyed the discussion, and look forward to the follow on in the ecosystem. Hopefully there was something in my rambling that helps move this evolutionary experience along.
In this arena of "smart buildings", MSIs as consultants can only be a good thing. It's a best practice for any stakeholder in this process to recognize a) what you don't know or fully understand; and b) that consultants are hired to help lead projects through the process, not just follow orders. As an SME, they should be making suggestions and raising their hands and pushing back when SOW's are not clear, will lead to unnecessary costs, or are otherwise fraught with other issues. Similarly, owners need to bring MSIs in early enough to take advantage of their knowledge and know-how, and know when to shut up and get out of their way.