To capture the essence of Real Estate and Computer Science in a logo, an icon was needed to mesh or connect the two knowledge areas together. In doing so, the above two-dimensional icon within the re-sci logo is a graph which simply represents a connected world. Using graph theory, ten nodes or vertices are connected by lines or edges. The nodes are colored blue and green to represent water and land, respectively, while the addition of edges create universally accepted home icons within the logo’s icon.

Custom blue and green colors were chosen for the textual lettering to match the nodes’ coloring. The font face used was PakType Tehree with a medium style. Inkscape was used to create the re-sci logo, .

Purposefully, multiple home icons can be found within the 2d graph icon. Just like a multiple listing service, this type of design was used to represent a global mls or a world wide mls. In future versions, the icon graph may become three-dimensional and much larger in scale.

At first glance, you may notice only two home icons within the icon graph, but if you look closely there are many more. Please feel free to comment below on how many hidden home icons you see located within the new re-sci icon graph.

The Real Estate Science logo can now be found on ResearchGate.net and on Twitter @rescience.

–Corey

• Presented Multiple Listing Service Network (MLSN) Protocol at the University of Central Florida 2011 Research Fair
• Ongoing data research and collection of legacy mls numbers on the World Wide Web (WWW)
• Development integration with Red Hat’s Openshift Platform as a Service (PaaS)
• Accepted Exhibition of MLSN Protocol at Nonprofit Technology’s (NTEN) 2012 Confernece and Science Fair in San Francisco
• Accepted MLSN Abstract Paper for presenting at American Real Estate Society (ARES) in April of 2012

As MLSN is presented to different groups such as academics and technologists, I am confident with the two upcoming presentations in 2012, especially in St. Petersburg at ARES, that the MLSN Protocol and WWMLS framework will alter others’ thought processes of not only the dysfunctional aspect of today’s legacy MLS, but also future directions in how real estate consumers interact and expect a specific quality of service (QoS) from real estate professionals. The main intention is integrate WWMLS in every aspect of the future of real estate.

Moving foward, the second phase for WWMLS will be the introduction of the messaging language called Real Estate Metadata Language (Remetal). This XML language will be used to markup properties in a self-describing, yet simple language for sending and receiving between the main OpenMLS Registry and accredited OpenMLS Registrars. I plan to propose Remetal to additional call for papers (CFP) on the academic and technical levels in 2012.

The third yet most important phase will be for the Real Estate Transport Protocol (RETP). This protocol defines the type of messaging, the distribution channels, error correction system, etc. Again, RETP papers will be proposed along with exhibitions at national and if necessary global science fairs.

The future of real estate is bright and changing.

And as the cliche goes, please stay tuned…

–Corey

Enter the Internet and the World Wide Web. All of sudden, Real Estate changed. It had to change because everyone went from using offline tools, calculators and spreadsheets, to using online tools such as Google Apps, the Social Web, and online banking.

Because of these changes, Real Estate was no longer just a “financial” industry, but also a “computer science” industry deeply embedded into the industry. Having realized this, I began researching this phenomenon by reading, listening, and discovering the new ways real estate users (buyers, sellers, agents, consultants, etc.) now do business.

My observations have given way to new research I call:

Real Estate Science: A New Scientific Body of Knowledge and Academic Discipline

A brief explanation and upcoming paper of what Real Estate Science is follows:

The Internet and World Wide Web have been immensely influential components on the Real Estate Industry. From the brokerage enterprise to daily salespersons’ activities, computers are involved in every facet of a real estate project or transaction. With millions of mobile devices connected to the Web, the real estate industry has fully embraced the world of computing. Therefore, one can say that the Real Estate Industry has literally transformed itself from a one-dimensional financial industry into a technology dependent juggernaut overnight.

To better understand this evolution, I propose a new discipline and body of knowledge to better understand, analyze, study, and document technology related concepts so we may be able to educate future real estate users along with existing ones. This paper discusses the needs and justifications for a new academic discipline or academic field called Real Estate Science (Re-Sci). Real Estate Science will combine theories and concepts from both the Real Estate Industry and the Computer Science field, respectively. Real world use cases will be used to demonstrate why this new body of knowledge is necessary to implement and move forward into the twenty-first century and beyond.

– Corey, “the Father of Real Estate Science”

After some research, I’ve decided to include my previous book projects, “The Web is the MLS”, and “Real Estate Is Global”, into one single book with the tentative title and subtitle, “Repatterns: Applying Computer Science and Design Patterns to Real Estate.” The reason for the two-in-one inclusions was because I felt the two previous book efforts were similar enough patterns extending the same pattern, Network Pattern, to be included into one full patterns book covering real estate and computer science together.

Here’s a working abstract for the book:

Patterns are everywhere. We live in a world of visible and invisible patterns. From our birth, patterns exist to help us learn, to save time, and to be productive. This book will apply principles from computer science and well known design patterns to the business processes and procedures within the Real Estate industry. From these patterns, you will discover inefficient patterns, anti-patterns, along with learning how to think differently by replacing such anti-patterns with more efficient design patterns.

For the new book cover, I reused the “The Web Is The MLS” cover since the design was already very “patternistic” in nature. In addition, the textual change in inkscape was very easy to do.

Tentative Book Contents:

Table of Contents
Preface
Ch1 Introduction
Ch2 Factory Pattern
Ch3 Observer Pattern
Ch4 Mediator Pattern
Ch5 Request-Response Pattern
Ch6 Point-to-Point Pattern
Ch7 Facade Pattern
Ch8 Network Pattern
Ch9 Proxy Pattern
Ch10 Compound Patterns
Appendix
Glossary
Index

I look forward to working on this project while at the same time using these patterns on my current projects. Lastly, I hope others will also learn to recognize anti-patterns and design patterns within real estate or their respective industry because of this work.

–Corey

This is a first pass at building a use case model for real estate project management. As you can see on the left side of the system, there are five actors: the project manager, salesperson, administrative assistant, buyer, and the seller. On the right side of the model are three external systems which interface with the model. They are Google Wave, SalesForce, and OpenProj.

The system’s use cases are self-explanatory and may need refactoring. Again, this is a first pass. In addition, I’m sure more use cases will rear their heads so I expect the number of use cases to grow.

Feel free to leave comments and suggestions for this model is open for public comment.

–Corey

As you can see, I’ve defined just three types of Actors: Professionals, References, and Guests. I’ve also defined two external entities, OpenID and a web service. The scenarios listed are a first pass and expect to refactor their associations while adding/removing some. I won’t go into detail here regarding the scenarios, but if you would like to follow the wave and/or offer comments, please feel free to contact me on google wave. My gwave account is corey.leong@googlewave.com.

My next step in this process is to create component, deployment, and behavioural diagrams. I’ll post these also to my blog in the future.

–Corey

My EAI research led me to two real world models: SWIFT and HL7. From the SWIFT about page:

SWIFT is the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication, a member-owned cooperative through which the financial world conducts its business operations with speed, certainty and confidence. Over 8,300 banking organisations, securities institutions and corporate customers in more than 208 countries trust us every day to exchange millions of standardised financial messages.

From the HL7 about page:

Founded in 1987, Health Level Seven (HL7) is a not-for-profit, ANSI-accredited standards developing organization dedicated to providing a comprehensive framework and related standards for the exchange, integration, sharing, and retrieval of electronic health information that supports clinical practice and the management, delivery and evaluation of health services. HL7′s 2,300+ members include approximately 500 corporate members who represent more than 90% of the information systems vendors serving healthcare.

As I read more about these two models I wondered if a secure messaging model could be used within the real estate industry. The first use case I came up with was a global referral network for professionals needing to find other professionals for real estate referrals. Currently, there isn’t a global network which allows this particular model (and facebook doesn’t count). Obviously, Metcalfe’s Law factors in:

the value of a telecommunications network is proportional to the square of the number of connected users of the system (n2).

So for Real7 to be of value to its users, a number of users would need to have access and use the model, but this is always the rub for any online service. But I believe this type of service would not only solve the referral challenge, but also create a greater efficiency regarding time savings in searching for other real estate professionals to refer a buyer or seller client. I’m certain more use cases will be applied to a messaging model as others join in on the discussion, but for now I’m just concentrating on one use case to begin.

I created a google group called Real7 to begin discussions on security, grid computing, and other related technologies needed for a global real estate messaging infrastructure. If this topic is of any interest, please join the google group for posting and receiving discussions on real7.

–Corey

Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt (FUD) is a tactic of rhetoric and fallacy used in sales, marketing, public relations, politics and propaganda. FUD is generally a strategic attempt to influence public perception by disseminating negative information designed to undermine the credibility of their beliefs.[1]

Normally, if I’m not quite certain about a term or acronym I will then look it up on Wikipedia. Now I was very sure of FUD having been in IT for years, but curiosity was too much for me so I browsed the term anyway over on Wikipedia.

After reading the initial definition, I scrolled down to read more about the derivation of FUD and was suddenly taken back by what I then saw.

Real Estate Agents. In response to a growing number of homeowners forgoing the use of real estate agent services during the sale of their homes, National and Regional real estate boards have adopted a strategy of fear, uncertainty and doubt. Ads reinforce consumers anxiety over legal paperwork, and suggest that consumers are weak, intellectually lazy and fearful. That consumers can’t possibly learn; and that it would be much safer to leave the process to a real estate agent. [1]

It all made sense now. The tweets. The facebook updates. The ads. Everything.

I see these fud-like sales tactics streamed across sites where once only located in newspapers or park benches. So instead of offering a one-off opinion, what is the action item then to curb fud selling or marketing?

This is where I am with this issue, simply asking questions. I forsee a case study for researching this issue with a published online white paper. Time to get to work…

–Corey

Reference
1. Wikipedia

• kitchen
• livingroom
• office
• garage

Here’s an example for the pool element:

    <real:pool>
      <real:dimensions/>

          <real:width>
            <real:meters/>
            <real:feet/>
          </real:width>

          <real:length>
            <real:meters/>
            <real:feet/>
          </real:length>

          <real:depth>             
            <real:meters/>                 
            <real:feet/>
          </real:depth>

        </real:dimensions>
    </real:pool>

I hope to have the DTD and schemas refactored and published by this sunday evening. I’ll have an announcement for the release soon after.

–Corey