Straight from the source

If you’re not yet familiar with the term “blog,” which is short for Web log, here’s a simple, yet direct definition from Webster’s New Millennium Dictionary of English : an online diary; a personal chronological log of thoughts published on a Web page.

Blogs are all the rage on the Web these days. Business Week recently ran a cover story suggesting that businesses of all types should use blogs as a means of communication with customers and vendors.

I’m not necessarily buying into that. Though I do think blogs are a great development in Internet communication, I am concerned many business blogs will miss the mark if they do not add value to existing Web-based communications. Or if they become too bound up in the personal interests of the principal blogger—a good thing for a personal blog, but not necessarily for a blog with business intentions.

However, we believe we have arrived at a blog-like form of communication that is not only practical and useful, but will also provide the type of insight into control and automation implementations never before provided.

Starting in mid-July 2005, we are debuting our blog area: The Control Engineering Implementation Chronicles. The idea is to follow and learn from the progress of an automation project as it unfolds, beginning to end, with weekly updates straight from the source. The first blog planned is from system integration firm QDS Systems Inc. QDS is involved in a $2 million+ project with the Baton Rouge, LA, wastewater pump station to design, assemble, configure, and install a SCADA system to monitor and control 51 critical wastewater lift and booster stations serving the municipality’s 412,000 residents.

Stan Prutz, P.E., CEO of QDS Systems, has agreed to provide us with weekly updates on the project—an insider’s look at what’s working, what’s not, how issues with other vendors associated with the project are resolved, as well as the process of gaining acceptance of changing methods and procedures at the facility, and coordination of stakeholders.

We are also currently in discussions with other system integration firms to deliver additional, weekly updated blogs dealing with various control and automation projects. Within the next few months we plan to offer you the choice of several blogs to follow within the Implementation Chronicles area of our Web site at www.controleng.com/chronicles . If you’re interested in having your own implementation blog hosted on our site and promoted regularly to our 88,000+ readers, send me an email. I’d be happy to discuss the project.

In the meantime, tune in each week to the Control Engineering Implementation Chronicles so you don’t miss the next exciting episode!

David Greenfield, Editorial Director

dgreenfield@reedbusiness.com

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