Andrew Bond is a respected commentator on matters automation through his monthly and independent publication (he takes no adverts), Industrial Automation Insider. If you don’t receive it already then perhaps it is time you did. It will help give an European perspective albeit in an inimitable English way.

However that is not what I wanted to share with OURISA afficianados. No! He has a very interesting item about the various multi-vendor organisations (e.g. Foundation Fieldbus, ProfiBus, HART, etc). This is what he says:

“One potentially significant source of editorial copy is that made up of the multi- vendor industry associations and pressure groups and the professional societies. After all, their whole raison d’être should be to promote the interests of their members and spread the word. The reality doesn’t always fit that image.

Why for example, does Profibus (PNO) have three times as many stories published as either the HART or Fieldbus Foundations? At least in part because a significant proportion of the latter’s output relates to past events or internal organizational appointments of little or no interest to independent publications. Perhaps such organizations have relied too heavily in the past on member companies such as Emerson and Honeywell to provide the bulk of their promotional material so that, when the their focus shifts from, say, fieldbus to wireless, the organization’s own presence is correspondingly downgraded. The same is even more true of the smaller multivendor organizations such as AF and WINA. Most of the case studies on the WINA website seem to originate from Honeywell and, to a lesser extent, Emerson, while Emerson own site offers a more comprehensive database of wireless applications, webinars and videos.

Maybe there’s a role for ISA in driving these fledgling organizations forward with a bit of independent muscle?”

A thought provoking question. What do you think?

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