The June 2010 issue of Automation World is live on the Web. The first issue was June 2003. Can’t believe I’ve had this job for over seven years. It’s almost the longest tenure I’ve had in my career–and the longest time I’ve had the same position.
I’m home for a couple of days. I’ll recap the RSTechEd event in the next post with a caveat from Wes Iversen who attended the Siemens Industry event in North Carolina. I’m interviewing a bunch of people today to wrap up an article on real-time decision making.
During my visits this week, I was asked what makes AW different from the engineering magazines in the field. My first response which is actually the same idea we started with is that we look at the Why of automation. Engineering magazines are often product-centered. They tell you What. Sometimes they may get into How. But with the expansion of the Web that can give you What and companies more and more issuing papers on How, the independent voice explaining to the broader manufacturing engineering and management population Why you should look at new technologies and systems is the key. We started that way, and I still believe that we’re on the right track.
I’d say companies love to talk about "Why you should look at [their] new technologies".
But there isn’t enough independent information on both How and Why, and given the size of the automation market, probably never will be.
BTW, Vision Systems Design has long had a very application centric focus, and I suspect you’d love to talk with its editor, Andy Wilson.
Congrats on 7 great years and I wish you and the whole AW team lots more years of success!