Automation World keeps growing. I was able to find a great replacement
for the retired Wes Iversen by bringing Renee Robbins Basset on board.
She formerly was Editorial Director and Managing Editor for Control
Engineering and before that for AB Journal at Putman Media.

Well, the company just landed another high profile industry veteran.
David Greenfield, recently Editorial Director of Design News, and before
that Control Engineering and Software Strategies (aka Alchemy) will
begin with us next week. He will not be part of the editorial
team—although I expect to get his insights in a column or other
areas—rather he will strengthen our events and custom publishing team.
I've been pushing us to get a larger event presence, but as a small
company we just didn't have the resources. Now we can bring additional
value to the automation community.

Embedded

Vision

There is a new consortium— the Embedded Vision Alliance . Jeff Bier,
president of BDTI heads the group. He told me, "Adding computer vision
to embedded systems creates phenomenal new products, markets, and
opportunities. We think vision is where wireless was 20 years ago. It
will go from a niche application to widely used, because chips are
becoming more powerful and less expensive. Another ingredient is that
embedded know-how keeps growing.”

He said the first Alliance priority is education, but that getting
vendors to provide useful knowledge beyond promotional material and
developing a community are subsequent priorities. Perhaps leading
development of standards will follow.

World Petroleum Congress

I got to this announcement too late to get you the early-bird discount,
but you might mark this on your calendar. The 20th World Petroleum
Congress (WPC) will be held from the 4th- 8th December 2011 in Doha,
Qatar.

Hosted by Qatar Petroleum, the WPC is expected to attract more than
5,000 delegates, who will be addressed by over 550 distinguished
speakers and industry experts from around the world. Held under the
theme "Energy Solutions for All: Promoting Cooperation, Innovation and
Investment," the event's conference program addresses all the key
issues and other important topics related to current energy realities
and the future development of the industry.

Power Grid Security

I wrote an article on Power Grid Security for the May issue of
Automation World. Getting many views but not too many comments. What do
you think?

Automation Global Network

I'm gathering contacts with automation-related magazines and blogs
worldwide. I don't know where it will go, but it's time to share the
contacts. I've talked with two German editors who publish a number of
control and software magazines. One, Martin Buchwitz, is now publishing a
blog . It's in German, but from what little I can read it looks
interesting. This might be the impetus to do what I meant to do for
years—subscribe to something in German to improve my vocabulary. ***Download the Chrome Browser and it will translate German to English.