Welcome back to INOC

Welcome to the first issue of the relaunched Industrial Networking and Open Control (INOC)!

Right now, industrial networking is one of the most exciting areas of opportunity in the automation and control industries, as technologies mature and companies look for more and better ways to operate. Yet there is now no controlled circulation magazine which caters for this technically-biased marketplace.

Industrial Networking and Open Control has been dormant for a year while its new owners have been busy putting their plans in place. Now, we've relaunched. INOC is accompanied by a new web site, www.industrialnetworking.co.uk, and coming soon will be an annual technology guide and directory, special supplements and reader surveys. Other ground-breaking innovations will be announced within a month or so.

Our aims are simple: to provide the industrial networking and control community with a magazine that concentrates on what they do well, a magazine that goes into some degree of technical detail without turning into a technical manual - a magazine that stays interesting. Our circulation extends across Western Europe; although this is a global marketplace, much of the world's top design and development comes from Europe. But of course, we will be reporting relevant innovations from all over the world.

Most importantly, we are vendor-neutral. That means that, over time, any company working in industrial automation on controls, fieldbus, other networking, SCADA, operating systems, devices, standards - anything in fact - has an equal chance to have their say or describe their technological achievements. We'll be talking to all the big vendors, all the small vendors, and all those in between.

The only glass ceiling we impose is that we do not intend to stray into the world of business computer systems, beyond making sure they can communicate with control systems if they want to and vice versa. As of now, we're firmly focused on the technologies that get things done!

As you read through the magazine and see items of interest that you'd like more information about, you can make reader enquiries using the magazine's 'more information' card, by our email enquiry system, or via the web site. We can pass your enquiries to the relevant companies much more quickly than is the case with conventional magazines, so you'll get a more rapid response.

Finally, if you've got ideas for features or subjects you think we should be covering, please let us know by any means, and we'll give every suggestion fair consideration. Link to our web site www.industrialnetworking.co.uk - and let's get your links onto our site, too, so we can start to build a community.

Geoff Lock
Editor