So far so good

THANK YOU TO EVERYBODY WHO HAS RESPONDED to the April 2001 relaunch issue. The number and variety of responses have been amazing, with almost everybody using the web site (www.industrialnetworking.co.uk) to send feedback, register as readers or request further information using our unique FastReply service. Not quite 'one-click' reader response, but as near as we will get it for the time being.

Readers have been confirming their registrations from all over Europe as well as from the UK, and our furthest flung respondent was a FastReply request for information from Malaysia. We expect the number of replies from the site to increase rapidly as more people take advantage of it to register and request information.

The aim of the magazine - to get beneath the gloss of technologies being used in industrial networking - has met with approval from the companies we have spoken to. We can, in the future, expect contributions from the full range of key industry players. And by concentrating primarily on Western Europe, we are covering some of the top control and automation development centres for the industry world-wide. Geographically we have the right coverage, and maintaining a vendor-neutral position on industrial automation up to, but not beyond, the link with business systems like ERP seems to agree with what commentators think is currently wanting.

We started with the magazine and the web site, and we have made all the content available on the web site. But more is needed to give industrial networking as a subject the coverage it deserves. What about smaller firms, and what about specialist areas? To give these the right importance, we really need to introduce some additional features. The first addition, detailed in the 2001 Media Pack and on Page 33 of this issue, is an annual directory. Called INOCSource, it is Industrial Networking and Open Control's technical guide to fieldbus systems with a product directory and a guide to suppliers. Basic entries will be free, but companies can have extended profiles or case studies included too. We will be publishing it as a printed book, but all the information will also be available on the web with search facilities.

The second addition is a range of strategic supplements. We have already identified the first, which will be on Building Control and Energy Management. More factories and office premises are now being managed electronically and remotely, to the extent that contract selection may no longer be based on initial building cost, but may take into account long term operational costs. Remote building management is relatively new and made possible through the industrial control networks. Energy management, much of it driven by the Climate Change Levy, is in a similar position. Strategic supplements will be sponsored by one or more companies and will be bound into the magazine. Additional copies of supplements will also be available to sponsors who can use them to supplement their own technical and marketing literature.

We are confident that this enlarged portfolio of publications under the Industrial Networking and Open Control banner will offer everything that readers and advertisers are looking for in a title. To let us know your views: use feedback on www.industrialnetworking.co.uk, or email feedback@industrialnetworking.co.uk. It couldn't be easier.

Geoff Lock
Editor