As much as this pains me to say it, people usually prefer from hearing from other people with experiences to share than from marketing folks. This a big reason for the growth and popularity of supplier user group meetings including our Emerson Exchange.
A personal example of this is when I was shopping for an HDTV and was Googling around for information on the various technologies and products. I found the best source of information in forums (especially avsforum.com) from users that had experiences with a particular technologies and manufacturers. I found these experiences to be more valuable than the product review sites or manufacturer sites.
This is probably why more shopping sites include user comments in addition to product review articles and specs.
I point all this out because there are some very vibrant forums and email lists that have been going on in the automation world. Good examples include Control.com, Fieldbus Online, ISA Technical Discussion and Industry lists to name a few. These are in addition to the many blogs appearing which I try to capture in my right-side blogroll.
Joining this trend of increased knowledge sharing is Mynah Technologies, whose Mimic simulation and integration products are part of many DeltaV system installations. They have rolled out a Mynah Forum area for users of these products and Mynah folks to share ideas, tips, tricks, feedback, etc.
The forums include a blog, MYNAH Experts’ Blog, led by Martin Berutti, whom I’ve known for many years. Martin kicks off his inaugural post, Simulation Objections Answered, discussing common objections to the consideration of simulation as part of process automation projects. He summarizes four objections with his reasons for reconsideration.
Give it a read and feel free to add your thoughts.
