We interrupt this editorial...

ometimes it takes a while, but eventually the lightbulb goes on. We’ve figured out that people don’t go to web sites to read magazines. Yes, I know this is so, because my 16-year-old daughter says, “Duh!” But the obvious can be elusive. It’s as if we got so close to what we were doing that we couldn’t step back far enough to see the pattern.

So we went out and asked you what you wanted in a Web resource. What we found out was enough to make us radically revise what our web sites look like, and do. You told us you wanted a web site with deep, actionable content—stuff you could use, with no fluff. You told us you go to the Web on a mission to find specific information on specific topics. You told us you wanted carefully edited information, collated and presented in forms that were easy for you to find and to use.

Based on what you told us, we’ve torn down our old site, controlmag.com, and are pleased to present ControlGlobal.com. Now, when you go to our new web site, you won’t find a doppelganger of the magazine. Instead you will find something fresh, different, and we think much better.

Yes, you can still find CONTROL on the web site, but this is only part of what you will find at ControlGlobal.com.

We’ll be combining daily news, topical, original-to-the-Web articles and award-winning content from our magazines with a community of industry experts, carefully chosen links and extensive, detailed product and vendor information to give our readers a single source of comprehensive industry insight. To help me manage all this flood of digital information, we’ve brought on board a new editor, Rick Pedraza, who will be managing ControlGlobal.com and the new opt-in, focused e-mail newsletters we’re launching: DigitalFieldinsider and SecureSystemsinsider.

We’re going to continue offering the highly successful ControlGlobal.com E-News, but we’ve found that the process industries are demanding information related to two significant things: industrial fieldbus networks, and system and infrastructure security. You’ll be able to opt in to receive either one or both of these this month.

In addition, we’ve entered into a partnership with GlobalSpec.com to allow you to have access to the best product and specification resource on the Web, through ControlGlobal.com.

We’ll be doing something we’ve never done before. We’ll be presenting content we’ve found from all over the Web, including whitepapers and in-depth technical information on both applications and products. Some of this content will change, but much of it will have a timeless quality that will make it a valuable and long-lasting resource for automation professionals.

Need to know about batch processing? Take a look at the whitepapers that we’re posting from World Batch Forum. Need to know about automation system security? Verano has provided an excellent overview of the issues. There is much more, and more coming every day. My job, and Rick’s, will be to ensure that the content we aggregate and present on ControlGlobal.com is as carefully crafted, accurate and reliable as the content we generate ourselves.

While geographically CONTROL magazine has traditionally been a North America-centric publication, it has become clear to us that for some time, many of our web site visitors have come from parts of the world where there is a dearth of high quality information for automation professionals in the process industries. The best way to serve those readers, we believe, is to provide content on the web site that is of benefit to them. That’s why we’ve changed its name to ControlGlobal.com.

You want deep, actionable content that is organized so that you can find it, and use it easily. Done. Now visit the site and tell us how we’re doing. Write me at [email protected] with comments, criticism and suggestions for ControlGlobal.com.