ISA has once again issued its call for papers for the technical conference in Houston. I am posting it below to give everybody the opportunity of providing a response to the call.
ISA paper sessions have suffered greatly over the past ten years, mostly from non-attendance and the fact that real authorities don't want to give papers at ISA any more.
There are a number of reasons for this. First, ISA charges an arm and a leg to get into the paper sessions. They ought to be free, or nominally priced, since the intellectual property is donated.
That's the second rub. ISA historically has demanded that all papers being presented at ISA events are ISA property, with all rights in perpetuity.
They don't generally tell authors that this can be waived after 6 months has passed, and the author can get his paper back. They also don't generally tell people that if you are sufficiently loudmouthed (oh, sorta like me...) you can get them to waive the copyright nonsense in its entirety.
This is a call for ISA to do the right thing and embrace the Creative Commons copyright method. You can learn all about the Creative Commons method at http://creativecommons.org/.
There is no reason ISA needs to hoard the intellectual property of its members. Let's spread the news, and see if we can attract more of the approximately 450,000 automation workers worldwide into the approximately 25,000 member ISA.
Fact is, we need ISA, and we can't allow ISA to go down the ubiquitous porcelain convenience by reason of its insistence on hanging on to 20th century rules of behavior and business.
ISA Issues EXPO 2006 Call for Papers
Research Triangle Park, NC (10 March 2006) - Automation professionals
around the world are invited to submit an abstract for the ISA EXPO 2006
Technical Conference Program to be held on 17-19 October 2006 in
Houston, Texas.
Abstracts are selected based on topic area and presentation category.
Topic areas for the event include safety and security, environmental and
quality control, industrial networking, process automation, and systems
integration. Presentation categories include paper sessions, panel
sessions, and tutorial sessions. The conference program is made up of
solicited papers and papers approved through the Call for Paper
submissions.
The Solicited Program can be viewed online at www.isa.org/isaexpo2006.
Abstract submissions will be evaluated on their relevance and interest
to the automation market. All submissions should be focused on end user
applications of the technology.
Commercialism of any type is prohibited in the ISA EXPO 2006 technical
conference program. Supplier abstracts will be accepted only if
presented jointly with an end user with the supplier presentation
focusing on the technology and the end user's presentation focusing on
the application of the technology.
In order to be considered for the 2006 technical conference program,
abstracts must be submitted no later than 3 April. The ISA EXPO 2006 web
site, www.isa.org/isaexpo2006, features detailed information on ISA's
presentation requirements, important deadlines, and online submission of
abstracts.
