DNP, Substation Automation and DA on LinkedIn
I joined LinkedIn (www.LinkedIn.com) almost a year ago. Originally, I could not see the value it may have. Gradually, when I was bored, I started looking into the discussion boards. This triggered my interest a bit and prompted me to find technical groups and communities in there. Sure enough, there were lots of groups related to Control and Automation.
In December 2008, just as a test, I posted couple of messages about one of our new products and started watching our website traffic. It looked like people were paying attention. I saw a surge in the traffic. Also, I realized that the traffic is coming to us either directly or by Google search on our name. Very interesting! I also got couple of objections from people that though my post was not related to the subject of the group. For example, I had posted something about our Modbus TCP module on a ZigBee group. The module was designed to collect data from a distributed population of remote units. They could communicate to the server on any link that would allow XML web services. The data is presented to the Modbus client through our Modbus server. I thought ZigBee people may be interested. What I had not realized was that the ZigBee people are more interested in ZigBee itself, not the applications loaded on the link. I responded to the objections reasoning that application people like Substation Engineers need to see this information.
This prompted me to search for forums on Substation Automation. There was none. So, how about if I put together a group for Substation Automation to help people to exchange their ideas and experiences. Moving on, I started three groups:
Substation Automation
Distribution Automation
DNP Users
Soon enough, people started pouring in. It was like a magic. You put something out there and have no idea what happens. I had the same feeling when we sold our Modbus TCP code library for the first time on the Internet.
Anyway, this is looking very promising. I have high hope that this forum can become something helpful to everybody.
Take care for now, Rod
