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Epiphany in China

By: Perry Sink Marshall

I just returned from a week in China. I had never been to a communist country before. One typically associates the word "communist" with gloomy, despairing scenes in the former Soviet Union or East Germany - people standing in long lines holding ration cards, and workers labouring under cruel, despotic tyranny.

China is, in fact, a beautiful place, and I certainly did not leave with that dreary impression. Everyone was very polite and hospitable. The scenery was exotic, and the food was delightful. It was an unforgettable experience, and I highly recommend China as a place to visit.

But make no mistake: China is not a democracy. There are "official views" on certain things, which shall be held by everyone.

Tiananmen Square? Students and soldiers departed quietly after a peaceful confrontation.

Chairman Mao? A hero of his countrymen.

The Cultural Revolution? A great period in the building of modern China.

Religious views? Best not to discuss such things.

The five protesters in Beijing who ignited themselves with gasoline during 2001 Chinese New Year? They were brainwashed by a cult who encourages mass suicide.

Chinese newspaper

Then I picked up the English newspaper, The China Daily. Some random headlines included: "Mutual Contact Thrives" - the President of China meets a North Korean official and is delighted to see the "substantial economic development, national reunification and progressive foreign affairs." No mention is made of the starving North Koreans. "Bodies of 58 suffocated stowaways return home" - an unfortunate story of what might happen if Chinese citizens try to escape to England.

As the Chinese say, "In The China Daily, you can at least be certain that the date on the paper is correct."

Anyway, this was my epiphany. I suddenly realized: This propaganda newspaper reads exactly like a typical pile of press releases from American corporations. And people take both just about as seriously.

On the long flight, I'd been reading two things that added perspective to this epiphany. The first was a 70-page article in Wired Magazine called, "The Truth, The Whole Truth, and Nothing But The Truth." It is an insider's report on the Microsoft vs. DOJ trial, including Microsoft's threats to stop selling Windows to PC vendors who dared to install Netscape instead of Internet Explorer, and Microsoft's arrogance and doublespeak in court.

I was also reading a new book called The Cluetrain Manifesto, which describes how the Internet is decentralizing business and making corporate propaganda ever less effective, as people on newsgroups and email openly discuss the naked truth about problem solving, products, and politics. The name of the game in a communist government is information control, yet that is no different in a corporation.

Microsoft wants to own the Internet, thus their new "DOT NET" strategy. A half-dozen major vendors each want to own the factory floor, so they work furiously to sell proprietary solutions today and to tilt tomorrow's "open" solutions as heavily as possible in their favour.

Let me cut right to the chase. The vendors who control the automation market are not at all happy about this Industrial Ethernet thing. They're actually pretty uptight about it, the same way the Chinese government is uptight about the Internet. The more choices you have, the less control they have. He who controls information controls the customers. If the customer controls his information, then the vendor is no longer in control.

Cartoon of trade show But what customers often don't seem to realize is that vendors only have as much power as they are given. Remember that we do not live in a communist country. Some people turn up at trade shows every year like hypnotized drones, awaiting the next wonderful set of new handcuffs. It's almost as though they don't realize that they can tell the vendors what they want.

Curt Wuollet, founder of the Linux PLC project (an initiative to develop an open source, free set of Linux-based automation software tools) told me, "I'm beginning to think this whole industry is brain dead and suffers from an acute case of Stockholm Syndrome, where the victims strongly identify with their kidnappers."

Let's look at the trade associations. How many customers do you see actively participating in them? Usually it is just vendors talking to (and fighting with) each other. How many customers were present for the IEC61158 8-headed fieldbus monster meeting in Ottawa in July 1999? Our editor, Heather Angus, was present (I was not), but I think she'll confirm that the number of customers there totaled zero.

ControlNet was "opened up" for one reason only: General Motors told Allen-Bradley to open it up or else! Linux came from nowhere and grew to be the most popular platform for Web servers simply because proactive users decided to make it so.

If you watch your child play EverQuest on the Internet with some kid from Singapore, and wonder why your encoder won't talk to your PLC, it might be because you spent your time beating your vendors up over price instead of telling them what you wanted, in terms of technology, before they made it.

Yes, it costs precious time and money to participate in democracy. In the short term, democracy is horribly inefficient, but we all know that, in the end, it is far more prosperous.

So I have a challenge for you. As Industrial Ethernet unfolds, make your voice heard. You could join the Industrial Ethernet discussion list (http://www.egroups.com/group/industrialethernet) and make your wishes known. You could join the Industrial Automation Open Networking Alliance (http://ww.iaona.com).

In particular, EtherNet/IP and ProfiNet standards are still in formulation, and I can promise you that how user-friendly and truly "open" these standards are is primarily determined by how much pressure is felt from you, the users, to make them that way.

Perry Sink Marshall is a founding member of the Industrial Ethernet Association. A white paper called "Industrial Ethernet and 8 Popular Fieldbuses" is available from Industrial Ethernet Association.

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Perry S. Marshall & Associates is an independent consulting & publishing firm, and is not affiliated with Google.