Some would say that scada is an anacronym. For those who are newcomers to the instrumentation and control industry and are wandering just what exactly 'scada' is - Adroit Technologies has kindly contributed 'Scada 101'. I will leave the explanation of scada systems to the experts - but what sort of word is 'scada'?
Many would say that it is an acronym - which is what you get when you make a word from the first letters of words from a phrase to produce something that can be pronounced as a word - and easily remembered. Perhaps the most well known of all acronyms are laser and radar. Notice that these are most often rendered in lower case: laser, radar. The reason is that very few people spend time thinking about the origins, and for all intents and purposes they have ceased to be thought of as acronyms. Most youngsters today think of a laser in the same way that we think of revolver (thanks to George Lucas and co). Laser and radar are used in exactly the same way as we would use 'engine' or 'broom'. Technically, when an acronym is used so often without any knowledge of its origins, it ceases being an acronym and becomes an anacronym - a somewhat redundant term, in my opinion - just another box to put things in.
Those boxes
Us humans love to be able to put things in boxes. For some bizarre reason we are only able to accept things and carry on with our lives once we know which 'box' something belongs in. Most often we do not even need to understand a thing about it, just knowing that it belongs in a certain box is fine. One (controversial) example would be: Ask about the two sedimentary rock layers that are missing from the Grand Canyon... Ah, yes, that is a nonconformity. (Those who amuse themselves with the timeless creation/evolution debate will know exactly what I mean.) I have yet to hear a plausible explanation for the missing layers, but in the meantime a great many are put at ease simply knowing that this dilemma has a box, the 'Nonconformity' box. The fact that it is a box full of dilemmas does not matter. Such is the power of the box!
There are those of us who would like to keep the number of boxes as few as possible, and there are those who get great satisfaction from creating more and more boxes. I am one of the former. I firmly believe in not complicating things any further than is necessary to achieve the desired objective. I like to believe that when an acronym starts being used exactly as if it were a word, then the acronym should become a bona fide word.
People usually only display a passing interest to the derivation of words. The English language is riddled with so many exceptions because of the convoluted history it has. Radar has been with us for over 50 years, laser for about 40 years - they have both been used as words for decades. Scada is clearly going the same way. Does it really make sense to have categories for different words based on their means of coming into existence? Some linguists may want to shoot me - but I say we forget about the an-an-an-anacronym box - and just call such words plain old, ordinary nouns!
Response to the October issue's Editorial comment:
Pieter Smit, Chairman of the Witbank branch of the SAIMC wrote:
In the article on 'What incentives are there for practical training' in the Editorial Comment column of our I&C mag, reference is made to how difficult it is take 60 students to a plant to show them how various instruments and valves work.
I spoke to the head of C&I Engineering at Witbank Technikon about helping them to establish a laboratory equipped with active C&I control loops whereby students can then see how the instruments and valves work. He has invited us to come and discuss the matter.
C&I industry has various pieces of redundant C&I equipment which I am sure can be donated to the Technikon, with which such a lab can be rigged out inexpensively.
Jolly good show! We need to see more of this. We in South Africa must dispose of the 'every man/company for himself' mindset and work as a team. A South African industry that has a vision and is united in its vision could quickly overtake the industries of other countries.
It is a bit like scada and MES, really. When a whole plant/business enterprise works in a way that considers the broader picture, the whole plant/business benefits. Every business needs to operate in a manner that contributes to nurturing the whole industry, and in doing so it will ultimately be nurturing itself.
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John Gibbs, Editor
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