Jon DiPietro

I founded a web site called “Our ISA,” which is a sort of social media experiment that I’m calling the “open source association.”  This WordPress blog is intended to be an open community of persons concerned with and/or interested in the International Society of Automation and invites them to write articles about its future and comment on those ideas.

I created, maintain, manage, and host this web site using a hosted WordPress site.  The site is also tied into several social media accounts and a Facebook fan page.

This presentation was made at the Fall Leaders Meetings at ISA Expo 2009.  As interest has grown in these areas, the presentation expanded in scope and time to include a wide range of technology topics for ISA Sections.

Leveraging Social Media & Internet Technology

On August 6, 2009 I presented “Social Media and Its Effect on Water and Wastwater Industries” at the ISA’s 4th Annual Water and Wastewater Automatic Controls symposium.
Social media is changing the world; this is not hyperbole. If you doubt this, just ask the Iranian government about Twitter or the Boston Globe about eBay and Craigslist. As the tools and technologies that facilitate communicating, sharing, and coordinating become increasingly boring and (by and large) free, they are empowering groups to organize themselves and challenging the value propositions of long standing institutions. And if you think this doesn’t or won’t affect you as a municipality, private operations company, equipment supplier, trade organization, engineering firm, software developer, or government regulator you are wrong.

The New England Water Environment Association (NEWEA) contracted Bridge-Soft to build a new web site, which was commissioned in May, 2009.  The site was built using the DotNetNuke open source Content Management System.  This allows NEWEA to act as its own web master, being in complete control of the pages and content on the site without the need to pay a web developer to make these changes.

The site includes many advanced features including member only features, a blog, job postings, and more.

International Society of Automation

President, Boston Section

• Serve on the executive board of non-profit professional standard society
• Provide direction and leadership to local members
• Built and launched new Web 2.0 web site (pro bono)

New England Water Works Association

Volunteer

• Member of Security and Emergency Preparedness and Information Technology committees
• Created several presentations on the subjects of cyber security and risk management and deliver these as part of accreditation training courses for public water system operators
• Responsible for design and maintenance of web site