Another ISOBUS Plugfest week is almost here. From May 14-18, the AEF will once again host engineers from around the world for ISOBUS testing and some related events in Lincoln, NE. I have previously explained the mechanics of a Plugfest, so go take a look at some of my old blog posts if you want more info on that. The initial schedule I saw for this year showed 66 different pieces of equipment that will be tested during the three days of the Plugfest. DISTek will be participating with our VIRTEC stack and with our VT Server application. In total, DISTek expects to have 5-7 people attending Plugfest.
My prior Plugfest blog posts have included a strong recommendation for anyone in off-highway electronics to visit Plugfest, even if you do not specifically use ISOBUS technologies. Well, this year the AEF is including some specific topics for those outside ISOBUS. During the Wednesday conference day, the morning session will include talks about “M2M Communication for Construction Equipment” and a different discussion on the ISO 15143-3 telematics standard. In the afternoon, several talks will cover Ag Gateway and how it is working with AEF. The traditional Plugfest dinner is also Wednesday evening. So here is yet another recommendation from me to come visit Plugfest if any of these topics are of interest to you.
As usual, various AEF project teams will be meeting during the week. I participate in the AEF Communication and Marketing project team, which will be meeting Tuesday to discuss our initiatives world-wide, as well as those focused specifically on North America. We are working to improve North American awareness and usage of the various AEF products, such as the AEF Database and the AEF Conformance Tests. On Friday, I plan to again join the Engineering and Implementation project team as we work to make ISOBUS better and more fully-featured at the technical level. There will be three other AEF project team meetings on Monday and Friday that I will not be attending, but certainly would welcome more participation. Any AEF member company employee is welcome to join one of the teams meeting in Lincoln or any of the other AEF project teams.
If you will be in Lincoln for the Plugfest week, look me up and say hello. If you are unable to attend but want to follow along, I usually post a few messages on Twitter during the week @WaxJeffersonian. I plan to post a blog review of the Plugfest a few weeks after it is over, so you can also keep an eye out for that. Let me know – in the comments, by email, or however – if you read this and appreciate the content, or if you want to hear about any other details from Plugfest.
