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IDEAlliance and TAGA are closest things that the industry has to “brain trusts”: trade associations that have taken upon themselves the daunting task of curating the industry’s practical intellectual capital.
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About Patrick Henry
Patrick Henry is a journalist and an educator who has covered the graphic communications industry since 1984. The author of many hundreds of articles on business trends and technological developments in graphic communications, he has been published in most of the leading trade media in the field. He also has taught graphic communications as an adjunct lecturer for New York University and New York City College of Technology. The holder of numerous awards for industry service and education, Henry is currently the managing director of Liberty or Death Communications, a content consultancy.
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Discussion
By Erik Nikkanen on Feb 07, 2014
Personally I think there has been a lot of misinformation and misdirection provided that has been detrimental to the progress of the printing industry. Time will tell if this view is valid or not and if the industry has not been served as well as it could have been.
As with all knowledge bases in all fields, they eventually get modified and improved with time, if there is an effort to actually find out how the rules of Nature work. We are still in a transition period where we have not fully come out of the craft and technology culture and entered the science based culture, where valid theories are developed that actually explain the processes and that are highly predictable.
Even if there are problems with the existing knowledge base, there are still great opportunities for printing to progress by vendor companies that will provide new thinking and innovation. Companies that produce successful, effective and practical solutions will trump poor knowledge.
I think the leadership to the future has to come from innovative companies and not from the associations etc. Will it happen, maybe but probably too slowly to provide the help that is needed now.