Re: GATF colour management conference - Part A
Re: GATF colour management conference - Part A
- Subject: Re: GATF colour management conference - Part A
- From: Steve Upton <email@hidden>
- Date: Mon, 20 Nov 2000 00:16:31 -0800
As the list server at Apple refuses to post anything larger than 5K,
I have posted this in two pieces.
After reading the original email and the responses I feel I should
respond in some way.
I should also mention that I attended and presented at last year's
conference and also plan to attend and present at this year's - for
whatever that's worth.
Boycott / Attendance:
I believe that some people may have stayed away from last year's
conference for "Boycott" reasons but I think they missed out and also
missed the point.
I should mention some of the people who plan on attending and
speaking: Don Hutcheson, Eric Magnusen, Roger Siminoff (Apple), Dan
Remaley (GATF), Michael Kieran, Karen Zagorski, Dave Hunter, Dan
Reid, Chris Cox & other Adobe people. - these are the people who I
recognize in the list - there will also be manufacturers
representation by: GretagMacbeth, Apple, Fuji, Quark, Monaco, Adobe,
and I'm sure many others. Large color savvy end users like Quebecor,
RR Donnely and others will be there as well (and attended the last
one). I guess you can judge whether I should be included in the
"experts" group yourself <g>
So, some may stay away, for political or payment reasons (which I
will cover below) but there are tons of good people to be involved as
well.
I should mention that the conference is not huge. The numbers of
people are quite manageable so you have direct access to most of the
people there. The seminar sizes are good and the direct feedback I
experienced was good. You each lunch with everyone etc so the
opportunity for networking & picking brains is great - perhaps my
favorite part of the conference. Any chance I get to ask Don
Hutcheson questions I take.
Certification:
The certification issue has been hammered almost to death. The GATF
is one of the few organizations that is in a position (industry
non-profit group, access to experts, experience with other
certifications) to actually supply some sort of standard to this
industry. Their membership - a lot of printers who are struggling
with this color stuff - could benefit from some sort of program which
would qualify the "experts" in the field, themselves, and color
management solutions in general. That doesn't mean that setting those
kinds of standards isn't an incredibly tough and politically
sensitive job.
The job of "expert" certification has been attempted by the GATF in
some form. I'm not sure how far it has moved along but I got the
impression that, after meeting some resistance (perhaps putting it
mildly), it was scaled back at the last conference to a "proficiency
test". This test was not aimed at consultants specifically but all
participants. Quite frankly it was not tough enough to certify an
expert but as I said, it was not meant to. The test was also a small
part of the conference. An optional thing you could do at the end if
you chose. (yes, I passed)
I strongly believe that the certification test is a small part of the
color conference and not attending in any way based solely on the
test is a mistake. I also think it is outside the scope of this
thread so if you want to discuss this topic more - and I believe it
merits further discussion - please start a new thread.
Continued in Part B