Editorial

Editorial nº 78

Editorial

I am writing this Editorial on the 20th day of June, the “Argentina’s Flag Day,” a date on which Argentina commemorates the death of General Manuel Belgrano, the creator of its flag.
Belgrano was a passionate patriot, a lawyer by choice, but a military man owing to the historical circumstances he had to face.
People might have almost no recollection of Belgrano’s concern for education, revealed during his office as Consulate Secretary, which he held as from 1798.
Belgrano devoted three memoirs solely to the promotion of technical education.
One of them – released on June 14, 1802 – is strongly related to the Argentine leather industry. It is called “Establishment of Tanning Factories.”
According to this memoir, the key was to bring master tanners from Europe to convey their knowledge to the people engaged in these tasks in the Viceroyalty of Río de La Plata or send six students to Europe to be trained in that skill.
Training is a concern that continues up to these days.
One of the goals set by the members of the current AAQTIC’s Board is to promote training in issues such as leather technology and production throughout Argentina.
However, such an ambitious purpose – let us say “dream” – is not easy to materialize from Buenos Aires.
This is how the idea of distance learning arose, but many doubts also appeared: would this way of learning, which is spreading rapidly in other disciplines, be accepted in our industry?
Nowadays, we can say “yes,” that what seemed a crazy idea at the beginning, is starting to flourish.
The first distance learning module on “Beamhouse and Tanning”, which started on June 6, 2010, is training 47 students, most of them from Argentina, but also from other Latin American countries such as Bolivia, Ecuador, Peru and Uruguay.
Our dream is growing, shaping itself as a network of people who interchange their knowledge and experiences from very distant places.
Now we go for more, by re-editing activities that AAQTIC started years ago: our next goal will be to offer in-company courses to tanneries located away from Buenos Aires in order to meet all the existing training needs.

Lic. Patricia Casey - Presidente

AAQTIC’s website and the media

A few days ago, APTA held its Convention for the 4th consecutive year.
APTA is the Technical specialized Press Association in Argentina, and Technología del Cuero is part of it.
These conventions are a space for communication and reflection for the media and we all benefit by participating in them.
A relevant issue in this 4th Convention has been the Digital World and the recurrent question about whether publications will continue in paper format or not.
It is been 10 years since AAQTIC launched its website.
In addition, it has been editing a digital Newsletter for 3 years so far.
Four years ago, our magazine started to include a section called “Leather on the Web.” Nowadays, distance learning courses are being organized through digital media. Our President’s Editorial in this issue deals with that subject.
Almost 4 years ago, we published an article about interactivity on the Web, where we did not actually use a term that was becoming astonishingly widespread: Web 2.0
In this period, we have witnessed how blogs expanded rapidly; and we have had to give in to social networks even faster.
We have also witnessed how the use of Wikipedia became more widespread, and started to wonder once and again: what can we say about the reliability of sources? Where is the role of the editor?
However, back in 2006, the term Web 3.0, the discussions on the semantic Web and the road towards artificial intelligence started to show up.
However, all this debate – albeit important– goes beyond AAQTIC’s concerns, at least for the time being.
Going back to our modest situation, the current AAQTIC’s policy is based on the fact that spreading news through the web and other digital media is joint and supplementary.
These media should not work in isolation or compete with one another.
An international event or an event organized by us, such as a Congress or Symposium, may be communicated quite in advance; it will appear simultaneously on the Web and in our magazine and will be reminded of in each Newsletter.
After that, an article will appear in the magazine. The facts determine certain methods: the Website includes the texts in English and in Power Point format used in presentations; however, the magazine can only include texts in Spanish, correctly edited.
The Web is more informal and fast, and is open to the public at large; the Newsletter shares these characteristics and is aimed at members and related people. It is the most suitable means to announce events that will be held in the short term; the magazine is more formal, durable and suitable for more thorough reading.
During the latest months, AAQTIC became more active in communicating its activities to Web media and local and international magazines as an additional way of communication. So far, AAQTIC has not resorted to social networks.
On the other hand, certain utilities have been added to our Website: payments, accounting queries, and the edition of the magazine itself. Currently, we are adding online surveys to our Website.
Though not as stunning as the changes we may read of in other areas, these changes are still very important.
A last remark: it would be interesting to re-read these lines in a few years from now.
About this issue of the magazine, it includes, among other things, 1 important work presented at the 2009 China Congress, on artificial colors, with an Argentine coauthor.
It also includes a Round Table review on cyanide in effluents held at the 3rd Technical Symposium of the Tanning Industry.
The usual subjects are still present, such as international exchange, we also introduce a world panorama on tanned leather, partly based on information from the ICT, an interview to the IULTCS President, by courtesy of Leather International magazine, and an article about the CIATEC Institute in Mexico.

Notes:
ICT: International Council of Tanners IULTCS: International Union of Leather Technologist and Chemists Societies.
CIATEC: Center of Applied Innovation in Competitive Technologies.

Claudio Salvador Director