Seattle.BloggersPub

I just caught this great article on IBM on Technology options for Rich Internet Applications. It covers what I would consider more non-traditional technologies like XUL and Xforms, and the author provides a much different take on RIAs than I usually see.

I caught this job posting over at the Adobe jobs site. The Kiwi team is looking for a Computer Scientist and here’s the job description:

Adobe is seeking a Computer Scientist to join the Kiwi Project, to be responsible for Flex application development on projects related to emerging web 2.0 publishing standards designed to showcase the new Apollo runtime still under development. The role includes work related to emerging standards in blogging, RSS and Atom. The Kiwi Project maintains a public blog at: http://blogs.adobe.com/kiwi/

It sounds like this position is specifically for building Flex applications on the Apollo runtime. If you are a Flex developer and want to build some cutting edge applications, this would be a great way to go.

So if you haven’t heard the worlds (disputed) number one site is now requiring all of its users to upgrade to Flash Player 9. The downside is that the reason for this is a MySpace hack that exploited features in Flash Player 8 and have been fixed in the newest version of the player. Because it was security related, it’s probably not in Adobe’s best interests to be too vocal, but if I were them, I would declaring today Beer Friday and there would be much dancing on the desks.

Seriously, how huge is this? MySpace accounts for 4.5% of ALL website visits and has about 95 million members. 95 million people having to upgrade to Flash Player 9 all at once? Are you kidding me? The Flash Player penetration stats are going to be insane, and everyone who has been busy developing Flex 2 applications and worrying about the new version of the player can relax. What a break for Adobe.

When Adobe and Macromedia first announced the acquisition, I instantly started looking into LiveCycle. As Adobe’s only major server product, I wanted to see how they used it. At the time, I thought it might make a good roll in for ColdFusion, but it appears lately that I was looking at the wrong product.

I’m starting to see an awful lot of LiveCycle/Flex resources. First it was Mike Potter introducing the intern, Zee, now I see that we have Formnation a blog dedicated to developing “rich applications using Adobe LiveCycle Forms and Flex”. There are also a couple of sessions at Max under the Vertical Market Solutions category.

I think this is the start of something very big. I’ve heard rumors of what LiveCycle is capable of, and the kinds of things that may be possible, and Flex fits into those very well. Keep an eye on these blogs, because this very well could be the next big step for Flex 2.

I owe Jeff Whatcott lunch the next time I’m in San Francisco (or he’s here in Seattle) because after criticizing the Flex 2 ad campaign in one of my blog posts yesterday, he responded big time. He took time to explain the ad and how it came about, he said he appreciated the involvement of the community and he offered a big opportunity.

He wants us to help brainstorm ideas for the Flex 2 ad campaign:

So here’s the invitation: please jump on this thread with your specific suggestions for what the Flex online advertising should say and what is should look like. What should the tone be (sophisticated, edgy, friendly, in your face, or what have you)? What should the catchy tag line be? What should the short product description be? What benefits, if any, should we mention right in the ad and what should be on the jump page? Should we bang directly on the competition (think Oracle ads) or should we focus on our own strengths? What creative concepts should we consider (code puzzles that convey a message, movies of Flex coding/results, what else)?

So head on over to the original thread, and let Jeff have your ideas. I’m going to be thinking tonight and tomorrow about ways to make it better. As you can imagine, I’ve got a few. And even though it’s 2:00 in the morning here in the States, I’ve already seen a good idea from Matt Voerman of Schematic (I’m posting it here because my comment system wouldn’t accept it) :

Hi Jeff,

A couple of things, IMHO there are only really 2 x main target audiences who are likely to act on a call to action from a banner promo;

- Hardcore coders (read Java, C++, etc)
- Flash designers/developers looking to migrate to Flex

The first group, i’m presuming, were the ones you were attempting to connect with in your latest (pulled) campaign.

You don’t need to be a rocket scientist to realise that these 2 x markets are pretty far apart in terms of ‘what floats their boat’.

Coders for example are impressed by…well…code. That’s what they do, and what they aspire to be great at. Who can write the tightest and ‘leanest’ code. So a comparison of an ‘old’, ‘long’ way of coding something, compared to the ‘new’, ‘rapid’, Flex way might be an idea. Coders (as well as the rest of us) get great pleasure from seeing the end fruits of their labours. So another idea off the top of my head would be to show examples of how small snippets of code can produce great end results. A final example would be to turn the geek scale all the way up to 10 and make an ad that only true code geeks would understand (eg: “rm -rf /bin/laden” ) Translated (rm = remove), (’-’ is a switch( , (’r’ means recursive) , ( ‘f’ means forcibly) and (/bin is a typical UNIX directory where executables are kept). So “rm -rf /bin/laden” reads as - forcibly and recursively (ie any”one” underneath) remove all starting from /bin/laden) - if you understand that you’ve done well, but that’s kind of secret humour appeals to code geeks.

On the other hand you have the Flash developers/designers. Traditionally, this sector is more visual. Generally speaking, it’s the Eye Candy that turns them on. Like coders, they too like to see the fruits of their labours (ie: the end result), but from a more visual sense (eg: and you thought Flash was only for skip intro animations - well it also does rich internet applications). In addition to that developing rich internet applications in Flash is great, but in Flex it’s great AND superfast!

While i’m thinking about it, i’ve thought of another angle - essentially you have to find each market’s pain and promote how Flex solves that pain. One instant pain that springs to mind as a developer is the issue of cross platform compatibility. Any developer who has ever had to write an application (or web page) to display exactly the same on Mac or PC, Internet Explorer or Mozilla will know how painful it can be to get all of the ‘ducks lined up’. The Flash Platform (and by proxy Flex) solves this pain. Flex content displays the same on either Mac or PC, IE, Mozilla or even Safari!

Please stop me

I have a stack of ideas and would be more than happy bounce them off you. If you’re interested drop me a line.

Cheers, Matt Voerman