| Hi,
my name is John Dowdell, and I joined Macromedia Tech
Support
way back in 1993. Our paths have probably crossed
before on mailing lists, newsgroups, or web discussions.
Usually people ask me questions about the tools, and
although I definitely don't have all
the answers, I try to nail the question down to
its core issue and find a way to move forward again.
One of the other things I do, that you don't see,
is bring word back into Macromedia about what customers
are
talking about,
concerned about, happy or angry about.
You've got the details... you're exploring fresh situations,
you're seeing how clients and audiences react. You
know more than we do! Folks here at the shop are vitally
interested in hearing how you need us to change.
There's already
the wishform for product-specific change requests,
but things will be changing faster over the next year,
and topics like security, accessibility, web services,
rich web applications are more about your work than
they are about our tools. We've got to quickly hear
what you're bumping up against out there in the field.
That's the idea behind this place on the Macromedia
DevNet.
Each week I take some hot problem I see from
the mailing lists and newsgroups, lay out the current
Macromedia understanding, and you tell us what we
need to know, how you'd like things to change.
Instead of people asking me questions all the time,
I finally get to ask you questions. And you
get to tell us off in a focused way that anyone can
read. Deal?
(Technically, we'll be shaking this out over the
next few weeks and the format will change... I definitely
want feedback to be
fast and
public and not bound up in an e-mail or other links...
we won't be able to do everything everyone wants,
but it's important for us to learn exactly what you
want, and this is just one more feedback path in to
Macromedia... any of the cute links you see here can
definitely
rot over time, they won't be maintained... and
I'm sorry that I really only
speak English and may resort to
colloquial speech, although I'm hoping
the future brings improvements here.)
(Q) What can Macromedia do to improve both perception
and reality about computer security?
Earlier this month most of us saw a press
release from an anti-virus company about a virus
in Flash files. The story spread across the news
services very quickly.
The exploit didn't have anything at all to do with
Flash in browsers -- it required double-clicking an
application to run a SWF file, a danger which had
been discussed
in the Flash community for quite some time. But
once the press release got onto the news wires it
spread quickly.
Once Macromedia was contacted about the story we
were able to provide background to reporters, as well
as
document the issue in the new
Security Zone. There was discussion of making
a counter press-release, but in cases like this it's
usually better to let the issue die down naturally.
Computer security has always been important, but
after September 11 there's increasing awareness of
new vulnerabilities. Microsoft has apparently
shifted security concerns to the forefront recently.
Any security concern is a real and significant issue.
I was impressed by how quickly developers out there
countered the misinformation. FlashMagazine offered
a particularly good synopsis of the technical issues.
A mention on Slashdot
managed to gather a few hundred comments, but if you
wade through the higher-ranked replies you'll find
many Flash developers actively debunking the press
releases.
Macromedia also keeps contact with people in the
press, to help check such stories before they're published,
and we technote the various security issues which
arise. The new Security Zone
will provide a known address for future issues.
But despite all that, your clients may have seen
the news story, and you may have had to waste time
explaining how this was not a signficant issue in
the work you do for them. That's no good.
So what else should Macromedia be doing to make
your job easier, to reassure your clients, and to
actively close off any vulnerabilities which may be
discovered in the future? How should we improve things
here? What other things can we do to help your clients
feel confident about Flash and the other Macromedia
technologies?
I'm opening up a thread to discuss this in the Online
Forums.
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