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Ten weeks ago, this DevNet opened
on the Macromedia site, timed with the first announcements
about Macromedia MX. Let's take a breather for a moment,
and go over what we've got so far.
There's a big opportunity ahead, creating tools
for people to easily learn
from and control their environment. These "Rich
Internet Applications" offer clear benefits.
Previous opportunities still exist—print, presentation,
standalone interactivity, and static web delivery
aren't going away—but I believe we'll see much, much
faster growth in helping people really "do"
things on the web.
That's what Macromedia MX addresses. It's not just a single tool—it's
a family of applications which make usable experiences
more economical to build. The consumer
runtimes, the authoring tools, and the server-side applications each play a role.
Protocols are open, because this is the web. Communication is done through
standard HTTP, XML, more. Even though you can mix
and match various runtimes, tools, and servers, Macromedia
MX aims to pay for itself by making it faster and
cheaper to develop such experiences—to let you
focus on function and fit, rather than spending your
effort on implementation details. The goal behind
Macromedia MX is to give you more time each day to
make really useful and usable applications.
But Macromedia MX is more than just software. Software
isn't enough to drive a revolution like this. It's
the community of designers and developers creating
public applications who really push such revolutions
forward. Where would ColdFusion be today without people economically creating useful
web applications? Would Flash have become so
widespread without people creating usable
and efficient
interfaces with it? It's the designers and developers,
in every part
of the world, who really
make such new abilities available to everyone else.
That's why Macromedia invested in this Designer
& Developer Center. Creating Rich Internet
Applications requires multiple types of
specialized knowledge: visual
design, usability
testing, application
development, network connectivity, database
access, more. Nobody's born knowing
all this stuff. But people do find it advantageous
to share knowledge, as shown by the amazing number of independent
sites out there helping
others with these technologies. You
can do more in a community than alone.
In Macromedia's DevNet we're trying to more efficiently
connect people together—to make it easier for
newcomers to learn the various skills in creating
Rich Internet Applications, and to make it more rewarding
for experienced developers who help others enter the
field, and to help coordinate the resources you need
to get your job done quickly, cheaply, and accurately.
So... how do we do that? What are the most effective ways to share technical
knowledge...to reduce your total cost of development?
- Components and reusable
code fragments are a big winner, because
these can directly cut learning and development
costs. The new tree menu component in Macromedia Flash will save developers scads
of time, and endusers will save time recognizing how such standard components
work. But there are trust issues with components too, because you
have to be sure of whose instructions you're
executing. The top downloads
at the Macromedia Exchange turn out to be those
which received the most testing investment. Free
components are useful, but some type of mutual exchange
may provide even more value.
- Articles ,
tutorials,
TechNotes, case studies can all help, but only if you're finding
the document you're seeking. Searching is one
avenue, but navigational directories are another necessary route...you'll see better
subject taxonomy in the next major rev of this site.
Collaborative documents like Wiki and LiveDocs are great for a community
to explore a subject and refine its description,
but need precise targeting and ruthless editing
to be economical to read. Some documents may live
on the Macromedia site, but it's essential to find
all such resources no matter where they may be stored.
- Person-to-person routes help as the work
area becomes more specialized. The Macromedia newsgroups
are very popular, and independent mailing
lists offer even deeper commitment to smaller
groups. The outgoing Macromedia News Feed has been
adopted by several sites,
and we're looking at ways to display good external news feeds too. Weblogs
offer a way to track one person's view of what's
important and noteworthy, day by day. Different
people, groups and sites each hold different pieces
of the puzzle.
- Face-to-face contact can be the strongest
of all, whether it's joining a local user
group, or attending a local
event or training. This brings up localization issues—although English
is the Internet's language, it's not the people's language. There's a balance between providing a wide
range of articles in one language and translating them
into many languages.
You know more than we do—people creating these varied applications out
in the world have more specialized knowledge than
anyone in Macromedia does—so here in the Center
we have to find ways to more efficiently connect people
together. We're working with all the above techniques,
trying things and testing which are the most useful.
Could you give us some guidance in this week's SOAPBOX thread, please? What types of things do you need
to take advantage of this opportunity in Rich Internet Applications? Thanks!
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