JD's Forum

heh-heh, I knew I'd draw you in with that title.... ;-)

The Macromedia Designer and Developer Center has evolved into Macromedia DevNet this week, and there's also the news about Presedia joining Macromedia's Information Convenience tools. Plus there were all those "Microsoft buying Macromedia!?" rumors swirling around last month... mix them all together and they come out like this:

I still think that's a far reach, but I had a few shocks of recognition when reading this set of articles in WIRED in December. Vociferous online debate: check. Howls of protest and online petitions: check. Community bigger than the company: check. Derision of inferior solutions: check. Tattoos in sensitive areas: uh...I'd rather not know, thanks. I'm not sure I buy all the implications of this set of articles, but they certainly made me think in new ways. It crystallized things I had seen online, but not connected.

That same month The Register floated a rumor that another company was attempting a hostile takeover of Macromedia, and I don't recall ever seeing such visceral reaction to previous iterations of that rumor. On the other hand, when the company announced that it was again in the black financially, I picked up a palpable sense of relief in the online discussions. The common element which struck me here was how so many people saw this company as part of their own success, in their own work.

Where does "Macromedia" start, and where does it end? Who is part of "Macromedia", and who is outside of it? I don't think there's any clear answer to this—I think the lines are much blurrier than for the majority of businesses out there. Lots of people have been direct employees at Macromedia over the years I've been here... some come in from the people using the tools, some leave the company to enter the field using the tools, and some go back and forth between being an employee and being an independent developer. That "employee" border is porous.

There are lots of non-employees that I consider a clear and vital "part of Macromedia"—User Group organizers, members of Team Macromedia, businesses in the Macromedia Partners program, authors and publishers, trainers —the things we all do wouldn't be the same without this inner circle of people.

There's another circle beyond that, of people without formal relationships to the company but who are the visible part of our joint effort in the world: people who maintain independent sites focused on the tools, people who maintain weblogs of news about the field, the regular participants in the newsgroups and mailing lists, the people who create top-flight works that inspires the rest of us—there are many key influencers who determine the shape of what the world perceives as "Macromedia" and "effective user experiences".

Then there's the larger circle of people who use these tools and who create effective experiences for others. They may rarely participate online or locally—they may be part of a similar workgroup or the sole creator within a more diverse workgroup or they may operate as a sole proprietorship—some use the toolset in Studio MX or some focus on using just a single Macromedia application—the vast majority of people who use these tools to earn their daily bread, aren't these "part of Macromedia" too?

Outside of this I see still another circle, of the people who are excited by what they see of this work, and hope to someday contribute in similar ways. Students, trainers, presenters, young people just exploring the web, working people looking for a change of field, even people who steal the software or the designs of others, all of these people have the potential to become real contributors to the joint effort too. There are also people who will never use the development, in the investment and financial communities, who are certainly a vital "part of Macromedia".

We differ in many ways—we come from every country on the planet, speak many languages, have many different political and social beliefs, may work in a company or institution or may not work at all—but all of us share a feeling that things can be better than they currently are, and we're willing to invest our own time and imagination to bring it about. What I see among all these expanding circle of "people who are part of Macromedia" is that we're basically optimistic about change... that we favor persuasion over force... that we strive each day to more efficiently bring information and capability to the rest of the world. Any generalization like this is full of holes, for sure, but overall I'm convinced that these expanding circles which make up "Macromedia" are a very positive source of change for this world.

Okay, that's my big Aquarius thought for this column, let's get back to specifics.... ;-)

Last year the company invested heavily in this Designer & Developer Center. Even though the economy was down and the company was costing shareholders money, there was a major restructuring to tie various authoring, serving, and viewing capabilities together in the MX initiative. Part of this effort was to try to reduce the overall cost of development by making it easier to learn and more efficient to use these new technologies. The articles here and the quarterly CDs of components, sample code and tutorials didn't contribute directly to the company's health, but we made the bet that the indirect benefit to the developing community would make the entire movement stronger. Every indication I see points to this being proved true—the sales of Studio MX were higher than any previous Macromedia offering, the newsgroups and mailing lists have higher traffic levels than ever, the blogging and website communities are exceedingly strong.

With this change from the "Designer and Developer Center" to Macromedia DevNet we're trying to directly prove the logic of this investment. Newcomers can still use this site for free, same as before. A subscription program for the quarterly CDs make it more economical for developers and also help the company by assuring income. The other subscription option for software-plus-extensions is a bargain for those who work extensively with Studio MX, and also helps the company greatly by smoothing out quarterly income spikes.

People in these inner circles, who are directly helping the company more, do get a period of exclusive access to some of this material, and we're also looking at additional services like enhanced discussion groups and more. But the key part is that those outer circles still have access, can still bootstrap their learning, can still enter the field gradually. We're trying to provide more value for the closest developers, while still welcoming newer developers, and all the while justifying these investments to the financial community.

Are DevNet subscriptions for everyone? Definitely not. If you focus mostly on a single Macromedia tool rather than on Studio MX then this new set of options won't affect you directly—people who spend all day in Director or Authorware won't find as much usefulness here as those who focus on the ways SWF, CF and HTML interact. Someone who uses only FreeHand or Fireworks won't have as much use for components in the DRK. Different people definitely have different priorities in their own work! The resources and options previously available are still available, but this new set of options promises to greatly help those who work across the Studio technologies.

Is this the perfect or final plan? Probably not. The company has done a lot of research on ways to accommodate the different needs of experienced developers and upcoming developers and the investment community, but it's rare to get anything to perfectly fit on the first try, and feedback on ways to improve is vital. If there are ways to change these programs to make them more personally useful for you, then we need to know it. I'd ask you to let the dust settle a bit, so we can all see how it actually works before figuring out what to do next, but your ideas, concerns and suggestions would be very, very useful at the DevNet wishlist, thanks.

Summary: You could see our work together here as "a cult", although I still think that term is rather a stretch. But there are definitely many different types of people, in different situations, who all work together in our joint effort to deliver more capability to more of the world. We're very interdependent. The DevNet subscriptions help make things easier for people whose livelihood relies on Macromedia Studio MX, while also strengthening the company for future investment.

We're changing the world.

I think that's good. But it's also a threat.

Don't believe me? Talk to a travel agent. A decade ago the only way to book an airplane was to go through an intermediary and give them a percentage. Now individual people have the knowledge and capability to book their own flights. Travel agents are still needed, but the disruption to the industry has been profound.

Still don't believe me? Talk to a newspaper editor. A decade ago we got our news through a few major filters... if the local MegaCorp Post-Tribune didn't like a headline, you didn't see it. If AbsoluteTruth Newswire and its pals didn't carry a feed, then even newspapers didn't see the story. Now independent news editors are called "bloggers" and break stories long before they appear on your TV screen. Even better, with commenting and cross-linking they factcheck each other mercilessly, driving weak analysis from the scene. Professional news channels are still needed—their investment depends upon delivering a higher-quality and higher-filtered service to their audience—but the disruption to the industry has been profound.

Still don't believe me? Talk to a prohibitionist. Alcohol prohibition is rare these days, but there are many active prohibition movements: cannabis, firearms, Segway scooters, cloning, non-government schools, certain types of research, and that perennial favorite of "the other guy's belief system". Too much choice, too much change, too much true diversity does frighten each of us, each in our own way. Not everyone will choose the path of using political force to limit the choices of others, but we can all agree that the disruption to previous social balances is—and will continue to be—very profound.

In our own work, we're shifting access to information and access to capability directly outwards, away from centralized power centers and outwards towards the decentralized population. If you desktop-publish a document—if you publish on a website -- if you create an application where individuals can do things—then you're a disruptive force to the previous balance. It's natural to expect some pushback pressure.

These pressures eventually balance out, as all parties adjust to the new abilities. Some people adjust more quickly than others. But none of us handle changes immediately. Even the most beneficial change can encounter real and valid pressures against it. Empowering the edges can threaten the center, even as it makes a stronger whole. It takes awhile to find a new balance.

Look at bookstores. Over the last decade, independent bookstores were first threatened by chains, and then the chains were threatened by online sales. If books become just a commodity, then the lowest price will win. Many independent bookstores closed. But some bookstores thrived. The difference? Strong independent bookstores realized that they were offering an experience instead of just a commodity—their choice of stock, their suggestions, their location in the neighborhood, their atmosphere, their connection with other people all defined their actual service, the experience. The disruption reached a new balance.

Or look at website design. Over the past decade it changed from being the dominion of a few technical wizards, to being something any reasonably intelligent person can do. For awhile this was all threatened by online services which could automate site-building using canned templates and pour-in-the text. In retrospect we saw that, even though such commodity brochureware was useful for some businesses, the majority of designers had an even more important role to play in creating and testing an experience which was tailored to the audience's exact set of needs. The disruption reached a new balance.

I think we're in for even more creative disruption ahead, and will continue to find new balances. Living on the edge like this can be rewarding, but it also requires skills in seeing new opportunities, new ways to balance things so that they work for all concerned.

Macromedia Contribute is a new type of tool for this company to offer. It's not used by developers—it's used by regular office-workers to easily change the content of HTML pages. In early reaction we saw some disruption to developers whose income relied on regularly making small content changes to websites. But Contribute also provides a platform for Dreamweaver developers to offer higher-level services upon. By empowering the edges, the centralized development knowledge in a team can reach a new balance, making the whole group stronger.

Presedia Express can also be seen as disruptive. When any office worker can directly create training presentations and test this training, then the role in that group of an Authorware or CourseBuilder specialist changes to a higher level, coordinating, directing and checking the group's training efforts. Presedia technologies aren't yet tied as closely into other MX technologies, as Contribute was with Dreamweaver, but over time I suspect this will become another edge-empowering platform for developers to build upon.

You could even see a similar dynamic with the Macromedia Flash Player—by increasing the technical abilities of the audience, the higher-end developer has a stronger platform on which to create and deploy. It's not an exact match, because this is more of a viewer than an application, but it's also a case where strengthening the edges can strengthen the whole.

Macromedia Contribute and Presedia Express are the first steps in a new "platform" we'll see this year. Norm Meyrowitz has described this as "Information Convenience". By helping ordinary people do more, these technologies open new types of opportunities for higher-end developers. There's a risk in disrupting the older balances of workgroups, but if you consciously seek out new ways to balance needs and abilities then you'll be in a better position to strengthen your entire group's effort.

News on other Information Convenience tools will come out over the next few months... I'm sorry I don't have more details yet, but from what I've seen, I'm, ah, very excited by what we'll all be able to do. It's a different way of looking at your existing skills in design and development... some saw Contribute as lessening their monopoly power, while others saw Contribute as increasing their power—and their group's power!—in new ways. These Information Convenience tools will make the people you work with more powerful, and as a central developer you'll be able to take advantage of this to find new balances, new ways to make your whole network stronger. More soon.

Summary: New things can require some time to balance. Empowering the edges of a group can prompt the center to find a new balance, but the result is usually a stronger whole. More technologies will arrive this year to let ordinary people do more, and these also open additional possibilities to developers.

Macromedia, cult or menace? I hope I've conclusively now proven that it's both... or neither... sorta, at least, some way. I'll open an item in my blog for comments, if you've got 'em... hey, I know, let me mix up a nice pitcher of Kool-Aid first.... ;-)