Flex Freelancers

Having been involved in the Flash Platform for many years, I have witnessed future releases being defined both inside and outside Adobe. If there is one truth, customers(designers/developers paying or not) influence everything Adobe does. Teams internally pay extremely close attention to our developer/designer/project innovation and stay constantly tuned into where innovation (your work) is headed and what problems you are having. Instead of blazing headlights(new ground) or chasing taillights(follow the leader), Adobe (and Macromedia before) is focused on real customer need.

So how does the future get defined?
This is where YOU get involved!

Truth is you are building the future today and when you are vocal about your needs, Adobe teams listen. Adobe doesn’t build the product we want to build, rather we build tools and technologies to help you exceed expectations in the market. No joke. To get involved in defining the future of Flash Player, Flash, AIR, Creative Suite, Coldfusion, (NAME THAT PRODUCT HERE), you need only get public with your needs. File Enhancements, File Bugs, Blog, twitter, and lobby for your features/needs. And like clockwork you will influence the platform and its direction.

Take a look at the following (small set of example):

In May of 2003, I was very angry at MovieClips
In Nov 2004, I then started complaining about lack of a Proxy class in Flash
In March 2008, Andre Michelle decided to make some noise. Now he wants threads, awesome!
In April 2008, Grant uncovered a bug, it was fixed in next player release.

Some campaigns of note defining the future:
In May 2009, Grant got fed up with idle CPU use.
In Feb 2009, many want private constructors in AS3!
in March2009, Chuck Freedman had enough and wants Microphone!

In every case above, work has been done to fix these and make Flash a better platform. Many times key external developers work directly with engineering to get these problems identified and solved. The thing is we are just not public about it. The road to getting things fixed is a windy road balanced by priority and limited by time and resources, that aside, the teams listen if you get vocal and if you file enhancements. But only IF YOU DO…

So this is my official call for you to step up get involved. Get vocal and define the future! I can tell you firsthand that it works every time. The future of Flash Platform is defined by you, not in some conference room in some Adobe office.

WARNING: If you complain too much and log enough bugs, you might find yourself working here too. :)

Cheers,

Ted :)

View post:
The Future of the Flash Platform

Leave a Reply