Entries Tagged as Adobe
Adobe Days are free events designed to introduce you to various players on the Flash platform. Next week in DC we'll be doing one focusing on Flex and ColdFusion.
I'll be attending, lending moral support to Ryan Stewart. And by "lending moral support to" I mean "learning the ropes from".
So if you're in DC and are looking for a good and free overview of what Flex can do for you, c'mon down.
Adobe Day Washington, D.C.
Thursday, February 26, 2009
9:30 a.m. - 2:00 p.m. EST
Agenda
Grand Hyatt Hotel
1000 H St NW
Washington DC 20001
Registration is free.
Link: Adobe Day Washington DC
The Adobe AIR Marketplace has been updated. If you are not familiar with it, the market place serves two roles:
- Allows AIR developers a place to showcase their apps
- Allows everyone else to easily find AIR applications
New features include:
- New look and feel
- Community features for sharing applications and publicly evaluating them
- New tools for developers to track how their apps are performing
Link: http://airmarketplace.adobe.com
Early today, Adam Lehman officially announced that he was taking the role of Product Manager for ColdFusion.
I can tell from my own personal experience with Adam, especially during the past few days, that there are very few people on the planet that are as intensely passionate about ColdFusion as Adam. I'm thrilled to continue working with him in his new role.
I'm in a weird place. Last week I was an Adobe community member, now I am an employee. Last week I thought I knew hidden unspoken motivations behind Adobe's actions, now I know I didn't even come close to guessing them. Last week Ben Forta was that guy on the stage giving keynotes, now he's my boss' boss.
Mind you, I'm not complaining, it's as awesome a gig as I've imagined, but it's still a shock to the system. But I figured, while I'm still fluent in being a community member, I'd share some observations before they slipped away.
Things I Expected:
- Every one else here is really fracking smart.
- There are good reasons for certain stances and positions from Adobe that don't make sense externally
- Most of the not sharing those reasons is driven by legal considerations
Things that surprised me:
- How much my co-workers listen to the community without necessarily piping in. They hear your complaints, even if they don't tell you. They take them to the engineers even if the problem can't be fixed for the next release.
- Just how affected any one product is effected by the others. For example, certain management processes for CF or Flex have to work for Photoshop or Premiere as well. Some issues that come up again and again are due to this. It's why the answer to "Why don't you just switch to..." isn't always as simple as "just switching to..."
- Internally, there is a lot of affection for our customers. I think this was hit home to me, when one of my co-workers who has a tendency to rile up his particular community said pretty forcefully that "we created [the technology], and we're not going to let our developers down." Just writing that, it doesn't seem too mind blowing, but it was yelled, at 1:00 in the morning, in 20 degree weather, so the passion was in the moment.
All in all, I'm in awe that I get to work here. I can't wait to see what I learn next week.
Wow that took less time than I thought... So yeah, I'm joining Adobe. Specifically I'm joining Adobe's Platform Evangelism group. I'll be working under Kevin Hoyt with the team that includes Ryan Stewart, Lee Brimelow and Danny Dura amongst others and ultimately headed by Ben Forta. So it will take all of my composure to not, you know, break down into an Adobe fanboy in my first staff meeting.
What does that mean? It means that I will be working with the rest of the team to spread excitement about the Adobe Platform Products:
- Flash
- Flex
- Air
- ColdFusion
- LiveCycle
- Flash Catalyst
- BlazeDS
I'll be promoting the entire platform, but considering my experience to date, I imagine that I'll start with a slight focus on ColdFusion and AIR.
However in addition to that focus I will have an overriding goal:
Get Adobe Platform Technologies taught in the classrooms of Higher Ed.
It's a big goal, and not a trivial challenge. I see a lot of different paths to achieving it. I can't wait to work with all of you to accomplish it.
And as my first act of Evangelism I will remind you once again that both ColdFusion and Flex Builder are available free to Higher Education. All you have to do is go to one of their respective "freeriatools" sites, fill out a form, and upload a picture of your Academic ID.
Earlier this week Knowledge@Wharton posted an article about a succession plan (or lack thereof) for Steve Jobs.
I found it really interesting especially considered against Adobe founder Charles Geschke's very frank discussion (also a Knowledge@Wharton piece) about the havoc a poor succession plan can reap for a company.
Anyway, hopefully easy weekend reading for you tech+business geeks.
