One of the anecdotes he shares described Flex as the fulfillment of a quest for an authoring environment that uses XML to natively describe multimedia “experiences” and once again reminded me of what I’m starting to think of as “Authorware’s past glories”. When Authorware 7 was released in 2003 it included functionality that allows one to export (and import) an XML description of Authorware files. (Sadly, it remains just too incomplete to fulfill it’s true potential). Nevertheless, while JD does a good job of connecting the XML dots to Flex it bears noting that Authorware was also a dot on that path.

Authorware, a dot in so many ways.

While eLearning wasn’t exactly a primary focus at Macromedia they did have a few of the leading tools for developing learning content (Captivate, Authorware, Director…), people (Tom King) and even an “enterprise solution” (Breeze). Add Flash and Dreamweaver to the mix and they had a reasonable offering for the broad spectrum that is “eLearning”. While some of the tools are becoming long in the tooth and had languished, (to a degree), with small dev teams and little marketing there was also strong community involvement from MM folks. In many cases this was the product developers themselves out in forums and on mailing lists supporting users. Unfortunately, it would seem that has changed under Adobe’s watch. The fact that Adobe recently felt the need to release a set of FAQ documents stating a degree of commitment to the continued development of these tools really makes it apparent. What can be said about the state of your community relations if one the most frequently asked questions about a product is ‘what’s going on’ ?

To be fair to David the interview was focused on his Enterprise and Developer group and most specifically Flex and large scale application development. However, it is worth pointing out that as these large business applications are built, as rich and collaborative as they are, the organizations that own them will be looking for ways to get employees up to speed on ways to use them effectively. This will become even more true as tools like Apollo come about and even further change the way people do their jobs.

As a developer I find it kind of ironic that I’m thinking about this so much. While the development I do is training related, I really consider myself more of a developer who happens to develop training rather than a trainer who develops. Because of that however, I tend to subscribe to mailing lists and read forums / newsgroups where some of the true eLearning thinkers are and from my perspective a good number are becoming increasingly frustrated with Adobe’s apparent neglect of the tools and communities they use.

Now, the good thing about hiccups is that there are a number of simple “cures“…

Most significant is that Adobe is expecting a new Director release in 2007 and are committed to continued investment and development.

With 14 of the 21 FAQ items dedicated to the Google Toolbar bundled offered with Shockwave Player I wonder if the document would be more aptly named the Macromedia Director, Adobe Shockwave Player and Google Toolbar FAQ.

Did Kevin Read the Article?
In October I was lucky enough to be sitting in the audience during Kevin Lynch’s keynote at Macromedia’s Max when he first talked about “Apollo”. Something tells me Kevin read the article too. Here, go check out the video from that keynote and you’ll see how familiar it sounds. Choose ‘Day One’ > ‘Platform Future’ (3rd thumbnail from the right), then jump ahead to around 1:08:00 (yup, the ability to direct link that would be easier for me too).

What Adobe Has Said About Apollo.
So like I said, I’ve been following Apollo and while there aren’t alot of concretes on what it will be, Adobe’s made a number of details available. I think Mike Chambers had the most recent public comment earlier this week:

“Discussed Apollo. This is a next generation platform we are working on for deploying Flash / HTML based applications to the desktop. Apollo will provide all of the desktop APIs and functionality you would expect from a desktop application, while allowing developers to leverage the technologies the are already familiar with (Flash / Flex / JavaScript / HTML / Ajax). And yes, it will be cross platform, developers have 100% control over application control (not running in some wrapper / shell), and you will be able to create applications using HTML / JavaScript / Ajax just like you will be able to with ActionScript / Flash / Flex.

Which Apollo Will It Be?
It’s pretty clear that alot has gone before Apollo (the most obvious of which was Central) and it’s entirely possible that Apollo may not even be the realization of it all. While I’ve finally come to understand that Adobe’s acquisition of Macromedia is probably the only way to make a real go of it, I have to be honest and admit that when I would think about the realization of what’s described in the article-I-may-have-dreamed-up I never really imagined Acrobat in there. Judging by Kevin’s Max presentation I don’t get the impression he did either. I tend to be of a field of dreams, “build it and they will come” mindset but as I watch the players position themselves for the coming ‘occasionally connected’, ‘RIA on the desktop’ wave I’m beginning to realize that the kind of clout Adobe provides may be needed to make bringing all the pieces of this puzzle together possible.

Microsoft Read it Too.
Adobe isn’t exactly branching off on it’s own in this space and the competition is pretty obvious. Microsoft’s Vista and it’s Windows Framework (WinFX), is being positioned to turn the Windows OS into the web platform. The Microsoft plan to realize the scenario in that article I read is to leverage their platform with a nearly ubiquitous install base – the operating system. That’s what Sparkle is all about – designing those connected full on desktop applications.

This Last Bit Reads Kinda Like a Prediction.
With Vista looking like it’s maybe 6 or 8 months away I fully expect Adobe to crank things up on Apollo and won’t be surprised to see some Apollo related previews on Adobe labs between now and then. The timing on this is kind of significant in my opinion. The increased pace of web based application innovation that folks refer to as Web 2.0 has been surging for awhile now and while I don’t think it will fall off as dramatically as the dot com era, (it won’t get nearly as out of control either), I do think the shine will begin to wear off. If both Adobe and Microsoft have planned this correctly, just as the limitations of the RIA as we know it today becomes glaringly apparent (to non edge cases ’cause you edgies have thinking about this for years) there will be platforms available on which to build the applications that overcome those limitiations. And you know what, there’ll probably be room for both and any rumoured killings will be unlikely.

I’ve never really considered trying to develop for devices until now. I actually sat in on one of the Flash Lite sessions at Max this year and while I found it very infomative I can’t say I was eager to jump into Flash Lite development. The old Flash 4 AS syntax of Flash Lite 1.1, the limited data transfer, device inconsistencies, and those crazy memory and filesize constraints all just make it so unattractive. Obviously Flash Lite 2 won’t solve all of these but hopefully it’ll be enough to make things alot less painful. Check out Bill Perry’s Flash Lite 2.0 Preview for a good Breeze presentation on the new features.

There, now I’ve pledged to it. Hopefully this post won’t be haunting me in December…