InsideRIA Outlook for 2009

Andre Charland  Founder and CEO at Nitobi  12 Years in web application  Focused on user experience  Ajax, Flash, Flex, AIR and iPhone Development ® ® Copyright 2008 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All rights reserved. reserved. Copyright 2008 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All rights

Steve Weiss  General Manager, InsideRIA.com  Executive Editor, O’Reilly Media  Adobe Developer Library: Co-publishing partnership with Adobe, covering Flex, AIR, ActionScript, Flash and other topics relevant to design and development of RIAs  steve@oreilly.com  Twitter: @steveweiss ® ® Copyright 2008 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All rights reserved. reserved. Copyright 2008 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All rights

InsideRIA.com About InsideRIA •InsideRIA is an online community developed by O’Reilly and sponsored by Adobe Systems Incorporated. Our goal is to create an invaluable resource for information on the ever-changing state of design and development of rich Internet applications (RIAs). ® Copyright 2008 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All rights reserved.

InsideRIA.com About InsideRIA •InsideRIA is an online community developed by O’Reilly and sponsored by Adobe Systems Incorporated. Our goal is to create an invaluable resource for information on the ever-changing state of design and development of rich Internet applications (RIAs). •InsideRIA brings some of the leading members of the RIA community together, where you can engage with them in an ongoing narrative about where RIA technology is headed. ® Copyright 2008 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All rights reserved.

InsideRIA.com About InsideRIA •InsideRIA is an online community developed by O’Reilly and sponsored by Adobe Systems Incorporated. Our goal is to create an invaluable resource for information on the ever-changing state of design and development of rich Internet applications (RIAs). •InsideRIA brings some of the leading members of the RIA community together, where you can engage with them in an ongoing narrative about where RIA technology is headed. •We hope InsideRIA will become your first-stop resource to stay on top of news, events, opinions, and learning. ® Copyright 2008 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All rights reserved.

Andrew Trice  Principal Architect Flex/AIR for Cynergy Systems  Technical lead for multiple enterprise-class Flex/AIR applications  Business Applications, Data Visualizations  Author ® Copyright 2008 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All rights reserved.

RJ Owen  Senior Developer @ EffectiveUI  Adobe Community Expert  Lead developer on Discovery Earth Live  Blah blah etc. Generally a nice guy. ® ® Copyright 2008 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All rights reserved. reserved. Copyright 2008 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All rights

Adam Flater  Software Architect for Universal Mind  Has built solutions on the following technologies:  Java, Microsoft (various), HTML/JS, Flash, Flex  Today: Architects and implements robust Flex applications for enterprise clients (many fortune 500/100)  Founder of the Merapi Project: Connects Java and Flex at the desktop to enable support for devices and other processes in Flex applications ® ® Copyright 2008 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All rights reserved. reserved. Copyright 2008 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All rights

Sean Christmann  Experience Architect for EffectiveUI  7-8 years working with Flash format  Worked on games, portals, desktop applications, media players  Helped build community driven libraries for Flash ® ® Copyright 2008 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All rights reserved. reserved. Copyright 2008 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All rights

Ajax and Flash: Friends or Foes? Flash / Flex Ajax  Strengths:  Strengths:  Development tools  Penetration and acceptance  Performance  Libraries and frameworks  Rich media  Sometimes immersive  One run time!  Weaknesses:  Weaknesses:  Small knowledge base  Many runtimes  Controlled by one vendor  Lack of tools  Plugin adoption  Media support  Performance ® ® Copyright 2008 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All rights reserved. reserved. Copyright 2008 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All rights

Ajax and Flash: Friends or Foes?  Opportunities:  Using Flash and Ajax together  Flash in Ajax: Upload, Offline, Charing, Video, Audio  Flex > Ajax > Vanilla HTML: Graceful Failure  Convergence of runtimes  Threats  Becoming a one trick pony  Compatibility across mobile platforms (iPhone)  Difference of skill sets  Different dev tools ® ® Copyright 2008 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All rights reserved. reserved. Copyright 2008 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All rights

AIR: Where the desktop and web converge  Strengths:  Emerging web platforms  Companion applications to web applications  Cross platform  Web + Desktop with a single skill set  Web + Desktop with a single code base  Weaknesses:  No access to native code  No native access to hardware ® ® Copyright 2008 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All rights reserved. reserved. Copyright 2008 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All rights

AIR: Where the desktop and web converge  Opportunities:  Anywhere you have a web application, you have an opportunity for a desktop companion  API Development – one API for web/desktop applications  Great looking desktop applications that are easy to build  Threats:  Everybody wants in on the action: Microsoft, JavaFx  Perception: Flash is not just for the web ® ® Copyright 2008 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All rights reserved. reserved. Copyright 2008 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All rights

Mobile Devices  Strengths:  Portability  New interfaces and gestures (Immersion)  Awareness  Weaknesses:  Too many platforms  Disorganized data  Duplication of functionality  Reliability ® ® Copyright 2008 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All rights reserved. reserved. Copyright 2008 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All rights

Mobile Devices  Opportunities:  New users  Flexibility  Markets for developers  New tools  Threats  Security  Too accessible  Choosing the wrong technology ® ® Copyright 2008 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All rights reserved. reserved. Copyright 2008 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All rights

The User Experience of RIAs  Strengths:  Many RIAs are improved by adopting development methodologies centered around UX  Brings the users closer… better UX means better adoption  The Flash platform is an excellent choice to deploy these solutions  Many clients / users are seeing the ROI of UX  Weaknesses:  Deﬁning and executing a great UX is difficult  As a methodology UX is very new - a lot of work to be done  UX Talent is in high demand (weakness for clients)  Only recently have technology platforms been available that allow good UX development ® ® Copyright 2008 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All rights reserved. reserved. Copyright 2008 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All rights

The User Experience of RIAs  Opportunities:  The space is being deﬁned… great opportunity to be a part of that  Technology platforms are improving  Clients are investing in UX  Cross-channel / device UX  Threats  UX gone wrong… poor execution could develop a negative image  The tools for building UX need to be improved to make signiﬁcant progress  The value of UX could be lost if the cost is too high ® ® Copyright 2008 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All rights reserved. reserved. Copyright 2008 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All rights

Outlook on the RIA space  Strengths:  Slowly replacing more desktop apps. Quake Live coming online soon.  3D infrastructure is maturing.  Flash and Flex are remaining ahead of the curve.  People are more receptive to interactive web apps, understand how to navigate them.  Weaknesses:  Coding platforms and frameworks growing at a rapid pace.  Become a jack of all trades, or a master of few?  Can accessibility keep up?  10% of users still on dial-up as of July 2008 ® ® Copyright 2008 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All rights reserved. reserved. Copyright 2008 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All rights

Outlook on the RIA space  Opportunities:  Data Visualization needs are skyrocketing. We're creating data at a high rate.  Invest in design to open up your client roster.  Familiarize yourself with different transport vehicles, AMF, JSON, SOAP, etc.  Keep your eye on where javascript is going. Clients may start requesting it.  Threats  The web keeps getting “free”-er. Can you monetize your RIA or is it just for marketing?  Could a large company like Google make portions of our work obsolete, like their enw charting api?  Popularity of RIA space will cause client rates to drop once pool is saturated. ® ® Copyright 2008 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All rights reserved. reserved. Copyright 2008 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All rights

Panelists Q&A •Steve Weiss (steve@oreilly.com) •Andre Charland (andre@nitobi.com) •Andrew Trice (triceam@gmail.com) •RJ Owen (rj.owen@effectiveui.com) •Adam Flater (adamflater@gmail.com) •Sean Christmann (sean.christmann@effectiveui.com) ® Copyright 2008 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All rights reserved.