heres the article: ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Macromedia does web design for dummies
Light-duty web tool on the way After years of targeting professional web developers and designers, Macromedia has a new type of customer in mind for its latest product - you. The San Francisco-based company is set to unveil Contribute - a stripped-down version of its Dreamweaver web design tool - which allows ordinary office workers to make text changes and other minor fixes to websites. Such work is typically left to web professionals, who have to juggle requests to fix a typo here or add a product description there while tackling bigger design and development projects. "There are a lot of inefficiencies in the processes most companies use," said Kevin Lynch, chief software architect for Macromedia. "The business-side folks want to get changes up as fast as possible, but it all has to get funneled through the web team." Contribute is based on the same underlying software as Dreamweaver, Macromedia's market-leading webdesign application, but it uses a streamlined interface similar to a web browser. People call up a website in Contribute's main window and then click on a link next to the browser window to add or edit text, or perform other basic functions. The interface is a marked change from Macromedia's professional web products, which typically require weeks or months of training to master. Erik Larson, senior product manager for Macromedia, said the Contribute team wanted to make the product look and behave as much like a web browser as possible to overcome people's natural reluctance to learn new applications. "Because we worked with the Dreamweaver code base, we had the room to be able to focus the last 18 months on the user experience," Larson said. "We've learned a lot about designing a product for people who don't naturally love to use software... It was important that people not have to learn a new interface. This needs to be something that doesn't require a big training or implementation process." The other side of the equation was to make web professionals comfortable with Contribute and the capabilities it grants end-users. The software allows website administrators to designate who has access to web pages and which parts they can fiddle with. Particularly skeptical types can even require email approval before any revisions are published. "I think there's a natural tendency for a 'that's mine' sort of reaction" from web professionals, Larson said. "That's why we've built in all these safeguards, so you can't mess up anyone's code." Rikki Kirzner, an analyst for research firm IDC, said Contribute is a well-designed product that addresses real business needs. However, she said it will require Macromedia to reach a new type of customer. "One of the challenges the company has, is (that) it's created all these wonderful new tools that are extensions of the other stuff they've produced, and they're all relatively unknown outside Macromedia's installed base of users," she said. "Macromedia is really going to have publicise this and leverage that user base." Like other recent Macromedia initiatives aimed at improving the way the web works, Contribute will confront a general timidity about experimenting with new business processes, Kirzner said. "It's nothing to do with them or the product - it's just the reluctance in this economic climate for companies to experiment with a lot of new tools, no matter who they're from," she said. Macromedia's Lynch said the company expects to leverage its existing customers to reach a new type of consumer. "We think that initially the web professionals will be our evangelists - they'll see the benefits right away and try to get the people around them to try this," he said. A Windows version of Contribute is scheduled to go on sale next month, priced at $99 per user in the US. A version for Apple Computer's Mac OS X is in the works for next year. David Becker writes for news.com For related news, see: Adobe boss: Acrobat is no longer a 'roach motel' www.silicon.com/a56005 Adobe and Macromedia kiss and make up www.silicon.com/a54864 Adobe predicts web design boom - but expert warns of 'false dawn' www.silicon.com/a45535 David Becker -----Original Message----- From: Spike [mailto:spike@;spike.org.uk] Sent: 11 November 2002 11:06 To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: RE: [ cf-dev ] OT: Are Macromedia trying to reduce our business? I don't expect that Contribute will make my own life any easier from the point of view of creating websites, but I don't expect that it will seriously cause me to lose customers. Contribute is designed to work a bit like FrontPage. When is the last time you lost out on a contract because the customer chose to go with Frontpage instead? Yeah, right. Never! What might be a good idea is to learn a little bit about how it works and see if you can take advantage of it for customers who want a lightweight solution. You can probably teach more or less any muppet how to create templates in Dreamweaver to use with Contribute, and you can almost certainly sell a customer a couple of days of shadow training to show them how to build a site with it. If you can use that to extend your potential client base, there's no reason why they wouldn't want to 'upgrade' to a more sophisticated system if and when their needs demand it. As with most new product lines, it's not going to help to complain that it will hurt your business, but it will almost certainly help to figure out how to use the new product line to get customers that you wouldn't have had otherwise. my 2c Spike Stephen Milligan Team Macromedia - ColdFusion Co-author 'Reality Macromedia ColdFusion MX: Intranets and Content Management' http://spikefu.blogspot.com > -----Original Message----- > From: Chris Tazewell [mailto:chris@;tazewell.co.uk] > Sent: 11 November 2002 10:55 > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subject: [ cf-dev ] OT: Are Macromedia trying to reduce our business? > > > Interesting twist from MM in the form of "Macromedia > Contribute". Basically a content management system for 'flat' > websites. > > The software allows non-technical numbnuts to browse through > a site and edit as they go. Take a look at the demos (which > are huge) because you won't get any idea of what it is from > my poor excuse for an explanation. > > My question is: are macromedia trying to kill off some of our > valuable business? Creating out-of-the-box content management > solutions isn't new, and anybody can build one... but with MM > building one, and probably selling it extremely cheap (no > prices available as yet), its doing us no favours at all. > > If I create an out-of-the-box solution and try to sell it to > random punters, chances are I won't make a fortune. For > businesses like mine, we don't have the time or the money to > put into large marketing campaigns so we're not likely to get > a massive audience. But for Macromedia its not a problem. > They already build the industry standard web authoring > software, so its not like they've got to make a massive > effort to make people aware of new software. > > I don't know about you, but building content management > systems is a large part of my business, and I can't really > welcome something like this. > > There you go... that's my neck stuck out for anyone to take > an axe to (for anyone who watched Sleepy Hollow last night)... > > Taz > -- ** Archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/dev%40lists.cfdeveloper.co.uk/ To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For human help, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] -- ** Archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/dev%40lists.cfdeveloper.co.uk/ To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For human help, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
