Looks like my thoughts have been confirmed, by someone.
Selling development tools and having a developer community is one of
the best kept secrets in the "Evangelist" style of Marketing.
The first time a FLEX developer bids on a project and the client tells
them they are using Adobe Scene7, that's when the issues begin, and
once they begin, they will get worse.
Prior to the acquisition of Macromedia, Adobe was a fairly even player
with Photoshop, Illustrator and PDF, primarily and imaging and
document firm.
Now, if Scene7.com does what I think it will be doing, and as you seem
to have confirmed below, it is going to take the momentum of the Flash
Player, begun by FutureWave Technologies (an honorable group),
Macromedia (an honorable group), and take that into the Developer
Arena Capitalizing on the all the wide-spread knowledge that Flash and
more recently FLEX developers have provided for them.
"Shortage of work" is a relative term. Ask any developer who has bid
on eLance.com and you'll understand the dynamics of bidding against
others for contracts.
If it turns out that Adobe begins to take the momentum achieved by
it's predecessors, namely it's acquisitions (which is has a right to),
and it's developers (which, if Scene7.com turns out to be as you
describe and I believe it will), then it is an ETHICAL ISSUE that will
not go away, and I'm giving fair-warning to any developer out there
(and yes, I do have the experience I've said I do to the gentleman out
there that questioned that).
I've been through thousands of pages of an unamed companies documents
to find out how they really work, and how they really look at
Developers. Adobe appears to be on that same road, and the more signs
I see of it, the more I will support other efforts.
For those inclined to be offended easily, I'd ask not to shout against
me or anyone else giving an opinion, but For your own sakes, keep an
eye on ACTIONS not WORDS. You'd be surprised what larger
corporations, especially ones that we all know the name of [not Adobe]
that gained their momentum on the backs of the developer community,
only to turn against them with hidden DLL API's, hacks against
licensed technology to make it perform poorly under their platform,
etc. (again this is not Adobe as I just said).
However, when a Consumer Software company, which Adobe was, starts
changing Acrobat to have an SDK (that's their right) and but then goes
beyond that to provide a far better Plug-in, only made possible by the
light weight plug-in efforts of FutureWave, and for the past few years
gaining momentum on the development efforts and expensive purchases of
development tools ; when that line is blurred it will ultimately turn
out bad for the developer.
For the gentleman who said "shortage of jobs" again, that's not the
issue as I just explained in eLance.com / The issue is that people
will Buy and will Trust Adobe more than a developer or even a small
development firm when it comes to bidding online. Local efforts are
different.
If the below turns out to be true of FLEX vs. Scene7.com (a potential
guise of a Consumer mid-level Product Manager), then the FLEX, and
more especially the ActionScript component and development community
as a while since Macromedia's aquisition will have at that point been
betrayed and yes, at that point, or any sign of it (in the form of
Actions, not Promises, do not trust the promises of a large Corp.
unless you've tried them true), if there is that sign or signs, then
yes it's time to get on with it and get out and support more honorable
people like Apple and Steve Jobs.
At this point I wish Macromedia never sold to Adobe.com / This isn't
looking pretty for the FLEX community. I'll certainly keep my Lexis-
Nexis handy and press contacts (and in several years, if it turns bad,
the FTC and DOJ).
-r
On Aug 27, 2008, at 11:17 AM, Battershall, Jeff wrote:
At this point, Adobe is not likely to abandon Scene7 due to
developer concerns. The way I see it, Adobe has been taking on
consulting engagements for some time, just like IBM does, and I
think having an offering of best of breed off-the-shelf solutions
fits in well with that strategy. I don't think it interferes with
the prosperity of Adobe solution providers or individual developers,
in fact having such solutions available may make more possible to
deliver on projects by not having to reinvent functionality. It is
what it is and there's no shortage of work, so let's get on with it.
Jeff
-----Original Message-----
From: [email protected] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
On Behalf Of Robert Thompson
Sent: Wednesday, August 27, 2008 11:05 AM
To: [email protected]
Subject: [flexcoders] Whitepaper and Webinar -- Please read the
Scene7.com posts Objectively
There is no harm meant in my postings.
I'm posting so we are all aware of what may be going on with
Scene7.com and it's implications to the FLEX and Flash CS3
development community.
I'm a freelance developer, not with a large corporation.
The Whitepaper is available on www.Scene7.com and I highly recommend
posting any concerns and questions to the e-mail address of the CEO
in there.
I also recommend attending the Webinar on the subject tomorrow (I
believe it's Thursday).
-r
