Social Surplus

Clay Shirky’s got an interesting blog post related to the massive global economic and societal shifts underway as the result of the web’s unique blend of individual empowerment, social networking and interactive new media.

One of the more interesting aspects for me was the notion that a ‘social surplus’ has existed since the industrial revolution created enough wealth for leisure and television filled the void. Clay suggests the web’s ability to tap into just a small fraction of this surplus, using Wikipedia as the poster child, reveals the massive potential of global social networks.

I’ve spent quite a bit of time thinking about creating forward leaning rich media experiences as an alternative to TV, but I’ve always thought of it from the micro level. It’s refreshing to see the macro angle and realize what it actually could mean to move people from isolated, passive time sinks like the boob tube (which I love) into engaging, interactive social networks that are building knowledge and literally changing the world.

Link was courtesy of Michael Malinak, a lead developer at TechSmith and one of the main brains behind the Jing Project.

FDT 3.0 ActionScript Code Editor Nirvana

While at FITC I had the opportunity to stop by the FDT booth and check out the latest version of their Eclipse based ActionScript code editor. I was actually surprised to see FDT with a booth at the show and even more surprised to be given a software demo by Nico Zimmermann, the creator of FDT.

I cut my teeth on Eclipse based Flash development with Nico’s open source ASDT plugin (.7 release) so it was great to meet the cat who played a significant role in shifting my development workflow.

It’s been awhile since I took a look at FDT, but after the demo and a few days of trial I’d have to say I’m impressed. For those familiar with the amazing capabilities of the JDT (it damn near reads my mind and writes my code), FDT is the closest thing you’ll find in the ActionScript world.

FDT supports lots of the refactoring and context intelligence / assistance, formatting, templates (I’d forgotten how much I miss those) and problem detection you would expect from a JDT mimic. It’s not full on JDT goodness, but it’s definitely a step or three up from Adobe’s AS3 Flex editor.

Probably the greatest strength of FDT is that it has killer code editing support for both AS3 and AS2 which is nice since there are still an awful lot of of AS2 projects out there. It’s great not having to jump between perspectives and the jarring differences there are between my current AS2 and AS3 workflows.

Now its not all roses for FDT. The biggest issue is its just not affordable for individual developers. The FDT 3.0 Basic edition prices out at $512, Professional at $684 and Enterprise at $1026 (US dollars). I don’t know about you, but that’s an awful lot of shekels for a pure code editor. You also don’t have access to a debugger unless you shell out for the enterprise edition. Finally, there’s no visual layout view, no MXML editor, no profiler (If you have insights into how Adobe’s profiler can be used I believe Nico would welcome an email) and no AIR support.

The steep price and lack of MXML / visual designer are show stoppers for me as an individual developer and at work (the folks who have the real money) we’re already invested in Flex 3, so it looks like I just have a little less than 30 days to enjoy it. However, if you’re an AS3 purist, have the bones (or your work does) and want a killer code editor I’d urge you to take a strong look at FDT 3.0 Enterprise.

Now what I’d really like to see happen is Adobe purchases FDT, open sources it (ala JDT) and builds its AS3 editor on top of it…I can dream right. ;-)

*Update* As PK mentions in the comments, AIR is supported (looks like you just have to add it to the FDT class path in the Eclipse preferences pane).

Papervision3D Training Canada Style

In case you haven’t heard, Flash rock star John Grden’s final two Papervision3D training sessions will be going down in Canada in the very near future. Held over the course of two full days, these sessions cover fundamentals to advanced techniques for 3D designers, developers and devigners.

John’s been behind a number of prominent open source projects (check out his bio on the Infrared5 site) and is a ‘core’ member of the Papervision3D team which means you’re getting the goods first person from a real expert. He’s also, as everyone in the Flash community will attest, one of the nicest, approachable and down to earth folks you’ll every meet (yah, yah, sort of sounds like I have a man crush).

If you’d like to get a bit more color on what John covers in the class check out this post on the Papervision3D blog. If you’re still not convinced, here’s what one student had to say about John’s last class in Las Vegas.

Sign up here for May 3-4 in Vancouver.

Sign up here for May 7-8 in Toronto.

If you’re a student and can prove it (student id), there’s a 50% discount — use ‘PVStudent’ for the code.

There’s also a 10% general admission discount going on at this point — use ‘grdenvan’ for the code.

If you’re lucky enough to be in either city, get out and check it out — I know I would.

FITC 2008 – Toronto – Photos

I was in Toronto this week for the FITC (Flash In The Can) conference. I’ll never be accused of being a professional photographer, but here are the photos that made the first Lightroom cut.

FITC Thermo Sneaks = Yawn

The Adobe Thermo presentation given by Ethan Eeismann at FITC was largely a disappointment. Rather than delivering actual examples of a designer working in the latest build of Thermo, the slide driven talk labored through the historical workflow friction between designers and developers and then presented only a few screen grabs of the app where the audience was asked to imagine how a certain scenario might play out.

Just for clarity Ethan is articulate as hell, but the presentation would of been better suited for a CHI audience than a Flash conference. We’re all pretty familiar with the workflow friction (we’ve been living it) and I, for one, just wanted to see how Thermo has progressed since it was demoed at MAX07. I talked with a number of others who attended the session and we all pretty much felt the same. I really hope Adobe tightens up the messaging and provides a bit more ‘pop’ in the future — it’s important to build the buzz rather than dampen it.

The best line from the entire presentation:

From the web to the desktop.

As web experiences grow better, greater pressure is applied to improve the desktop experience.

Now, with Adobe AIR, the benefits of RIAs are brought to the desktop.

I couldn’t agree more. The web has long been data rich, affords greater interoperability and, thanks largely to Flash Player, delivers superior user experiences. With AIR, Adobe has a chance to complete the circle and finally bring ‘write once‘ rich experiences to the desktop. This is why it kills me to hear Microsoft Silverlight compared to Adobe AIR by the tech press. They are missing the entire point — been there; done that; now taking it to the desktop.

Screen grabs where you’re asking a large audience to imagine complex interactions almost never work — here are the ‘sneaks’ of Thermo the audience was given.