Digital Walkabout

Flex.org and AIR Showcase highlighted at Adobe Sales and Marketing conference

Attending the Adobe's annual sales and marketing conference, I was pleased to see Flex.org and the AIR showcase highlighted - these are splendid resources for understanding the capabilities of these technologies and how they can be used in your organisation. Some of the most interesting apps include:

• eBay Desktop: a dashboard for your eBay account replete with alerts, offline capabilities and an easily reconfigurable and organisable interface
• Anthropologie: the catalogue is driven by AIR and the site links to a demo
• MySecondLife.com: a search portal for SecondLife residents or Scrapblog to easily create stunning online scrapbooks with your photos, transitions and music
• Glass Flash: an easy and fun game to play with excellent graphics

For more on AIR, take a decko at the examples in the showcase.

Ribbitt Release Party

Ribbit is having their Platform Release Party in San Francisco this Thursday. They are doing some splendid work and Adobe RIA evangelist Ryan Stewart will present as part of the event. If you're in San Francisco on Thursday, take some time to pop in:

What: Ribbit Platform Release Party
When: Thursday, December 13th, 19.00 - 22.00
Where: 535 York St, San Francisco, CA 94110

Interview with the Thermo dudes

Julie Campagna from the Edge Newsletter recently interviewed Mark Anders and Steven Heintz on Thermo. Fairly early in its cycle, Thermo doesn't have much information available, so have a decko. Also see the high-resolution demo posted by Ryan Steward on the Thermo page (Facebook).

Adobe 25th anniversary

Adobe was founded 25 years ago today - December 2nd, 1982. The organisation has come a long way from printing, PostScript, PDF, acquiring its way to building a platform, from Aldus (Framemaker), to Accelio (Forms Server), to Macromedia (everything from Flash to DW to Flex to AIR) and Virtual Ubiquity (Buzzword). While this may over-simplify things it is a good illustration of how Adobe has evolved while maintaining a consistent message and focus.

Martin LaMonica's article (courtesy of JD) is a good read - Adobe's focus on engagement has been the product of a rich history, and while the business model may change (OEM sales to shrinkwrap to services), the approach has been consistent: invest in new capabilities and provide value-add by making them  easier and more economical to use.

New Adobe AIR logo unveiled

Mike Chambers unveiled the new Adobe AIR Logo on his blog. For the full story see his post. With respect to the thinking behind the logo:

Adobe AIR is built on top of three core web technologies (HTML, Flash and PDF), and we wanted the logo to represent this. Thus, each corner of the logo represents one of these core technologies.

I like the logo, in particular because the core technologies can be seen as micro (HTML, Flash and PDF) or macro (text content, video/audio and rich mixed (what with 3D)).

W3C Lightning Talks

My lightning talk on Web 2.0 as Architecture was accepted for the W3C TPAC 2007. I'll present it Wed Nov 7 (time TBA). I'm looking forward to spreading the news on what Web 2.0 really means to W3C efforts.

w00t!

http://www.w3.org/2007/11/TPAC/overview.html

Presenting Flex on Rails

I will present a tutorial on the different ways of integrating Adobe Flex with Ruby on Rails on the server at several venues this fall. This will cover REST communication with Flex HTTPService, WebORB - an AMF bridge between a Flex client and a Rails app, and Adobe's Ruby on Rails RIA SDK. Come and hear the Flex on Rails story and how you can leverage these technologies to rapidly develop flexible yet powerful RIA apps.

Develop Ruby based Flex applications

Your Flex application can retrieve data from a Ruby backend using web services, including SOAP and REST based web services. Simply use the free Flex SDK or Flex Builder to build your Flex application.
You can also transfer objects and other data types directly from Ruby to Flex, and vice versa, over AMF. There are several open source AMF solutions available, such as WebORB for Ruby from Midnight Coders.

Ruby and Flex Community

A number of talented companies and individuals are doing some really cool things with Flex and Ruby.
Peter Armstrong is writing a PDF book titled Flexible Rails.
Derek Wischusen blogs at FlexOnRails.net and is a regular contributor to the Ruby on Rails RIA SDK.
Stuart Eccles blogs about Flex and Rails integration at liverail.net.