It has been a rather interesting couple of days.
At midnight, Sunday evening Macromedia and Adobe announce the sale of Macromedia to Adobe. It took all of us by surprise and ,so far the reaction has been mixed. In fact it has been polarized between those who refuse to acknowledge their universe shifted and those who are essentially saying, "Bring it on". It has been fascinating to watch Elizabeth Kubler-Ross' stages of "Death" reverberate throughout the industry. Right now we are in that strange place between "denial" and "acceptance".
In many respects, this sale exposed a fundamenatl flaw in our fledgling industry.
We have become "tool centric". As web developers we rallied around our "tools" and formed deep and lasting bonds with the tool and the tool manufacturers. We tended to identify more with "Macromedia" and "Flash" or "Adobe" and "InDesign" than we do with our profession. The result is a rather profound disconnect between ourselves and between ourselves and our clients.
I'll never forget a conversation I had a year or so ago with the head of a rather large New Media shop here in Toronto. She was bemoaning the fact that she was getting absolutely tired of students and others applying for jobs with her company that were "One hit wonders".
"I am so tired of people showing up and offering to save my company by announcing, "Yep, I am your Photoshop master" or "Which part of 'I do Flash' didn't you pick up on?"
On the client side of the equation, I am sure they greeted the Adobe/Macromedia news with an "Interesting but where are the sports scores" attitude. I hear a lot of horror stories from developers about getting chewed out by their clients because the client didn't get this feature or the implementation of that feature "sucks". I never hear stories whereby the client picks up the phone and says, "Dude, just blown away by that complex Photoshop job you did" or " That was one seriously sweet CFC you tossed in there." Ain't gonna happen.
The bottom line is this: The client couldn't care less about how we did it. They only care that we "did it". Says to me the disconnect is between those of us who are "Tools based." and those who are "Skills based".
I have carved out a rather intereting side career as a writer, teacher,speaker and lecturer. Until Monday, I was sort of identified as being a Macromedia guy. I was because they were the only game in town. What you may not know is I found this to be terribly frustrating.
I focus on "process" and "skills". My frustration, here and elsewhere, was being confined to the Macromedia "toolbox". The problem for me is, that set of tools, in many instances, were the "end game" tools. If I wrote about sound in Flash, I really couldn't bring in working with it in Adobe Audition or doing the video effects in Adobe After Effects before creating the FLV for placement or use in Flash. I can now and, to quote the immortal words of Josh Davis, my friend and Flash guru, "I am stoked."
A few years back I was asked in a TV interview why I was such a fan of Macromedia. My response to the interviewer shook her up.
" The reason is simple, " I said. " They own the industry-standard tools.I will keep using them until they are replaced with another standard set of tools. I love Dreamweaver but if something better comes along and the industry starts to shift to it I am there. If something better than AfterEffects comes along. Good bye After Effects."
"Aren't you being a little harsh,Tom?"
My response, in retrospect, sums up the whole crux of the matter before us:
" The bottom line is I have to know how to design a web site, interactive animation or incorporate video into a web page. The key is I have a skill. The software that I use is nothing more than a hammer, a wrench or a screw driver. It is a tool and its only purpose is to help me do my job."
Whether or not this deal is a good one or a bad one is irrelevant. We have absolutely no say in the matter. Yet, in many respects, the success of this deal hinges upon whether we use Adobe's tools or a set from another company. This is something neither Macromedia nor Adobe can control.
Flash came about because developers were looking for a tool that created small web animations. Photoshop came about , in very simplistic terms, because Desk Top Publishers were looking to do imaging and color correction thanks to death of the "PrePress" industry. It just so happened that those two tools wound up with Macromedia and Adobe. To use them, professionally, we had to know how to animate or undertake "imaging" tasks. Both made us more efficient and increased our skill set.
Has anything really changed? Not really. In many respects one of things I tell my students, and anyone else that will listen, has risen to the top of our agenda:
Focus on the process of what you do. Don't focus on the technology. The process slowly evolves. Technology will overwhelm you.
This "deal" has more to do with process, than technology.
