March 30th, 2009

So long and thanks for all the fish

Posted by Ryan Stewart @ 7:39 pm

Categories: Rich Internet Applications

Tags:

This will be my last post on ZDNet. Blogging here has been one of the most fun things I’ve been able to do in my career. In fact, basically everything started here. Almost all of the various connections I’ve made over the past couple of years are as a result of this blog. It’s given me an unprecedented level of access to all of the smartest people in the RIA world. And it’s been a crazy ride. We’ve seen RIA go from something of a niche to a core part of the web. Almost every company has come up with some kind of RIA story including Apple, Google, Microsoft, Sun, and of course Adobe. The mindshare and ecosystem of RIAs has never been stronger and more diverse.

And that’s part of the reason why I’m giving up the blog. As RIAs have hit the main stream smaller niches have developed within the RIA space and the major technologies are being covered by the prominent bloggers and press. That’s been great for more coverage of RIAs and it also means that I’m busier than ever with my day job for Adobe. I haven’t had time in the past couple of months to do the blog justice and I hope RIAs get even bigger taking up more and more time.

I want to say thanks to all of you who made my particular road possible while I’ve had this blog. Thanks for the comments, the information, the support, the criticisms, and the demos you’ve given me. You’ll be able to find me on my personal blog, DigitalBackcountry (it’ll be generally Adobe-centric) and if you want to hear my take on RIAs you can catch me on RIA Weekly every week. I may also be popping up on BTL every once in a while.

To get your RIA fix I suggest Mary Jo Foley for Microsoft and Ed Burnette for JavaFX on the ZDNet side. Tim Anderson probably does the best job of covering all of the technologies together. My RIA Weekly co-host, Coté, has a great slant on things. Jeffrey Hammond is a fantastic analyst who knows the ins and outs of the RIA business. With those links you should be covered on all things RIA.

Thanks again for everything.

March 5th, 2009

RIA technologies and the downturn

Posted by Ryan Stewart @ 5:33 pm

Categories: Rich Internet Applications

Tags: Industry, Rich Internet Application, Ryan Stewart

The news is a pretty depressing place right now but there was a small article in the Economist about how the Fashion industry is responding to the downturn that caught my eye. Towards the end of the article the Economist mentioned how designers are looking for ways to leverage digital distribution:

One firm, Halston, recently released its autumn collection through a music video. Others are also likely to pursue digital means to reach a broader audience. Catherine Malandrino, a popular French designer, has spent the past three months rworking her website to make it more “human and interactive”. Fashion, she points out, was historically old through intimate salons. She wants to re-establish that accessibility - and the internet allows her, and the others, to do it cheaply.

Fashion, and industries like it, are a perfect fit for the world of interactivity and RIAs. Clearly any kind of internet revival won’t be driven by fashonistas looking for some interactive work. But industries like Fashion, where there are strong emotional and design ties, will be ideal candidates for the more collaborative, video, and interactive applications for which RIA technologies are so well-suited.

It’s been oft-repeated that economic downturns, and the scarcity of resources during them, are what help the good ideas float to the top and succeed. But RIAs are seeing a tremendous amount of innovation at the runtime level which has been helped by a lot of competition in the space. Things like higher quality video, real-time communication and collaboration, a focus on design and design efficiency, as well as performance enhancements mean that we have an infrastructure in place that we haven’t had before. This is going to appeal to a wider range of industries who are using the web but looking for more value added services than just a website or even some of the social advancements from Web 2.0. It’s a good time to be thinking about and working with RIAs because they can provide a lot of value - even in this climate.