Via gijs nijholt
I don’t usually link to people’s opinion pieces, but I thought this post on why the Internet is shit was a good read, and the last paragraph reflected a feeling that plagues me.
When I first got into web design (a whopping 9 years ago), everything was new, everyone was excited, and I was kept in a constant state of awe as the modern “rich” internet emerged from the primordial soup of HTML 1.0. Maybe I’m just getting old and jaded, but lately that awe has receeded – I rarely see web work anymore that really excites me. There have been a few pieces that really caught my attention as good examples of what can be done (really, what should be done), but nothing that makes me really feel that the pea-brained dinosaurs of the present-day web will be replaced with smarter, more adaptable successors.
I’m left in a constant state of anticipation – I feel like something has to happen, some new concept has to begin defining what the web is going to be 5 years from now. This serves to define much of my professional life, I’m fortunate in that I can usually pick and choose the clients I work with, and I typically do so on the basis of how progressive or interesting the project (or the client) is. It also drives me to tackle monolithic projects with little hope of recompense, just to prove to myself and the community that things can (and should) move forwards (see: FlashOS, FlashOS2, gModeler, etc).
I think the most exciting thing I’ve seen recently is the involvement of talented writers, with a firm understanding of the medium, in the development of websites. A good writer goes beyond copy-writing to help define the narrative of a site, establish a repoire with the user, effectively (and engagingly) communicate the core messages of the site, and work with the designer to develop the user experience.
Now don’t get me wrong – I love my job, and I think the Flash community is phenomenal, I’m just left wondering if there isn’t more that we could do to evolve this medium to the benefit of our clients before the meteor (longhorn?) hits.
PS. If you’ve built a Flash intro in the past 3 months, without discussing with your client why its a waste of their money and what their alternatives are, kindly raise your hand and exit the blog – you’re holding us all back, mate.
[EDIT:] Wow, I really must be getting old and cranky… too many complaining posts in the last few days… must… post… something… positive. 🙂
I think we are at a point that we are waiting for the bandwidth to open up to make the internet more exciting. There is a organization called CANARIE here in Canada that puts a lot of money into broadband research. If you go to http://www.marsville.tv you can see some of the things that are being done. Be sure to check out the videos. Now I don’t know if this is what the next big thing for the internet but it is definetly a push in the right direction. I think we’ll see some crazy things once the bandwidth opens up a little.
*crosses fingers*
I think all major cultural revolutions are inevitably followed by a seeming lack of some other major thing. For instance the invention of the printing press must have seemed incredible at the time and was not followed by anything similar up to, probably desktop publishing. The evolution of the Internet was truly revolutionary in a major way and it could be we are in a backwash situation at present. Yet what Macromedia are offering us all gives all those who wish to do something with it the greatest opportunities we have had in many years IMHO. By the way, thanks for all the great work you do.
Whoa there Skinner,
You sure this isn’t a case of the ETown blues? Time for a vacation perhaps? It’s going to take time, and it might not be flash that wins, but there will always be jobs for people with rich interactive media skills. I definitely still see it progressing – the breadth has definitely decreased (ie. you don’t see the ubiquitous skip intros) but the hardest part, the depth, is slowly building. Mostly, I feel there’s a generational cycle that needs to happen. Spurt, regroup and reintegrate, spurt, regroup and reintegrate. We’re still integrating for a bit, which is good.. all aggression and no reflection would be kinda scary.
nig
Cooking crabs…?
(ie, putting a crab into a pot of boiling water results in frenzied activity, but putting a crab into lukewarm water and bringing up the heat isn’t as noticeable.)
Less bloodthirsty metaphor: training for a marathon… the first few practice sessions have dramatic effects, but then progress isn’t as noticeable… it’s the day-in-day-out overall which brings the results though.
Either of these seem a propos…?
(The original essay seems to be “web isn’t platonically perfect as i had hoped”, which seems to be more a problem with expectation than reality… that old utopian meme doing new damage, binary heaven/feces… finding old friends through Google is definitely an improvement over not being able to, true…?)
jd
Hey Grant,
I must admit that at times I have had similar thoughts. I have sat and wondered where all the fun went? Whats next? Back in the glorious days of the mid to late 90’s when .com’s ran amuck flowering thier employees with money, where everyone seemed to be a VP or CEO or some startup, and finding clients was a matter of just walking out your front door and grabbing someone off of the street, it was during this time that it seemed like new technologies were introduced every day. Lately, it seems sometimes like we are reinventing the wheel over and over again, just recycling the current technology in different ways. BUT, over the past few months I personally think that this new environment may be even better. Although we may have to look a little harder for the excitment, I believe it is there. We have built up a good infrastructure of technologies for the future. How is the current web technology REALLY going to change the way we live our lives?
I personally think that as the interfaces for small devices become more intuitive (maybe flash?), and more of our typical electronic and mechanical devices are web connected (cars, applicances, iPods, our houses themselves) this is where the fun will be. We can already see a push towards this ubiquitous web world with the proliferation of bluetooth enabled devices and wireless access available in more and more places. Now to my point, where do we as developers fit into all this? We decide how all this is going to communicate, and how it will all work together. How does flash fit into this picture? Quite well I believe. Look at all the device makers that are licensing AND USING flash technology. Will flash make a big enough impact in that arena so that 10 years from now we will still be developing in it? Who knows, but I think that right now we are about to see another spurt in technology development and the building of the next generation of connected applications (Central) and devices and the browser based model of viewing data as we know it will seem like an outdated relic of the past.
Well, I just quickly threw all this out there, some of it probably doesnt make sence, but take it for what it is worth. Anyways, I think the real fun is about to begin.
🙂
I’m not quite as disenchanted as I made out above. The original article just struck a chord, and I voiced my opinion on it. On the other hand, I realize that increased mass means increased inertia, and thus we are much less likely to see momentus changes any more on the web. The ties into what Daniel mentioned – web connected devices are new, and really are the place to be if you want to “live on the edge” – I’ve been monitoring them, and am interested in working with them, but they still don’t seem ready for prime time. Give me a palmtop with FlashComm, Remoting, 802.11b, and an accessible camera and mic, and I’ll be all over it (maybe there is one?)
I guess the real thing that bothers me is that we have a lot of power at our finger-tips with Flash, and it doesn’t seem to have been utilized much yet. When I built gModeler, I was honestly surprised by the commotion it cause, because it really wasn’t that difficult to put together (and that’s not just false modesty). We haven’t even scraped the surface of what’s possible with FlashMX, much less F04. I expect the evolution will continue as we educate clients and educate our community.
On a positive note, I have been very impressed by the steadily increasing awareness of Flash’s capabilities and value among the consumers of web services. Hopefully this will generate an increase in spending, which will result in more progressive pieces.
And yes… I need a vacation. 😛
I believe that internet is not shit at all, it is the use of this tool what makes the difference.
As a communication tool still very premature, internet is just a baby that took pills to grow up faster than any other similar tecnology, and of course, failed.
I think is the right time to focus this tecnology in the benefit of the human being rather than the benefit of the tecnology itself, is the right time to think what we had, what we have and what we want from internet.
I have exactly the same feeling as you, Grant.
I really started to wonder what kept me going all these years and where it has gone…
no more visions of what could be done… just plain old internet.
I guess its also because nobody has the money nowadays to dive into new, exciting, but really maybe costly new technologies for their projects.
Or is it we’re getting old…. feel like changing job. maybe becoming a gardener? Work in the open, flowers all around you? 🙂
ETown Blues?
Thats why I ordered myself an ETown Vacation. Reduce Computer usage, apart from working hours, to the absolute minimum. Start doing some sports. Join in some cultural activities, learn another language.(and I mean a real, spoken language, not this zero-one thingy )
cu in march next year, when my eVacation ends. 😉
I’ve stopped reading the article here:
“All manner of pointless and irritating content is continually poured down the infinite hole of data, unfiltered and over-appreciated.”
I think the only change is that the Internet is moving towards a standard medium, without companies spending enourmous money in it. But could you life without it? Everything new is existing, and maybe broadband will be the next step.
One thing that could be blamed to the abundance of less-than-amazing stuff online is the overall commercialization of the internet. More and more of the web is built for paying customers, and those customers don’t always cut checks for the bleeding-edge stuff. The designs/concepts are often approved by a committee of people who just want something mainstream, and don’t want to go out on a limb and innovate.
The stuff that still gets me excited is often the sites I learn about from the Flash blogs and Flashcoders list. Often these are the sites built for FUN and for art’s sake, and often amaze me with the quality of work.
I do remember the earlier web days, when there was some new technology every day to get excited about. Trouble was, that very technology often turned out to be useless or unimportant. I remember buying a huge book on VRML. Such a great investment of my time THAT was. 😉
Consider good print design vs. plain, boring print design. You get boring print in the mailbox every day. It’s often just a medium for selling your wares, not for creative expression. It’s all part of the internet being absorbed into everyday life.
If I’m hungry, I’m doing a site intro, the future be damned. It was real funny how quickly my anti-Flash-intro ethics quickly blew away as if it were dust in the wind when I was broke and unemployed last year.
Naturally, now that I’m not, those ethics have magically returned, but if I was broke again, I wouldn’t even flinch doing such a job. Survival first, progression second.
Bah. If you did the intro without suggesting a better alternative, then curse your continuing survival. 🙂
I’m not saying you should refuse to do the work, just that you should try to talk them into doing something more effective with their Flash dollars. You both win if they listen.
You obviously get clients that are not crackheads. Currently, my level of interaction is 2 to 4 times removed from the client (Client > Design Studio > Me, or even another level).
Twice, I’ve gotten job offers that start with, “Yeah, I know they are crackheads for wanting an intro, but they are paying good and this is a good oppportunity…” etc. etc. insert justifying cause here type of thing. OR, if the client is so high brow, the value to my resume super-cedes my responsibility to the future. I consider it a business decision, but maybe that’s just a farce to make myself feel better.
However, you bet your bottom dollar that now that I’m secure, I certainly do make suggestions to do an app or a game instead, and let her majesty explain the many reasons to have a good website instead of a good presentation.
Grant,
I agree with the notion that the scope and power of flash has been under utilized. I thought MX would start a wave of amazing flash sites, but it didnt. Its rare to see inspirational flash sites nowdays, gModler is one of the few that has impressed me recently. And there were so many amazing things that could have been done with flashcomm but havent.
Why is this? flash is more complex and so may have scared away some creative people, there’s less money around for r and d, the focus has shifted from ‘creative ideas’ to ‘elegant coding’, the cost of bandwidth/flashcomm….. and probably lots more.
what can be done: I think discussion like this helps, we need to be talking about whats possible and whats wrong/missing. I think maybe MM could assist by running some competion/s to award creative flash work, a decent prize should inspire people to build especially something for it.
I agree with David on the cost matter. Flash Comm and Flash Remoting is still very expensive if you compare it to ASP accounts (not open source technologies).
I think the problem lies by the providers. They are charging to much for us developers to overhaull the clients to give Remoting and COMM a chance. I have seen spectacular price differences on the web, without loss on the service field.
The techniques are wonderfull and very exciting, but the prices aren’t always as great.
Also I think Palms etc. are very attractive pieces of technologies, but I just don’t get the time nor the equipment to R&D this chapter.
But I think that there will be an exciting time somewhere in the near future. Just as it happened to music here in Europe (Belgium). A lot of sh*t has passed my ears in the last years, but this last few months seemed very exciting for music lovers. New talented generation are on there way !
I suppose you’ve been on http://www.internetisshit.org/ recently?
OMG, that dude has seen Fight Club more times than I have. Serious displaced agression. He morphs “hitting-bottom” with “Primus Sucks” to encouraging people learning how to do their research.
I agree and disagree with a lot of what he says. I think, however, he misses a lot of the meaningless points, which is fine as a lot of his phrasing is in fact contructive… that’s probably his filter and why he isn’t understanding why some people like to chill on the .NET. It’s accessible for geeks, and they like to have their little rumors and multi-tude of phrasing the same thing different ways, link tunneling… some geeks like that stuff. He’s got a good message, but I think his audience needs to be filtered.
At any rate, this comment probably won’t be read by any other than Grant ask this entry is a little old and aggregating comments won’t be around for another year, so I’ll just add to the archives in saying that Flash has unapproachable power. It’s a ring of fire for a lot of people. If you get frustrated and continue, you become a Flasher. Trial by fire in this case is good, and you become a very unique individual. I see, however, an interesting paradigm on the Flashn00bz list over at chattyfig.figleaf.com. Newbs, designers mostly, coming in and testing and learning, and being postive. Very rarely is this a programmer. The Newbs that come in that are programmers get frustrated to no end; their paradigm is set already, and adapting to Flash’s is very diffucult for them; the most vocal are the ColdFusion peeps, and rightly so as they have expecatations I’m sure that the same company would foster a product to work along the same lines … or something in common anyway.
I help the best I can, but I cannot really back up my true proof of one of the bigger issues with Flash not becoming RIA syndicated as fast as people would like. Stay tuned to January, 2004, and I’ll hopefully enlighten you for at least 5 minutes…