Where are you from?
I currently live with my family in the Boston, MA area.

Where did you grow up?
Born in Philadelphia, then moved to Minnesota and lived there until 1996, and moved with Allaire Corp. to Boston.

What are your pastimes and interests?
Reading, spending quality time with my wife and son, kayaking, travel, golf, time on the ocean.

What's your favorite saying or cliché?
"Double-click on that" - as in, "we should double-click on that in a few weeks", or "if we double-click on that it'd be interesting to see what we learn". Double-click = drill-down = investigate further = try to understand better.

What's your favorite movie?
12 Monkeys

What's your favorite cocktail?
Cosmopolitan Martini

How was allaire started?
We got started like a lot of good companies, we solved a very concrete, very simple problem that a lot of people had. Back in 1994, I was building websites, and really saw the potential for using the Web as more than a content publishing medium, but instead as an interactive medium, one where HTML-based interfaces (at the time) would be user interfaces for software applications. The basic problem was how to create a language model that could easily build dynamic interfaces using databases and server-side logic, because technologies like CGI and Perl were just terrible for doing these kinds of things. I had prototyped an interactive online service, but didn't have the skills to build the back-end, so my brother JJ built a server-side utility to help me do this more easily, and it turned out that what he created had a lot of usefulness for a lot of people, so he starting selling it (ColdFusion 1.0), and it all snowballed into forming a company around this product with our friends. Everything was done over the Web, downloads, sales, support, etc. It was highly leveraged, and within a year we had thousands of customers.

What was the reasoning behind the Macromedia merger?
The merger with Macromedia is as much about the two companies as it is about the future direction of software on the Web. Content is becoming more dynamic, more application like, and Flash is a good indicator of that. And business applications, you know, the stuff that runs corporations, governments and the like, is becoming more content rich. So we have these convergent trends, all supportive of the end-user and user experience, and putting these companies together reflects the need to build an end-to-end platform that addresses this.

We also believe that there is a lot to be gained by connecting our authoring experience to the dynamic delivery engines and player runtimes, creating tighter integration, making the productivity of designers and developers better, both individuals and those working in teams.

I'm really excited about the new Macromedia. It really is a different kind of software company that I don't think the world has ever seen.

What are your thoughts on the current flash industry?
First of all, it's just amazing what's happening with Flash and the community around it. In fact, prior to the merger, I would spend time everyday on Flashkit.com, just amazed at what people were doing. It was that time I spent everyday at Flashkit that got me more and more excited about combining with Macromedia, as I saw just tremendous opportunity there.

It's just great when a technology platform can just self-motivate so many people to keep creating. When a platform draws out peoples creative visions for what the web can be, we know that something is just right on. But we're still very early in all of this. We've got such a diverse community now, with designers, animators, game developers, programmers, database folks, everyone touching Flash in different ways. One challenge will be organizing information and resources for Flash users in a way that meets all of these different communities' needs. You know, lets not confuse what an animator needs from what a complex, application UI programmer needs.

And this points to the broader challenge, which is how we as a community begin to articulate to the world that Flash is about a lot more than animation, which is still the common perception (part of that is our fault, because we all love those skip-intros, which are such an easy mark for folks). We need to start talking about Flash as a user interface environment, as something that both supplements and replaces HTML. The Internet is a very powerful medium and Flash has the opportunity to define how humans interact with computers in a really meaningful, useful way, and this spans both content and media into business applications. That's where a lot of organizations will really start to see the real value.

Where do you see the future of flash?
Flash can go in many directions, each pulled by the needs of the different user communities using the Flash platform. For those focused on rich media, we need to grow what is capable in the player to support richer experiences. We also need to expand the number of content designers who can get into Flash, as the tools are really quite difficult to learn for beginning users. A lot of third-party products like Swish, LiveMotion and Swift3D help to do this, and we're excited about these.
As Flash is more and more used to build the user interfaces for entire sites and applications, we really need to make sure the core player infrastructure is good enough to meet 80% of users needs. We came a long way with Flash5, but we still have a long way to go.

I'm particularly excited about Flash for web applications, and the integration between Flash and Macromedia's application server products. There's been this explosion of using the Web, mostly HTML, as front-ends for business applications, across the Internet, Intranets and Extranets. But HTML is very limited in terms of user interactivity, the richness of the connection to application servers where business logic and data resides, and the ability to easily target multiple desktop and device platforms. Flash overcomes a lot of these concerns, but the basic model for authoring Flash and connecting it to application servers is still way to complex. Clearly, the merger with Allaire is an indicator of where things will go with Flash for web applications.

Finally, today, the Web is mostly a one-way medium. When you browse a website, you're pretty much alone. The Web is a lonely place. With Flash talking to servers more, through HTTP and Sockets and the like, I think we can use Flash to help make the Web more of a two-way medium.

What products should we expect from Macromedia in the coming years?
Today, we have a broad range of products across what we call the 4 D's of the web lifecycle: design, development, delivery and display. We've got great products for designing content and user interfaces, including Dreamweaver, Fireworks, Flash and Freehand. We've got great products for developers and code-centered programmers, including UltraDev, Director, HomeSite and our Studio products. For the delivery of application logic, dynamic pages and dynamic graphics, we've got the Allaire heritage server products, ColdFusion and Jrun, as well as Generator. And for display, of course, we have the Flash and Shockwave Players. So this is a pretty comprehensive and compelling platform for web teams and organizations that are serious about leveraging the Web.

Going forward, I think you can expect to see deeper integration across all of these broad categories - e.g. servers and players, development tools and servers, design tools and development tools - as well as within the categories - e.g. we want UltraDev developers to easily take advantage of the awesome coding tools in HomeSite and Studio; likewise, we see the workflow between Fireworks and Dreamweaver improving, just as Flash and Freehand can be used well together.

What advice would you give to budding flashers?
Well, it depends on the person's background and interests. If you're a graphic designer, I think looking at using Freehand and Flash together can create some great results. If you're a programmer, focus on learning the depths of ActionScript, and perhaps spend some time playing with the HTTP and XMLSockets interfaces with ColdFusion and JRun as the back-end. I'd also say spend a lot of time at Flashkit.com! It's just such a great resource, and with all of the open source FLA files, it's just an endless supply of learning opportunities.

What can FK01 attendees expect from you?
I'd like to talk about the future of Flash on the Internet. I think Flash can play a very central role in how the Internet evolves, in how it becomes more useful for society at large. Of course, I'd also like to talk in more detail about some of our ideas about how Flash the technology can move forward, including expanding its role beyond rich media and into full-on applications.

Any closing words?
I'm glad to be a part of the community of people working on and with Flash, and look forward to what we can do together to make the Internet a better place.

If you would like further information on speaking opportunities please contact: Mark Fennell(webmaster@flashkit.com). We have conferences planned in LA, Sydney, and Europe and Asia as well, so let us know your interest!