In 2006 I got invited to the FlashForum Conference in Düsseldorf, Germany. It was my very first Flash conference and my topic was AS3 code optimization. I have talked a lot about bitwise operators, lookup tables and other techniques to speed your code up.
Now about three years later I wanted to prepare a very special talk for FOTB and make a step forward by getting rid of old habits and idioms.
Before FOTB I was not sure if I can present Apparat at all. For me as an autodidact it is not always easy to solve certain issues. Mario Klingemann talked about Magic Moments in Brighton. I guess I had one after a long time of thinking and failing. I got really into the flow and everything became so clear. Stay tuned for more detailed posts on the technique behind the different compilers.
However this was a really special conference for me. The standing ovations made me completely happy and I was absolutely overwhelmed by the response. After all those sleepless nights it was a huge gift of appreciation for my work. I will definitely never forget that moment and all I can say is thank you. If you spend so much time working on an opensource project this is really the best that can happen. “Leaving the Sandbox” came from a long background. The end of the session was a really emotional for me. Thank you John for inviting me.
You made history! Really your talk was the most discussed of the whole conference and I never experienced reactions like this at any conference before. Thanks for kicking Adobe`s ass.
I wish they would just give you a huge pay check for what you`ve already done ;-)
Looking forward for more awesomeness from you!
Benz
When they make a Nobel prize for Flash Development, you’ll get my vote :)
Passion about programming and commitment to work on it and make something out of nothing deserve respect and applauses. I would have like to make it for your presentation, but congratulations anyway ;)
Alternativa team with you, man! :)
You’re great!
Joa,
I myself missed your talk at this year’s FOTB (I was late and the room was jam-packed so they didn’t let us in – I would have been happy to sit on the floor to attend). I saw your session last year at FOTB ’08 and I’m an avid follower of all the work posted on this blog.
I totally agree with “Peter Strømberg” above about the “Nobel prize” for open-source Flash Development and you’d have my vote for the great work you’re doing with “Apparat” as well as your other tools and your willingness to explain and demystify some complex topics for the Flash community :).
BTW, anyone else reading this post interested in such an award? Well it doesn’t have to be on a grand scale as a “Nobel” prize, but an award is needed. I’m willing to help bring together sponsors for such an award through my network.
I know we have Adobe MAX awards, FWA, and other somewhat web dev related awards such as thenetawards. But we as an open community have no means to reward (apart for giving them kudos at international events) these hard working individuals behind such great open-source toolkits and projects such as Joa Ebert’s dev tools; Papervision3D, Away3D, Asual/Rostislav’s SWFAdress, SWFObject, frameworks such as Swiz, PureMVC, Mate (add more Flash-related tools you like here…)
I for one know that without these open-source tools and these individuals’ willingness to share their knowledge with the community, I wouldn’t be as productive in my line of work.
A trend that I’m seeing and that I’ve shared on many panels about web development with the Adobe Flash technology, is the fact that development with the Adobe Flash is becoming ever more complex – it can’t be helped, it’s just a natural progression. The question is what’s been done about this?!
One way the community is tackling this is that we have loads of great speakers (“luminaries” I call them) that we look forward to see every year at events such as the FOTB, FITC et al. These speakers are spending a lot of their time understanding and researching on some hard and advanced topics and then “demystify” these topics to the rest of the community. Of course, names such as yourself Joa, Grant Skinner, Mario Klingemann, Ralph Hawert, Andre Michelle, Aral Balkan and many many more (forgive me if I missed your name, if you feel left out) have been doing this and are still actively doing this.
Sorry for the long post. Once again, thanks Joa (and the rest of the community) for sharing your knowledge – I can’t wait for FOTB ’10!