Sean Voisen

The only people who value your specialist knowledge are the ones who already have it. — William Tozier, from On trivia and details and miscellanea

So true. Though I intend to comment on this quote from a perspective slightly different than the context in which it was used. And that is this:

Don’t expect people to be impressed by your expert craftsmanship, or the subtle nuances of your latest design, or the extraordinary elegance of a new algorithm, or the brilliance of your latest idea. Chances are that, unless they know what you know — unless they possess the skills that you possess — they simply won’t care because they won’t understand. They won’t get it. This is the reason why it’s never a good idea to do or to create something for the glorification of one’s own ego. True appreciation only comes from those who know what you know, who have empathy, who have shared understanding gained from similar experiences. And this is almost always going to be a very small percentage of the population. The rest of the masses will simply marvel and move on.

So, do something because you love to do it. Not because you want other people to love it as much as you do. Some of the happiest people in the world are also some of the most obscure.

It appears that I will be presenting at FITC in Toronto this year. I have presented at a few conferences in the past, but this will be my first Flash conference presentation. I’ll be hard at work in the next couple of weeks to figure out how best to make it fun! exciting! and interesting! Honest. The last time I was at FITC was four years ago at FITC 2004 in Toronto, but it still ranks as one of the best conferences I’ve attended. (And that’s excluding all the post-conference-day drinking, dining and general merriment.) I’m certain this year will do nothing to tarnish those memories.

The topic du jour: Sync It Up, an exploration of desktop-server data synchronization using AIR and its built-in SQLite database. It won’t have all the flashy bells, whistles and effects of something like Robert Hodgin’s presentation, or event Grant Skinner’s, but it should prove valuable to anyone getting into AIR development. And I plan to give away a fair amount of code.

So, if late April in Toronto sounds good to you, come check it out.

Ethan Eismann has an interesting rumination about the limitations of language when it comes to new technology. More specifically, he’s not a fan of the term “RIA.” (Ethan prefers the term “RIE” for “Rich Interactive Experience.”) Quite honestly, neither am I. I lump “RIA” in the same category of ridiculously contrived “marketing speak” as “Web 2.0,” “next-generation” and “innovative paradigms.” In a nutshell: terms without any substance — Twinkies of the English language.

Still — ever the hypocrite am I — I delivered an entire mini-lecture just the other day during my class at the Art Institute on the architecture of RIAs! The term is so pervasive that I feel like I sometimes have to use it in order for people to understand what the heck I am talking about.

But I probably shouldn’t feel this way.

The problem with language is that it is inherently limiting. As soon as you put a label — a word — on something you must limit it. You must box it in and try to make it conform to the definitions and properties prescribed by the symbol you have given it. But the thing itself is not the word. It is not the symbol. And this is a real problem, especially when trying to communicate the potentiality of things — the future of things that do not yet exist. Surely, when you broaden the definition of the word and you broaden the potentiality, but usually at the sake of clarity. A word like “experience” (as opposed to “application”) is so broad as to contain almost limitless potential, but what it gains in expansiveness it loses in descriptiveness.

Marketing gurus create new terminology like “RIA” and “Web 2.0” in order to force people to engage in new conversations without them dragging along their baggage of ingrained prejudices about what something is or is not. They also do it — I am convinced — to make themselves seem smart. But we should not have to keep inventing new words in order to have these new conversations. And we should not keep inventing new words just to boost our own egos. My grandparents do not know what an RIA is, nor do they care. They use their iMac to open websites on the Internet, and occasionally they use desktop software. Why can’t they call something like Buzzword software? That’s what it is, isn’t it? Why can’t a Flash application, one that is loaded in the browser or on the desktop, one that provides a truly amazing experience, simply be called “software?” Great, amazing, usable, interactive software.

Enough with the new words already.

Just a word of note to fellow San Diego-area Flash and Flex geeks: I will be giving a brief presentation again at the upcoming San Diego Flash User Group meeting this coming Wednesday, February 9. The topic du jour will be about implementing the MVC design pattern in Flash and Flex applications using Cairngorm. I promise it will only be semi-boring. Unless you already know everything there is to know about MVC and Cairngorm, in which case I will authorize you to keep yourself occupied by chiming in with witty comments, remarks and occasional nuggets of wisdom. Just don’t upstage me or I will hit you with my shoe.