[Pre]Occupy Flash
Over the last couple of days, a new movement within the web world has emerged, “Occupy Flash” is a movement aimed to rid the world of the Adobe Flash Plugin… they even have a manifesto. This is a bold move, especially considering that 99% of internet enabled computers have the Flash plugin installed.
I wish them luck and, in the main, I absolutely agree with their view of the Flash plugin, it is disruptive, particularly in our modern world and is an archaic and troublesome gremlin that offers little in terms of a unified user experience and accessibiltiy. However, I do not agree with the methods proposed by the group, and must confess that we, once again, appear to be blaming Adobe rather than the web community as a whole.
Let me explain. Flash (as originally developed by Macromedia) filled a gap in the market. It offered exciting and new possibilities to both the web designer and the client; it brought the internet to life. I remember some great interactive websites being created, , one website I do remember was the “Don’t Click It” website (http://dontclick.it/). This website allowed you to navigate and browse without having to click a single button, in fact the aim was to train your brain not to click a button. The entire site was built in Flash… that was just shy of 10 years ago.
Flash was truly a wonderful tool that offered a lot more possibilities than HTML offered …. at the time.
However, web browsers have finally caught up and have, in truth, developed a much more robust, efficient and more importantly, standards based framework that is already widely available to designers and developers alike. The browsers have now caught up with Flash and we have the tools available to develop “Flash” style websites that are 100% better in every way, than if they utilised the Flash plugin.
This is why I am 100% behind the aims of the movement. I believe that the time for Flash has passed, but I believe the aims in achieving these goals need to be re-examined. It is not the fault of Adobe (or Macromedia) that Flash has become so prominent on the web. It is the fault of both the browser makers (Microsoft, Apple, Mozilla, et al) but most importantly, it is the fault of the web designers and developers around the world… and it is with these designers and developers that we really need to focus upon. If we can get them to change their development methods, moving from Flash to HTML5 & CSS3, the web itself will eventually change.
It is here that the battle will be fought (& won??). When I meet a client to talk about possible work and the way we will build things, together, I never recommend Flash. They may mention it, but a quick five minute talk to them about the benefits of using HTML5 and its components, quickly persuades them otherwise. It is with this same philosophy that I strongly believe will change the balance of Flash in our “universe”. Through changing the views (and through educating) our clients, we can address the balance.
Developers too need to understand the benefits of HTML over Flash. Standards Compliance, Accessibility, Uniformity, Cross Browser Compatibility… these are just a few of the tiny (yet monumental) benefits that Flash cannot address … and I have not even moved on to talk about Mobile browsing. Developers need to take the plunge and move away from developing in Flash to developing in a Standards based manner.
The browsers have caught up… now the developers need to. I hope occupy flash works, but until sites are developed to not require Flash (Google Analytics, You Tube, Facebook games, etc) we cannot really expect the public to abandon a platform that has been a requirements for the past ten years. It is only when Flash is no longer needed, when it will no longer be used and the responsibility for that lays firmly on the shoulder of the browsers and the developers.
So let us begin….
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