I write –on average- two thousand words a week. As the creator and site moderator for a top-ranked MySpace Photography forum (now in stealth mode as MySpace went … well … tits up) thousands of words are churned each week: posts explaining photographic concepts and processing techniques, moderating a weekly photographic event; Combining technical, conceptual language with LOLspeak (and grateful for it).

This, on top of the actual photography and other design work taken on, would seem to leave little time for other things. Not quite!

Apart from these pursuits, I sometime find myself brushing up -or off- skills reference Web Development. And therein lies a whole new set of linguistics.

I shall speak of Flash

When I began creating web sites (back in the Dark Ages) we had no job description. Based upon what we were doing, trying to do, wanting to do: a slew of new technologies and applications where born. HTML editors, Shockwave animations, and bless diehard Photoshop for embracing us as digital content creators and making our lives easier while realising our visions. However, back then (and it was “back then") if you didn’t know how to do it the hard way, you could easily be led astray and have a complete mess on your hands. Dreamweaver was a fantastic concept, but what it did to code was not always pretty. Shockwave beat the Heck out of GIF animations, but we wanted more! The ability to create complex sites and integrate dynamic content.

Yes! They gave us that too! It just took me a few years to return to it.

And … a few hours in, I was hitting a road bump in designing a Flash-driven website. Then it sunk in after a few more hours creating (and “borrowing") code snippets for actions. The Damascus moment: Flash sites are LINEAR! Why? Because they are frame-based!

So the question arises … Are Flash driven sites less interactive but appear more dynamic by default of the animated quality? Knee jerk says “Yes". Websites are still based on Hyper Text Markup Language. Most people roll HTML off their tongues with fluid use of the acronym without realising that the contraction is shorthand for HOW website architecture is established: a hypertext system. An almost perfect example of the tool defining the result. HTML approximates a rank structure that I have always felt to be organic and taxonomic. (A position I took back in 1993 when I jumped on the wagon and said “this WWW thing is here to stay!") A hierarchical architecture that easily allows for cross-referenced relationships between drilled down informational processes. The “Zed” to the x-y axis

But already my knee is jerking the other way, and I look to other linear media. Gaming: A defined linear process from Point A to B that provides an element of interactivity in the form of the gamer, plus their complete undivided attention; but that results in a Win or Lose scenario. So perhaps that’s not such a positive avenue. For in a website, everyone should be a winner.

Besides, I have miles more to go with developing my Flash coding skills. I am sure to adjust my thinking as I learn new twists and progressions. More then this excess of 500 words could cover. And bottom line, if I can provide a meaningful and content-rich site that delivers on its promise, with Flash or without Flash, then everyone is a winner.