Name: Dean Utian
Position: Architect turned multimedia consultant, with experience in teaching Director and other digital applications - teacher of two courses at the University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia and owner of a multimedia company called Multimedia Creative (www.multimediacreative.com).
Technologies used: Director MX 2004, Dreamweaver MX 2004, Fireworks MX 2004, Flash MX 2004.

"One of Macromedia's greatest contributions is their commitment to providing support and information to their users and the wider community."

Q. In the last ten years what non-Macromedia technologies (if any!!) have you envied?

A. I have used a range of non-Macromedia software, particularly Adobe products. Over recent years, my main envy is within Macromedia itself. I have envied the development and focus on Flash, which has far outpaced the development of Director.

Q. When it comes to enterprise-class development, what do you consider Macromedia's main contribution to be in terms of technology and inspiration?

A. Macromedia has promoted high impact multimedia experiences and has given the community a wealth of resources and exposure on their site. One of Macromedia's greatest contributions is their commitment to providing support and information to their users and the wider community.

Q. Having put the X into eXperience, what new areas are you looking forward to Macromedia's team heading off into (including as part of a merged Adobe-Macromedia)?

A. Since Director is my primary Macromedia used product, I would like to see it get more exposure. Flash has had the limelight and main focus by Macromedia over the last few years and Director has been neglected. A perception has been created that Flash and Director are competing technologies and that Director will eventually be phased out. I would like to see Director become more part of the family of products. I'd like to see better integration of Photoshop and Illustrator into Director. I would also like to see an update of 3D in Director.

Name: Danny Patterson
Position: Manager of User Interface Development for POPstick (www.popstick.com), a Boston-based interactive marketing company with an emphasis in Rich Internet Application development. A partner at CommunityMX and a member of Team Macromedia Flash.
Technologies used: Flash, ColdFusion, Flash Remoting, Flash Communication Server, Flex.

"The Flash Platform is quickly emerging as the standard for delivering high-quality content and applications on the web."

Q. In the last ten years what non-Macromedia technologies (if any!!) have you envied?

A. I find that as a Flash developer, most people envy me. Because Flash Player is so ubiquitous, I can deliver applications to a very wide audience. And without much work, these applications can truly run cross-browser and cross-platform. The tools available to Flash developers are growing.

Q. When it comes to enterprise-class development, what do you consider Macromedia's main contribution to be in terms of technology and inspiration?

A. The Flash Player is definitely Macromedia's largest contribution. The Flash Platform is quickly emerging as the standard for delivering high-quality content and applications on the web. The ActionScript language is maturing nicely and I am encouraged by Macromedia's involvement in ECMA International.

Q. Having put the X into eXperience, what new areas are you looking forward to Macromedia's team heading off into (including as part of a merged Adobe-Macromedia)?

A. The obvious answer to that question is the mobile market. However, creating mobile content and applications doesn't really excite me personally until there is more advancement in the hardware for these devices. Once we are able to run Flash Player 7 or even 8 on a cell phone, then I'll jump on the bandwagon. Right now I'm most looking forward to the integration of Flash with Adobe video products like After Effects. The new video features that I've seen in Flash Player 8 are very cool, and we need some great new tools to take advantage of them. The advancement of ActionScript is also very exciting. I am looking forward to when ActionScript is fully compliant with the ECMAScript 4 proposal. And advancements within the ECMA group in areas like XML are also promising. ActionScript is already a good language, but I am looking forward to its future.