Flash and a potted history of Accessibility standards.
Personally, I?m tired of anti flash people. Transversely, I?m tired of Flash snobs. The real issue here is accessibility ? internet creates a thing called accessibility > people have a need for a user interface > HTML reigns supreme as a free way of distributing website standards > CSS comes along and makes it easy to create websites which resemble print design > Browser wars continue to make it unbelievably difficult to display CSS styles the same way in every Browser > CSS becomes a pain in the @$$. Flash pages have been knocking around looking great but being annoyingly big in file sizes > Flash costs a lot of money to buy > actionscript is hard to learn > developers get frustrated > accessibility standards are made important by Google Search engine > Flash gets a bad rep.

We?re like Flash people, but we?re like HTML people? (is that allowed?)
This is the potted history of how things work in the land of web geeks. Geeks love CSS and HTML, Media and advertising folk LOVE Flash. Website development remains a pain in the @$$. Apart from those who are visually impaired and unable to view interactive movie files, Flash kicks the butt of anyone trying to create a website outside of the conventional static page standard. Where is the bridge?? And what constitutes accessibility really?? Well, me and Aaron Franco of nothingGrinder hope to kill the noise and create the bridge between those who love websites that work and those of you who want to create a website that looks uniquely eye catching. We use Flash ? but we?re not Flash snobs. The Ego is dead and we?re moving into the uncharted territory of Accessible Flash websites.

Frustrations in the land of Funding.
We started this concept in 2007 through a research and development award given to us by EPIS (Edinburgh Pre-Incubation Scheme) and have stayed the course. Unlike others who have dropped their gnarly new web ideas to attack new markets and new territories of the web. We?ve burned a lot of our own personal money to what most say is impossible or a waste of time. Admittedly, I often feel this way as well. The landscape of the web changes dramatically everyday. One thing has stayed true throughout the development of the web: People are resistant to change but love the idea of a groundbreaking force in the industry. Securing funding in a market that doesn?t exist yet is impossible ? but we haven?t given up and we?re giving it our all every single day. What is most interesting to me is the amount of feedback we get from some very successful VC?s and how they can see the value in what we?re producing but because we cannot show the Business acumen to follow through. Or show the product agility or user numbers just yet to prove there is a market value, they always respectfully stay away. Our major source of frustration is how people who are attempting to repackage the wheel i.e. A new Social Media aggregator, ecommerce buying tool, Search Engine or Blog poster get tons of cash to try and fail and ultimately fold under the giants that have already created a market trend. So what ultimately gets the funding is someone latching onto the latest big thing by creating a small idea in the form of an API that utilises a web-fad. I?ve seen many peers try a new type of Social Community website and die a slow death creating a tool that is basically useless. And have also seen too many Twitter Applications get money for something that takes a couple weeks to develop but months upon months to market effectively.

We?re creating an industry based on everything.
As dumb and completely ungrounded as this may sound. That?s actually what we?re doing here. We?re attempting to create a new rule book for web standards. One that follows traditional web design and proven market results and performance while at the same time creating new pathways for how people can interact with their own webspace. We?re building a flexible Media Rich framework that delivers Flash based websites that work like HTML plus interact with social media websites, connect to Ecommerce platforms, all whilst maintaining a high standard of design and usability geared towards the end user.  Maybe now you can see why most people run screaming for the hills. Not only is this project mammoth and unfounded but to some this idea might sound similar to Facebook and I can see how it might, but in no way will our platform resemble Facebook  - let?s face it I?m a pretty young guy and even I?m older than the internet, the rules get re-written all the time and because we?re entering the market in the post modern era of bad investments in stupid web ideas based on a space of infinite possibilities. A couple of guys attempting a huge project upon an unpopular web development tool get the short end of the stick. Don?t get me wrong, I?m not actually complaining. If we win, we can be slightly smug. If we lose, we can accept the ?I told you so? but we are most certainly groundbreaking and perhaps that is how the rules have changed. We have to prove the concept for a thing that doesn?t completely exist but find it hard to prove the concept without an adequate amount of funding. Ground breaking ideas hardly get funded and safe/proven market strategies is the way to get ahead. One thing is for sure, we might not get paid much for what we?re doing but we love our work. Hard is good, it builds character, so we continue through the naysaying at a furious pace.

What?s next?
Believe it or not, we?ve just about completed the concept! We?re ready to move forward with a product. Two years in the making with very little funding upon the backs of two guys based on opposite sides of the planet are just about ready to release the platform we?ve been talking about since we first discovered the web. And that circle of life continues, we?ll be hitting VC?s up for investment, looking at alternative funding possibilities and increasing our user base for this first iteration of the product. In the meantime, we will be following the mantra that started this great journey years ago -?BOOTSTRAP HO!!?