Ref 65: Flash Boys

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Significant Flash and digital design expos and their sponsors:

2000
- pres

Macromedia and their boys

Macromedia are the gold sponsors of the Flashforward (FF) conferences. These have been running since the inaugural session in San Francisco 2000. The conferences have helped promote and showcase online projects that use Flash as a core technology, which in turn sustains interest and energy around their product. In ever increasing amounts, the FF conferences are failing to involve critical dialogue or artworks that embody critical commentaries.

Rather, the conferences are becoming more commercial -- focusing on technique and programming orientated master classes. In their (lynda.com and uda.com ) choices of conference speakers they have helped the visibility of a group of key newmedia developers. Below are a list of the main practitioners using Flash. The second list is used to draw comparisons on the inequality in the volume of visible women.

Visible male Flash practitioners:

Branden Hall (US)

It is well acknowledged that female practitioners are under- represented and are often invisible in the field of digital design. The list below shows the notable visible women:

Amy Franceschini (US)

A list of less well known but not completely invisible practitioners:

Eun-Ha Paek (US)

Zelda Rhiando (UK)

Selection from gusset.net. Available as electronic text:

Christine Smart (US)