Back in the dark mists of internet history (around 5 years or
so), there was a rush to making websites more animated in an
attempt to impress customers. One of the main ways for
organisations to do this was to use
Macromedia Flash and many sites acquired Flash front ends that
pushed prospects and customers away in droves.
These Flash front ends were pasted onto existing static websites
and, pretty soon, organisations started to put a "Skip intro"
button alongside these expensive, snazzy bits of branding. The use
of Flash fell away as many found the "Skip intro" button was being
hit before the Flash animation had time to start shaking its
booty.
Then, web bureaux and clever in-house web teams found Flash
needn't be just for front ends. It could be used to make whole
websites more immersive and could, if used judiciously, be very
attractive to the customer.
However, Flash website creation was not an easy task and,
although pretty, were outside the consideration of those who wanted
a site that could be easily changed to reflect market forces.
Therefore, retail found Flash alluring, but constraining.
In those early days, most websites were either very simple,
managed with the likes of Microsoft Publisher, or were a little
more complex, managed with the likes of Macromedia DreamWeaver.
But, as organisations wanted more control, the concept of a content
management system (CMS) came about. Most CMS systems concentrated
on managing the publishing of text and simple graphics from the
creator within the organisation directly to the website itself. The
vast majority of CMS systems therefore countered against the use of
Flash except as discrete objects that could be dropped into
websites, such as adverts or animations.
The options were to be Flash with slow market response, or fast
and boring.
Along comes 10CMS, a company that specialises in providing the
means for managing Flash within a user's website. 10CMS, an Irish
company, does not try to replace existing CMS systems, but bolts on
to manage the Flash content. Taking Flash assets, it then "dumbs
down" the interface while beefing up the options, enabling those
used to dealing with web content within existing CMSs to create hot
spots, pop ups, Flash composites and so on without needing any
knowledge of Flash itself.
As an example, for those in the furniture retail sector, this
means that a Flash animation of a living room can have
user-assigned roll-over hot spots that can then bring up
descriptions and prices of sofas, lamps, tables and so on as the
customer rolls the cursor around. Should the furniture retailer's
sale finish, the following day's new sale can be easily set up with
new pricing and so on - without the need to go to the hosting web
company or a bunch of hyper techies to re-write everything from
scratch. Extra items can be added, new animations included - the
user gains a lot of options.
But, since Adobe took over Macromedia, a few issues have crept
in. Firstly, Flash is only one part of the overall offering - there
is now Flex and Air. Also, Adobe is no longer the only player on
the radar. The battle for the rich internet application (RIA) is
on, and Microsoft has decided this is an area it wants to fight
for. Microsoft's Silverlight environment has been broadly accepted
and, while trailing the functionality of Adobe's solutions, it is
making inroads in the RIA development community.
However, 10CMS does not see any of this as a problem. The stated
aim of the company is to be the management tool of choice for rich
media content and it plans to cover whatever rich media content
comes along. While it focuses Adobe, bringing on Flex and support
for Air, Microsoft is certainly not off its radar.
For those looking at bringing rich media into their web
environments, then 10CMS could be a good way forward. Without
needing to throw out existing web CMS systems, such a plug-in could
give the flexibility required, while still leaving control in the
users' hands, rather than the techies.