As Adobe Flash sunsets, we should celebrate the creative community it sparked

Ten years ago, I hit a career peak. I worked on an amazing project with Industrial Light and Magic, promoting “Pirates of the Caribbean 2.” Working with a team of talented designers and developers, we created a site using Flash as part of a campaign to win the Academy Award for best visual effects.

The concept was this: Play two videos on top of each other. One was the scene as it was shot on set, the other was the finished product with the ILM visual effects. By tracking the mouse, the VFX version would be masked, showing the original footage behind it.

I had worked in Flash for several years at that point, but I didn't really receive much of an introduction to the Flash community until I worked on this project. Our project and the team were nominated for two Webby Awards, something that I never expected. I mean, I didn't think that what we did was unique--but apparently it was. Just because our team thought it was a simple solution didn't mean that others were able to find that solution at all.

What was amazing about Flash was that it kept up with my creative curiosity. And through it, I was introduced to thousands of individuals that had the same level of creativity that I had and brought that creativity alive through code.

The news of Adobe’s decision to let Flash die has resurrected (in social media) the old debate about the technology. But that is the past. I haven't worked with Flash on the web for years, but the announcement and names I saw pop up in the discussions reminded me of the many people who have enriched my professional life through Flash.

Flash allowed me to let my creativity fly. As a product manager on the Flash and Flex product teams at Adobe, I was able to support other people’s creative ambitions as well. And as a community, we changed the way people interacted with the web and raised the bar for user experience that new technologies can now support.

It all comes down to community, which reminds me of two “Star Trek” quotes I used recently while giving a presentation on the importance of community.

In “The Wrath of Khan,” Spock says to Kirk, "The needs of the many, outweigh the needs of the few." And it is true, the needs of the community do outweigh the needs of a specific product, feature, or technology.

But later in the sequel, Kirk offers a response, saying, "The needs of the one, outweigh the needs of the many." This is equally accurate, because it is you, the one, who has creativity inside that needs to be unleashed. I'm proud of what the Flash community accomplished and I am constantly reminded how the individuals from this larger group continue to push the envelope.

And speaking of envelopes, ILM won the Oscar for best visual effects that year for “Pirates of the Caribbean 2.”

We lost the Webby, but that doesn't matter, because I won by being a part of a great community.

P.S. Congrats on the 10-year anniversary of your win, Big Spaceship.

Doug Winnie is the chief evangelist and community manager for LinkedIn Learning at LinkedIn and Microsoft. He is also a principal instructor for the platform, authoring over twenty courses on topics ranging from consumer hardware, product management, to computer science principles and programming. Outside of the office, Doug is an avid coder, teacher, and lacrosse coach. He lives in San Francisco.