Why we don’t need a MAX in India ..
Vivek started a very interesting discussion on his blog where he’s questioning Adobe’s decision to not have a MAX in India this year. His post is full of sentiment and disappointment and I totally share the disappointment with him, I was very excited when Ted Patrick hinted that Bangalore was being considered but when the final locations were announced it was a bummer 
The discussion in the comments of Vivek’s post has been quite interesting … Abdul expressed that it might not be very practical from an organizers perspective, given that the Adobe community in India is still quite nascent and I kinda agree with him having had the experience of organizing initRIA and several local FUG meets. That said I also feel that its quite a tough judgement call and I hope that Adobe would have given Bangalore due diligence before rejecting it.
Peter Elst also joined the discussion and expressed a very important point that I totally agree with …
Adobe has an opportunity and needs to step up to the plate, failing that it takes little for Microsoft to start actively pushing out their technology to developers and tip the balance of the current ‘outsourcing ecosystem’.
Its just a matter of time for Microsoft to push more money into it and start promoting Silverlight. I firmly believe Adobe needs to be ahead of the curve here.
Yes, Adobe needs to step up and stay ahead of the curve here in India, before it becomes economically more practical for organizations to build RIAs using Microsoft’s technologies, even though the Flash Platform is a better option technologically.
Now is organizing MAX in India the way to stay ahead of this curve? I don’t think so …. events in general is definitely one area but there are several other things that Adobe needs to spend time and money on, as far events are concerned, we have gone from no events in 2007 to some events in 2008 .. thats not too bad.
So here are the things that Adobe needs to do to stay ahead of the curve and MAX is not what we really need at this point ..
- Adobe needs to solve the problem of Books,there are very few Flex, Flash, AS3 books available in India (mostly only the O’Rielly ones)
- Adobe needs to solve the problem of Developer Training, there is currently only one company providing professional training on Adobe’s Technology Platform in india.
- Adobe needs to fix the problems related to buying Adobe software in India, it takes 4+ weeks to buy a copy of Flex Builder in India
- Adobe needs to penetrate the education system better, Microsoft VC++/C# are taught as compulsory subjects in 3rd year Computer Science Engineering in most of the 1200 or so engineering colleges in India. Microsoft also has a very active Student Partners program.
- Adobe needs to educate the big Software services players Infosys, TCS, Wipro and the like and have them endorse Adobe’s technologies. Microsoft’s technologies are taught as specialties in the training centers of these companies, which are like universities in themselves and churn out thousands of fresh new professionals every year.
Thus in my opinion Adobe’s time and resources are better spent in the above areas rather than in a big event like MAX . I’m not saying that events are not important, I would totally love it if we had a MAX in India .. but right now that is not my biggest demand from Adobe.
March 23rd, 2008
Good post Mrinal, and definitely agree that there are more pressing needs than simply organizing a conference. More than anything the means need to be there for developers to start adopting Adobe technology.
Flex going open source is an important move in this sense.
“Adobe needs to educate the big Software services players Infosys, TCS, Wipro and the like and have them endorse Adobe’s technologies. Microsoft’s technologies are taught as specialties in the training centers of these companies, which are like universities in themselves and churn out thousands of fresh new professionals every year.”
This is where I see the need for a conference like MAX, for larger companies to take technology seriously there needs to be some commitment from Adobe and a strong presence.
I’m not saying MAX is something that will change everything but think it sends the wrong message not pressing Adobe to bring it to India.
Distribution and software pricing are definite issues, which to some extent we also see happening in Europe — but there are some things that can immediately be looked at to start making a difference.
March 23rd, 2008
Thanks Peter I’m glad you like the post .. the intention is to bring attention to the bigger scope of problems relating to the Adobe’s ecosystem in India .. everyone knows how important this ecosystem is to the success of a majority of software projects across the globe , hence Adobe has to have special focus here
Now to Adobe’s credit they have been paying a lot of attention and there has been a lot of improvement since the same time last year .. Adobe’s developer relations team and the evangelism team have been extremely helpful and are working quite hard but there is still a lot more to do.
I do agree with your point on how MAX could help influence big services firms .. i’ve noticed a lot traction within the Adobe world in India this year .. i know of multiple events that are being planned both by adobe and others… none of these would be of the scale of MAX but all of them will still have some effect.
The distribution problems suck … I mean they kinda defeat the purpose of all this other Marketing/Evangelism stuff
March 23rd, 2008
Nice points. Adobe has not been doing as much as Macromedia used to. Adobe organizes some events, which is mostly around other themes and I never get to know about those except at last moment or when it’s past.
Macromedia did more things when Macromedia just had sales presence in India, once engineering started in India, I had expected more but it didn’t happen. I was expecting more kick ass technical events, which never happened and we always complained.
Adobe India and Adobe USA are two different business units and these things make a lot of difference when it comes to doing anything like events or such things.
Adobe India is different organization headed by someone else, a lot of things depend on Adobe India management. I am sure, budget, finance, logistics, etc are the issues. Probably, Adobe India is not much interested.
Adobe India has it’s own agenda when it comes to evangelism, we can see evangelists report to engineering manager/head – which is not the case in USA, afaik.
So to cut it short – Adobe USA and Adobe India have different visions, I am just guessing things, as again – disclaimer: I might be misjudging and be totally wrong.
Large corporations have all these issues, so things are stuck at higher level and no one gets to think of community, etc.
Thanks
-abdul
March 23rd, 2008
Thanks Mrinal for posting this and i too agree with your points. I hope to see some waves
soon.
Regards
vivek
March 24th, 2008
i agree with most of the points discussed here,one has to concentrate on the larger issues first, moreover Indian ecosystem has its own ways and terms of doing things..but from our/community perspective i feel initiatives like initRIA and ongoing BFUG gives the right momentum and we must not stop ourselves from doing that and should not just bind ourselves with the thoughts of having MAX or a larger event may be in India.
March 24th, 2008
I think the reason for no Adobe MAX in India comes down to funding and the ability to recoup costs thru admission prices. I’ve never run such an event but I image the cost is high.
While an Adobe MAX event in India would send a strong message about it’s commitment developers and industry leaders, I don’t think its the right thing for the ecosystem at this time.
There are many things that need to be accomplished for the Flex ecosystem in India to thrive and survive (thanks for listing some of them Mrinal). Having a glitzy MAX event in India might give the illusion that everything is grand, but at the end of the day we will still have to execute on these other challenges (books, distribution, trainers, local awareness, etc) for things to really take off.
The Adobe India team is working on initiatives around education and the large software services providers you mentioned. I’m working with community leaders on some of the other areas. I’m trying to stay focused on the few initiatives that will result in greater Flex awareness and adoption.
If you are a community member who is frustrated by the lack of a MAX event in India, I would first apologize that there is not a better public explanation of why. Secondly, I would say don’t despair, there are passionate people in the community and in the local Adobe India teams who are working towards building a strong Flex community and ecosystem. Thirdly, I’d ask you to consider ways that you yourself can get involved to help move things forward. A strong community needs speakers, writers, trainers, forum participants, innovators and more… If we can find more people to participate in these roles and others, I think we can have many successful and fun developer events across India over the next years.
John
March 27th, 2008
Well written article. It will be nice if you can also publish this piece of information in SiliconIndia.com as I am a member of SiliconIndia I am sure that this information will be useful for most of the members. http://www.siliconindia.com/register.php?id=T49I1Fh5
April 22nd, 2008
Good post Mrinal! One more pressing needs i can identify is, the need to take the Macromedia Certification forward to Flash CS3, AS 3.0, Flex, AIR etc. There has been no much move in certification titles and questionaairs from since Adobe has taken over Macromedia… or am i being too lazy to catch that…!
April 22nd, 2008
Komal, I believe there are certifications already available for all CS3 products and Flex 2.
AIR certification would not make any sense since its just a runtime .. it would be like saying I’m certified in teh Flash Player.
Mrinal