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

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

Regards
vivek

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

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

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.