Aral, in a nutshell
If you only have a minute, here's a tiny summary:
- I'm a human being, from planet Earth.
- I'm a professional speaker. (I regularly speak at international conferences like FlashForward, FITC, d.construct, and MacWorld.)
- I'm a consultant. (I consult on development processes and usability in general, and Flash and Flex in particular.)
- I'm a coach. (I coach and train development teams.)
- I'm a developer. Check out my latest open source project, SWX (a new data exchange format for Flash).
- I can chew gum and walk at the same time (most of the time; somewhat depends on the flavor of the gum and roughness of the terrain, as well as meteorological factors and the relation of Saturn to the North Star).
- But, most importantly, I love simplicity. I crave simplicity. I study simplicity. I practice simplicity. I take complex things and try to make them simpler. Complexity happens; simplicity, you have to strive for. Simple truly is beautiful!
Aral, in a watermelon
If you have a bit more time, why not loosen your collar, take off your shoes, grab a Piña Colada, and read on!
So you're here because you're wondering, "who is this Aral person?" Well, I've gone by many important-sounding titles in the past like "Flash Engineer", "Software Architect", "User Interface Designer", "Usability Engineer", and "Creative Technologist". I'm considering making my latest title "Man Who Has Many Important Titles".
All right, so that still doesn't tell you too much about me, does it? (Apart from the fact that I don't take big titles too seriously!)
How about some of the things I've done? Let's give that a shot and see how it goes.
He develops!
In the past, I used to develop things for other people. I started Flash development about a decade ago and I was fortunate enough to work on projects such as the K12 online school -- the first virtual school ever built. My last client project was for the Prime Minister's office in the United Kingdom, where I put the Prime Minister's residence (10 Downing Street) on the web in a Flash-based virtual tour.
These days, though, I work on my own projects. For the first time in my decade of work in this field, I have found myself in the position of being able to work on stuff that I find interesting and I feel truly grateful for that. My current passion is an open source project I'm developing called SWX.
SWX is a new data exchange format for Flash that uses native SWF files to exchange data. It's without doubt the easiest way to create data driven Flash applications and web sites. Also, unlike Flash Remoting, it actually works on Flash Lite and I predict it will become the de facto standard for data exchange for mobile Flash applications. Oh yeah, and most importantly, developing with it is fun!
He goes on tangents
Fun! Ah there's a lovely word! 
Having fun -- on a daily basis, in what you do -- is so important and yet so overlooked (especially by those weird creatures we call "adults") that I feel we have to make a special effort to make sure we don't forget it. Everything I'm doing with SWX is aimed at making it easier for developers to have fun with Flash (because developing Flash stuff is fun). At the end of the day, it all comes down to whether or not you're having fun with what you do every day. And if the answer is "no", then please do what you can to change things so that you are having fun. Because life really is too short to not do what you enjoy!
Wow, that was a tangent, wasn't it? (That's the lovely thing about writing an About page on your own blog: you don't have editors to keep you in line!) We were talking about SWX, weren't we?
Did I mention SWX is open source?
He open sources
No, no, I'm not an open saucer, I'm an open sourcer! OK, you got me: there is no such phrase, I made it up! My nifty as-you-type spelling checker in Firefox says so and my almost-as-nifty Dictionary widget in Dashboard confirms it. But that doesn't change the following fact:
I love open source.
I love the free flow of ideas and knowledge; the sharing; the community; the energy!
The Flash community has always been open, from the earliest days of Flashcoders, Flash Kit and Ultrashock. It's always been about sharing, learning, and creating new and exciting things. (Ah, the magic of creating things!)
I have learned so much from so many people in the Flash community over the years that I really don't know how to be a Flash developer without sharing what I do.
A few years ago, open source on the Flash Platform reached a tipping point and began a revolutionary new stage of expansion. It began to grow beyond the sharing of ActionScript code and FLA files as we witnessed the creation of open source compilers (like MTASC and swfmill), development tools (ASDT, FlashDevelop) and servers (AMFPHP, Red5, and others). At the very beginning of this revolutionary period, I founded OSFlash to act as a knowledge base and meeting place for this burgeoning movement. From its initial inception, OSFlash was quickly embraced by an amazing community of Flash developers. These same developers today fuel OSFlash, give it its character, and infuse it daily with heaps of positive energy and the magic of their creative efforts.
He writes!
I write. (Lots!) You probably already know this since you've been reading my words for at least a few minutes now. Either that or you're asleep. In which case, when you wake up, do drop me an email and I'll try and reword things.
Apart from my musings on this blog, I'm a published author and I've contributed to several books and magazine articles.
Other things I've written recently include an opinion piece for .net magazine, the Adobe Flex 2 QuickStart Guides, and six courses that cover topics ranging from introductory Flash and ActionScript 2 to Flex 2, ActionScript 3, best practices, and open source development.
He performs!
I love presenting. It probably has something to do with my theater and music background (I was heavily involved in musicals and I will finish the one I'm writing some day!)
I regularly speak at international conferences, both Flash conferences like FlashForward, FITC, and Flash on the Beach, and general web and industry conferences like d.construct, Wizards of OS, and MacWorld.
He consults!
One of the things I absolutely love is consulting with companies on their development processes (I'm a big fan of agile development methodologies like eXtreme Programming) and usability in general, and, of course, Flash and Flex in particular.
He coaches!
Alongside my consulting, I also train and coach teams.
It's always a wonderful experience to meet new people, be exposed to different cultures, and, most importantly, to affect positive change and improve the daily workflow of a team. At the end of the day, my consulting and coaching improve the daily welfare of developers and development teams. Development processes that work, projects that succeed, developers that are happy and excited about developing again -- seeing that sort of impact is a priceless reward in and of itself.
He lives in Brighton!
When I'm not flying around the world consulting, you can find me attempting to enjoy Life, the Internet, and Everything in the lovely seaside town of Brighton, in the United Kingdom.
He can walk, and chew gum at the same time!
Umm, well, yeah, kind of... sometimes.
Recent Comments