It’s rare when I can apply my love of the Sports Guy to my day job but today I can. Bill Simmons had his boss on his podcast to talk about new media. Kind of random for a sports podcast, but hey. One of the things they touch on is the death of the newspapers and what makes the web so great. He had a pretty simple answer – the cursor:
You look at where the internet is today and I don’t think we’ve realized anywhere near the potential of this medium. The uniqueness and the eccentricities and the unique qualities of the cursor and what the cursor can do. It’s not just interactivity. They can create things that the cursor can make really interesting. The NBA trade machine on our website is fantastic. And it’s a unique thing that can’t be in other mediums.
I think he did a great job of nailing why I’m so excited about RIAs. Especially when you abstract “cursor” to anything – touch gestures, mouse clicks, whatever. The medium we have is 1) still at the very early stages and 2) a more interactive medium than we’ve ever had before.
This is why it’s so important to be able to create great looking content. You’ve got a wider audience than you’ve ever had before and tools that help create that unique experience. The key should be to get the most inspirational and creative people in the world thinking about the cursor. They’ve got the canvas but we need to help them with the tools to make their creativity become an interactive reality.
That’s why I’m so glad to be at Adobe. We do design tools. And if we can bring our design community to bear on the development world then we’re going to completely change how people think about this unique medium. It’s why a company like Microsoft, that knows developers, is so desperate to get designers. Both sides matter, but the interactivity of the internet requires design skills to take it to the next level. I’m excited to see what you guys come up with.
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