An Interview with Mick Keily on Flex Camp Cleveland

So, Mick, our readers are wondering: Why do a Flex camp in Cleveland?

There's really a lot of interest in Flex in this area, even though it's hard to tell. There's no central organization to bring people together except for the Cleveland Flex user's group. We are so connected in the ColdFusion world...

Well, both JD Schrock and I really consider ourselves to be managers. JD is the point of contact with Adobe; in that respect, he is the manager. I'm as involved as he is in running the group on a day-to-day basis. Therefore I'm also the manager. But we have to choose; we can't both be managers. So I guess I'm the co-Manager.

Actually, I've managed user groups of different sorts for many years.

Really? Can you tell us a bit about that?

I was the founder and manager of several users groups, including the San Diego Clipper User's group and the San Diego Dreamweaver User Group. I was involved with .NET for a bit in 2003-2004, in San Diego. At the time, I was very impressed with the technology, but then learned enough about it to know that I personally wasn't that taken with it. So when I moved back to Cleveland in 2004, I consciously made a decision to get back into ColdFusion. I started the Cleveland ColdFusion user group in 2005. In 2007, I started CLEFUG with JD.

You said you were involved with .NET for a bit. How did that happen?

ColdFusion was kind of in the doldrums after the dot bomb and .NET was getting a lot of attention. During that time, new versions of popular Microsoft products were coming out – SQL Server 2005, a new Visual Studio – and they were getting a lot of publicity. They're good products too, but I'm very impressed with Flex and the distance that Adobe has put between Flex and Silverlight by Microsoft. I'm so pleased that Flex has grown so rapidly.

You said you're very excited about Flex. Why?

I'm excited about Flex for three reasons. First, the user experience is unlike anything that an HTML type of website could offer. Second, the performance seems to be so spectacular. And, finally, Flex promises to reduce Internet traffic to a great extent because of the intelligent design. The way the client and server interact is so much better thought out. There are far fewer web pages being sent out from the server to the client every time the user hits the submit button. All of that lessening of traffic will save bandwidth and help the Internet become a more efficient medium.

In an HTML web page, everything you do causes a new request for a new web page; the whole screen has to be repainted again, and all the information that's been accumulated on the client is lost every time a new request is made unless there is special programming done to retain that information. With the new Flex paradigm, more information will be retained and processed on the client.

So what will participants get from Flex Camp Cleveland?

In Flex camp, we focused on half a dozen different topics all intended for the Flex beginner. I mean someone who has had at least some exposure to server side development – ColdFusion, ASP, PHP and the like.

The classes we offer are all easy classes. We went by the idea of "a mile wide and an inch deep". We don't want to scare anybody off but we want to provide enough breadth to help anyone discover that they can build a Flex application. In Flex Camp Cleveland, you'll learn enough to gain the confidence that you can do it.

You have some notable speakers at Flex Camp Cleveland. For example, Ben Forta is speaking. Can you tell me more about that?

Ben Forta is within driving range of Cleveland. He lives in Detroit. Adam Lehman's territory includes Ohio, and he's giving the presentation on AIR. So two of our speakers are from Adobe. The other four are from Ohio, too. They are expert Flex developers, like Kris Schultz from Columbus. He has spoken at the Spring Break conference in Athens, OH.

What do you suggest for people who want to get their feet wet with Flex?

Make use of all of the resources available from Adobe, and from all the people who have already cut their teeth on Flex. Read the blogs – use whatever periodicals are available.

Would that include the upcoming Flex Authority?

It sure would, Judith. We're really looking forward to that!

Well, Flex Camp Cleveland sounds great, Mick. Good luck with the conference, and thanks for speaking with us today.

Thanks, Judith. It's been a pleasure.