Special Profile: Christian Cantrell, Macromedia Server Community Manager

 
Dec 14, 2002

By Judith Dinowitz

This profile is based on an email interview with Christian Cantrell.

Christian Cantrell, Macromedia Server Community Manager Since Devcon 2002, Macromedia's strategy has been the integration of its products and the cross-pollination of its developer communities. That focus has never been more evident than in the choice of Christian Cantrell as the new Server Community Manager. Christian brings to the position his expertise in Java, ColdFusion and Flash. Before coming to Macromedia, he managed a team of Java/JSP programmers at Amazing Media in Fairfax, VA. He has been working with ColdFusion and Java for the last five years with increasing emphasis on ColdFusion, especially with the introduction of the MX platform. Christian's name is strongly identified with Flash. He co-authored Macromedia Flash Enabled from New Riders and was the speaker on "Flash Remoting with Flash MX and ColdFusion MX" at FlashForward in July 2002.

When asked what makes him suited to the role of Community Manager, Christian emphasizes his love of ColdFusion, his appreciation of ColdFusion's power and elegance, and his experience with Java. "I have a huge appreciation for the power of ColdFusion as well as a thorough understanding of the development process. ColdFusion provides me with what I need to deliver highly functional applications as efficiently as possible, and I understand how important that is to web developers." He notes that he has several years of experience with Java, "which not only allows [him] insight into the implementation of ColdFusion MX, but also allows [him] to extend ColdFusion's reach into the Java community."

In addition, since Christian has been working with Macromedia in various capacities for several years, he's got the contacts and the internal relationships within the company that will allow him to effectively address the needs and concerns of the ColdFusion community.

"What exactly does the Server Community Manager do?" you might ask. Christian says one of the most important aspects of his job is to "make sure that the lines of communication between the ColdFusion community and Macromedia remain open, effective and productive." The other roles he will play include:

  • brainstorming with the community to help guide future product direction.
  • ensuring that the Macromedia Developer Resource Kit has a full complement of ColdFusion-related material.
  • helping developers address implementation or architectural challenges.
  • evangelizing ColdFusion and growing the community by extending its reach into other development communities.
When you talk to Christian, you definitely sense his excitement at the prospect of working with the ColdFusion community. "ColdFusion already plays a central role in Macromedia's application strategy, and that role is only going to become more important as Macromedia products evolve," he notes. "Macromedia is putting a lot of resources into ColdFusion because of the key position that it is in, and I am really excited to be a part of both the product and the community."

Christian explains, however, that because of the tight integration between ColdFusion and Java in MX, Macromedia felt it was important to expand the role of the ColdFusion Community Manager to include both server products. "Having the ColdFusion community manager also responsible for JRun is actually a great opportunity to introduce ColdFusion to the Java community and really extend its reach. In fact, if anything, ColdFusion's ability to run within the JRun server and integrate so nicely into Java development platforms is going to increase the emphasis on and importance of ColdFusion."

He understands the fear that the expanded responsibilities of the server manager may lessen his attention to the ColdFusion community. He wishes to assure ColdFusion developers that Macromedia considers ColdFusion a top priority. "ColdFusion is central to Macromedia's web strategy both short and long term, and part of what makes ColdFusion the unique product that it is, is the strength of its community. Ensuring that the ColdFusion community gets the support that it needs is my highest priority." He feels that as ColdFusion is built partially on JRun technology and ColdFusion for J2EE can be run inside of the JRun server, there is a synergy between the products that will bring the two communities closer together.

Christian points out three things that make ColdFusion MX the most important ColdFusion release so far:

  1. CFMX is built on the Java platform and provides support for new and emerging web application standards like XML and web services.
  2. The introduction of components give ColdFusion developers the option of leveraging a more modular development approach.
  3. Native support for Flash Remoting allows rich Internet applications to be built with ColdFusion at their core.
Macromedia's future plans include improving on these advantages. "We will continue developing a product that contains innovative new functionality, promotes integration across technologies and makes it easy to build applications on top of open standards."

A few weeks ago, Mike Chambers, who was at the time the Interim ColdFusion Community Manager at Macromedia, announced that the company intends to be more aggressive about marketing to and communicating with the ColdFusion community. Christian plans to engage in a dialogue with the community itself about how to best accomplish this more intense level of communication. "I will be looking for new ways to elicit and organize more specific feedback from the community regarding both their goals as developers and the techniques they need to accomplish those goals."

What should ColdFusion developers be doing to increase their skills and their marketability in today's economy? Christian suggests they keep an eye on XML and web services and other emerging Web standards. He says it's also a good idea to hone one's knowledge of object-oriented design. "Although ColdFusion is not an object-oriented language and in no way requires an object-oriented architecture, the introduction of components in MX does give developers the ability to leverage the advantages of more modular design."

Christian wants us to know that he is here to serve the community. "We understand that the advancement of a product like ColdFusion can't happen without input and involvement from the developers who use the product, so I would like to invite everyone within the ColdFusion community to contact me at any time with questions, ideas, suggestions or any issues they may have." You can email Christian at Cantrell@macromedia.com.

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