Picture this... A big newspaper news room circa 1950's or so. A copy boy runs in and yells to everyone present. The sound of typewriters stop, the hum of the printing press winds down and the whole room comes to a hush...
Copy boy: "News Flash!!! It's finally retiring!!"Reporter: "What's retiring?"Copy boy: "Flash!"News Editor: "What? As in Flash Gordon?" (Yossie's note: I guess I am showing my age! :-)Copy boy: "Nope... Adobe Flash!"
That's right, after years of leadership and having been responsible for creating gaming, education and video industries, Adobe has finally announced that Flash will be discontinued by 2020. That means that web based developers have less then three years to convert their Flash based websites over to HTML5, WebGL or Webassembly.
So, why should this concern us Ed-Tech types?
Well, there are a HUGE number of educational websites that are based on Flash technology and the cost of moving them and their data over to the newer technologies would be hugely expensive. My fear is that they will just be shutting down rather than retooling. What makes this even more shocking is that we could lose a very large number of Jewish Educational websites especially since many of the Hebrew sites are created with Flash. Even now, since Google Chrome does not run Flash without bypassing default settings, I can't begin to tell you how many calls a week I get about workarounds! Imagine what it will be like by 2020!!
So, be prepared for some of your favorite sites to "retire" off into the sunset, just like my old hero Flash Gordon.
As always, I solicit your comments on the blogsite.
Yossie
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