Late this evening, I saw a tweet from Netflix UI engineer and interaction design guru Bill Scott linking to an article about Netflix using "HTML5" to deliver "amazing User Interfaces". "OK. I'll bite" I thought.

Reading through the article, and others like it, I noticed more than a few troubling patterns. Each one:

1. could be searched, and have each instance of the word "HTML5" replaced with "HTML" or "the web" and written 5 years ago

2. doesn't mention any specific implementations involving elements or functionality added in the HTML5 spec

3. consisently points to faster iterations as a benefit of HTML5

4. makes references to "HTML5 UI" and "UX" and

5. confused their custom Webkit instance for "HTML5"

Some notable quotes from these posts:

"Of course, with HTML5 interfaces..."

What exactly is an "HTML5 interface"? Canvas? Drag and Drop? HTML5 is mainly about semantics, and very little was added outside of messaging and media elements for "UI".

"...such animation usually involves making changes to the properties of the elements on the screen, such as their position, size, etc."
Isn't that  how every animation works in any language?

"The system leverages tools like Ant, YUI Compressor, and Juicer and incorporates popular HTML5 frameworks like LESS, in addition to Netflix-specific code."

LESS has nothing to do with HTML5. It's a CSS preprocessor and dynamic CSS library. Ant is a powerful build automation tool. YUI is a solid JS-based UI library built by Yahoo. Juicer is a JavaScript packaging tool. Not one of those is based on HTML5. Notice there is no discussion as to what exactly "Netflix-specific code" is.

"That’s what HTML5 brings to the table, the freedom to create rich, dynamic and interactive experiences for any platform with a web browser."

"That’s where HTML5 comes in. The technology is delivered from Netflix servers every time you launch our application. This means we can constantly update, test and improve the experience we offer."

"Our customers don’t have to go through a manual process to install new software every time we make a change, it “just happens.”

See points #1 and #3 above. HTML5, has no effect on how quickly you iterate. Iteration is a methodology, not a language. I get that it circumvents the app store update process, but there's a difference between "iteration" and "on our timetable."
As for it "just happen"-ing, and being "delivered from Netflix servers every time you launch our application", that's how the entire internet has worked since day 1.

"What HTML5 is capable of speaks for itself, but there are other reasons HTML5 is the right choice for us."

See point #2 above. "...speaks for itself" is Corporatese for "I don't really know how it works or what it does."

 

You might be asking yourself, "what's the big deal? I thought you were all about the web and HTML5 now?"
I am, however, the problem is one of misinformation. Apple has 100% proprietary Safari code that it calls "HTML5." Netflix sees that the web can skip Apple's review process and allows for code reuse on a number of devices and calls it "HTML5." Their engineers don't use Flash and by default, it must be an "HTML5 UI." Do you see a pattern here? We're taking something so powerful and muddying the waters by lumping a ton of buzzwords together.

Earlier this evening I was helping a friend who is super intelligent, but not totally familiar with the latest and greatest in web development, dig in and figure out how he could trigger some animations in CSS3 based on a demo whose source we'd been perusing. At one point he sent this IM:

"this is frustrating.. yay html5 ;)"

And it's not his fault. It's the kind of game-of-telephone fact-checking that gets an article published in a "tech blog" these days. This is how misinformation spreads and eventually money changes hands. I'm petrified to think that modern executives are operating based on this kind of hearsay and lack of research.

I LOVE what the HTML5 (now just HTML) spec has brought to the table and the kinds of things we're able to do. I just wish that folks knew how to appropriately describe and label them.

To be honest, it's not the authors, Netflix, or tech blogs' fault. The W3C couldn't even make up their minds about what "HTML5" was and wasn't.

The point is, that this kind of loose talk is blurring the lines of something great, and undermining just how powerful and flexible the web is as a deployment platform. Do your research, read the specs, and then and only then can you speak about "HTML5."

 

Yeah, so the year this blog saw was kind of a bust. Sorry about that. I could honestly say I have been beyond busy with work and my personal life, but that's kind of a cop out, no matter how true. I've been doing a lot of thinking and talking with folks I really respect, and I've made some decisions. Without going into a ton of detail, I've been making an effort to define my brand identity; a process which will continue for at least the forseeable future. Why? Well, a couple of reasons.

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European developers and designers: Interested in litl? Will you be in Brighton from Sept 26-29? Then you're in luck! I'll be on hand, (as an attendee, not a speaker... this year :) ), to show off the litl OS, at Flash on the Beach! I'm super excited about demoing the litl OS for the European developer base. I also can't wait to be blown away by the sheer amount of talent that exists among the staggering speaker lineup! Get your tickets now, before they run out!

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My session at FITC San Francisco went very well, and I'm super-humbled to have taken part in such an awe-inspiring event.

To those of you who were not able to attend or make it to my session, fear not! I've posted the slides, and will be presenting this topic again on September 9th in a Connect session, for the Boston Flex Application Incubators Group (#BFAIG). See details here, and register at bfaig.eventbrite.com.

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Incredible news! litl is now a sponsor of FITC San Francisco, and I'll be representing them there! Come join me as I walk-through the ins and outs of contextual application UX development, and see some of the exciting new features of the litl OS!

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No, you are not having déjà vu.

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O'Reilly's Flex 4 Cookbook is now on shelves and is the perfect way to get started with the Flex 4 framework. Using the tried-and-true cookbook format, you'll be up and running in no time. The content is as excellent as the list of folks behind it. Just to give you some insight into the caliber of this book, let's take a look at the hall-of-fame quality of the authors.

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UPDATE: I cannot believe the email I just got. My Flash and the City slide deck has been included in the top presentations on the Slideshare.net homepage for multiple days! It's gotten over 1400 3800 5000 A LOT of views and was officially the most discussed presentation on Twitter at several points! Check it out! http://www.slideshare.net/ssod Check out my @FlashAndTheCity 2010 slides posted below, or you can view them on Slideshare at http://j.mp/SuttleFATC10

Sitting here, after a whirlwind weekend in New York City for Flash and the City, I'm really very thankful. The last 8 months have been intense, and the amount of work Elad, Jose, Jesse and I put into this event is difficult to quantify. What makes it all worth it was all of the compliments and outstanding feedback from the community, other speakers, attendees and sponsors. As a first time conference, (which at times we were all too aware of), I think we made the best possible showing we could. Nothing's ever going to be perfect, but for our rookie season, I think people were generally very pleased and even more happy that New York has a new event. I'd like to thank all of you that came to my session (including other speakers), and for the wonderful compliments, and tips/pointers for next time. I am still getting feedback and people who weren't even there have said that they've heard great things. I could not be more humbled or personally satisfied. I'd like to thank Elad for letting me be a part of this and giving me the opportunity to help shape the future of this event. I can't wait for FATC 2011. It will be even better with your feedback. Even more importantly, I'd love to thank my wife for being so patient with me over the last months while organizing the event and for spending part of our anniversary in New York. You're the best, I love you.

A few weeks ago, I was invited to join a special group of developers in Boston at litl to kick the tires on the web book and preview the upcoming SDK in a hands-on training session. I wanted to take this time to publicly thank them for having me and giving me a sneak peek at the truly innovative work they are doing. I also wanted to mention, that the more people I meet at litl, the more I realize that this is a company that gets what makes a great user experience. As I said on the episode of RIARadio which featured Chuck Freedman and yours truly, litl is a company that is filling a niche that people didn't even know existed. So, as a developer and an organizer of Flash and the City, you can understand my excitement to have them as a sponsor. Even more to my point, litl has chosen Flash and the City to make several unbelievable contributions, including an expansion of the private SDK beta, sponsoring the Hudson River Yacht Cruise,  giving FATC Award winners their very own litl web book, and most recently, announcing the launch of a Flash-based web-TV product! According to litl's Chief Evangelist... Chuck Freedman:

"I can say that we will have a Flash-Based “Web-Connected TV” device on the market, running litl OS as well as ALL channels built with our new SDK."

"In the coming months, our SDK will be expanded to include “accelerometer movement, video chat, trackpad gestures, and microphone input” that will allow open development of “gaming, communication, entertainment and other experiences.”

"We believe that our platform’s use of Flash will be the best and easiest way for developers to deliver great content and applications to the TV!"

I don't know about you, but the prospect of being able to develop for Flash-based hardware, including TVs, with an open-source SDK is simply incredible! I'm so grateful that litl will be at Flash and the City to kick off their development platform. @ChuckStar and Katryn Rotondo will be giving an overview of the litl SDK in a new session on Sunday morning at 11am, and several others from litl will be on hand to answer any questions and demo the web book. Also, if you attend my session, I may be mentioning and or/demoing the sample channel I built. No promises though. A lot can happen and NOT happen in 3 days. :-) See you at Flash and the City!