Merapi is Live!!!

Yesterday afternoon I had the chance to do a final pass on the Merapi code that Adam Flater has been working so hard to wrap up, and after a "thumbs up", was able to post it to the Merapi Project Web site and finally approve/enable the 300 or so alpha users that we selected to participate in the program.

This is a pretty great milestone for the Merapi Project team, and (as we see it) the RIA development community as a whole. By bridging Java and Flex/AIR we are enabling developers to connect the two, allowing them to build more experiential user interfaces for their Java Applications and by allowing them to access the power of Java and Java libraries in thier Flex/AIR applications.

Much thanks to the rest of the folks on the Merapi Project team, especially Adam Flater. Without Adam's hard work, bright mind and determination Merapi would not exist... so thanks man!

While Merapi was created to help extend the functionality of Adobe AIR applications, it is the hope of the Merapi Project team (and the community as a whole) that future versions of Adobe AIR will not need Merapi to build more robust AIR applications.

You can sign up for the Merapi Alpha and download the code at the Merapi Project Web site.

A Few Updates....

It has been a terribly busy month and client work, traveling and business doings have prevented me from doing very much writing! Having said that, I've been coming up with ideas and topics left and right, and have had some very, very interesting experiences recently that have inspired a variety of ideas and topics for "blog" posts. My goal is to hammer some stuff out here in the next couple of weeks, including thoughts around:

• Ambient Data Visualization & Public Transportation
• Why design is important for the enterprise (yes... the enterprise)
• Inspiring, recognizing and supporting innovation within the corporate structure
• The Business Payoff of User Experience Design

Each of these topics have popped up based on conversations I've had with different organizations about doing speaking engagements for the late summer and fall.

Stay tuned!