CodFusion

I will spare you the story since I hope most people know it by now. Actually, let me get a few things clear, up front. I don't think ColdFusion is somehow doom or dead or the sky is falling. I know people want to directly accuse me of FUD right off the bat these days, when I voice my concerns. As long as there is an active community, I think ColdFusion has a future.

Another point, I wish to make early on, is that, the really sad part of all of this, is that Adam will not get the chance to have CFX to be his baby from start to finish. I suspect most of us were hoping that would be the case, but unfortunately Adobe felt otherwise. I didn't always agree with him, but I felt it was important that Adam have a complete shot with CFX. I truly wish Adam and Alison the best.

So now back to the frog story.

This post is in response to Adam Lehman recent post on the change in management for the ColdFusion projects at Adobe. http://www.adrocknaphobia.com/post.cfm/the-modern-age-of-coldfusion

Since the Macromedia/Adobe merger there has been a clear line from senior Adobe management to move all the ColdFusion operations over to India (They've tried also with Flex before but many fought back on that but they may be doing it again now). This hasn't happen directly of course, because of the fear of losing critical clients, so they went about this slowly and piecemeal.

The problems in going offshore have been numerous and yet we've dealt with it in large part because things were done slowly (like the frog in boiling water) and because we had Adobe people in the states managing things. You could call on Adam if something got really screwed up. In many ways, it didn't feel different from when the engineering was in the states. You could call on Tim and he looked into it.

 But as we all know, the offshore thing hasn't been pretty. These are just some of the problems we have all experienced..

- a rise in serious bugs and security flaws like the FCKeditor hack
- slower response times to those bugs and flaws fixed (it takes a full day for the staff in India to even see the problem)
- increasingly complex patches and updates. Patches used to be a simple dropping of a jar file. Now when a patch comes out, people spend days having to manually patch all their CF servers.
- odd language additions - cfscript has plenty of odd things now because the staff in India is inexperience in language development.

These problems have only increased. Thankfully, with Adam and Jason before him, we had management states side to call on and help get the matter fixed. Many people may not know this, but they have both played the Winston Wolf on more than one occasion.  So, who are you going to call on now? When another FCKeditor type bug hits, and it will it's only a matter of time, do you think Adobe is going to move any faster now that most everything including senior project leadership is in India?

Also keep in mind, the 'plan' for CFX is now also off the table. Anything Adam was planning with CFX can now be voided from the new management. That's partly the reason they probably agree to everything to begin with. Don't be left to expect the new management will not make any changes. Adobe has never operated that way.

There will also be more of a disconnect between the core ColdFusion community and users (which are mostly North Americans) and the staff managing and producing CF. Simple changes and requests will take even longer or may not happen at all now. This change will have profound impacts from this point forward, and let me be clear, Adobe once they do this, it's not going to get fixed. So if you have any concerns about this move, you really need to voice them now before it's too late.

When I first tweeted my concerns (I know, bad move), I had several ACPs (Adobe Community Professionals) completely jump on my case. I think many things are being mixed up at that point in the tweets going back and forth.

So let me be clear, I respect many individuals in the ACP program and regardless of how things go, I always will. But I do consider the program, as a whole, is effectively defunct now and without purpose. Adobe isn't treating them as community leaders, or a group of advisors or professionals at all, more like a cheerleading group or fanboy club. From my sources, not one ColdFusion ACP was consulted or even alerted to this the biggest change in the ColdFusion project since Adobe took it over. They weren't ask to voice an opinion or to provide any feedback. I suspect that was the case from other critical decisions as well over the years. In many respects, Adobe hopes they will just tow the line - "Long live ColdFusion", etc., etc. If that's the case, then what is the point of the program?

I mention in my tweet that ACPs have a decision to make, even if it means risking their ACP status. If you have any  concerns about this recent Adobe decision, you need to voice them now - loud and clear. You are community leaders first and foremost. If the program is to have any legitimacy, it needs to provide a voice of leadership that Adobe is willing to hear.

I don't expect all is lost, but I do think it's time that the ColdFusion community finally voice their opinion and have their voice felt. This has gone on long enough now. ColdFusion is bigger than Adobe and it has a future, it only needs leadership. I call on everyone to voice your opinion on this.

So I will start this off, I have just a few points that I believe most in the community will agree with and support. It is my sincere hope that senior Adobe management will reflect on their decision and reconsider the path they are taking. This is for the good of Adobe and ColdFusion as an Adobe product.

The points I wish that everyone can agree with are as follows:

1. The Adobe ColdFusion project management should be based in North America and have a long history in using the products. This provides the critical link between the customers who use ColdFusion and the engineering staff.

2. The trouble ticket system needs to be finally addressed. It needs to be switched to JIRA and properly monitored. We don't need a repeat of the FCKEditor mess and its aftermath.

3. The ColdFusion ACPs should be treated as a group of caretakers for Coldfusion and consulted in any major changes in the server or builder. These are many of your core customers actually, you should already be doing this. Plus, they should be completely free to voice their opinions.

4. A language committee needs to be set up to properly evolve the CFML language. These people don't have to be from the competing CFML engines, but they should be experienced in computer language development. Some ACPs may qualify for this, but there are many people in academia, etc. that can be called on to help.

If you agree with these principles please mark your approval in the comments. These aren't anti-Adobe or anti-ColdFusion sentiments, I truly believe these steps will ensure the growth and strength of the technology. If you disagree, I'm completely open to other opinions as well. The primary concern I have, is we'll be like the frog in boiling water and do nothing.