Tom Hale

I just submitted Phil Torrone (editor of Make Magazine) in the "best gizmo collection" category for the Gadgethon. As the camp telepresence director (California), my entry is virtual and Phil Torrone is an extended member of the "macromedia" team. Here's a video of Phil's house and his collection of gadgets.

And if you wish to contact me, I am:

thale@macromedia.com
skype: tomeghale

Hi there,

I'll be the camp california telepresence director for Kinnernet 2005. Here's a bit more information about me and some of the folks who will be joining us virtually...

Who am I? Well, I've worked at Macromedia for 10 years.  My history spans Interactive Grpahic Design with FreeHand, CD Roms with Director, Web Development with Dreamweaver and Flash, and Rich Internet Applications.  Now I lead the charge of our communications publishing and training division - with a focus on new products like our communications tool Breeze.

As the the camp california telepresence director, I won't be  in Ohalo  physically, except as onscreen as a collection of bits and bytes. For my discussion, I'll physically be in San Francisco (probably in my Pajamas).

I have a passion for user experience, and I believe that rich client technologies (like Macromedia Flash, Lazlo, Microsoft Longhorn, IBM's Rich Client Platform) will change the application user experience on the internet. In addition, communications and collaboration (Voice over IP and Video over IP) is "the next big feature" of all of the major software platforms. Of course, user experience is critical for the adoption of new communications tools - especially ones that require a new paradigm for users - like talking to your computer instead of your phone (for instance).

We'll discuss human factors in software design,  technology drivers, the changing communications landscape, and the impacts that these changes will have on applications for ecommerce, data visualization, elearning, and general purpose communications.

Along the way, I'll show some very interesting internet appliations from our developers and the latest stuff from Macromedia.

I wish I could join you in person (I love Israel - I spent a summer in Ashkelon at the archeological dig) but I look forward to meeting you all virtually!