Ryan Campbell

RIA for the Next Generation

One of today’s big announcements is the $700 million purchase of Club Penguin by Disney. For those who don’t know, Club Penguin is a virtual world for kids ages 8 to 14 where they can safely communicate and play mini games with other members. It makes extensive use of Adobe Flash allowing them to create a fun virtual world without the need to install stand-alone software.

When I got my first internet connection I used a browser called WinWeb which didn’t even display photos on websites. Although at the time I was ok with that, mainly because I really didn’t know what I was missing and was just excited to figure out what the heck the Internet was. At least now though, I always crave a better experience and could never go back to the web I first met. Yet not everyone likes change as much as I do and I believe that is why many think the simpler the site the better and don’t see a need for richer internet experience.

Although convincing usage of technologies such as Adobe Flex to the WinWeb generation can sometimes be tough, the newest generation just getting a taste for the Internet for the first time doesn’t need to be sold at all. They just want a great user experience and have no bias on what technologies are used. It’s purchases like the one today that assure me RIA has a very big future and I am definitely excited to be apart of that.