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February 06, 2008

CTO significance

CTO significance: Yesterday Kevin Lynch was promoted from Chief Software Architect to Chief Technical Officer. I don't have the inside line on this -- I learned about it the same time many on MXNA did -- but I may have a little color from the Adobe Tech Summit. I'm seeing a great emphasis here this week on the necessity for Adobe to move the entire publishing platform forward. Adobe started off selling PostScript engines directly to printer manufacturers -- later made the transition to shrinkwrapped desktop software in stores -- today our salaries are paid by the sale of downloadable creative tools for personal computers. Things will inevitably change again. Most people in the world will never own "a personal computer". But everyone has their own story to tell... all must be digitally enfranchised. We've got to create new types of publishing experiences, to fit all the different niches and needs of the digital world today. It's a big task. No other group can really do it -- Adobe is one of the few large groups which is neutral across device types, manufacturing brands, OS lock-ins, advertising networks. I'm seeing a great emphasis at this meeting of looking far beyond what is possible today, about creating a technical ecology in which Adobe can make different types of offerings... projects like Kuler and Brio and CoCoMo have hints of these future possibilities. The main takeaway I have from this summit so far is that we need to fully develop the next generation platform upon which we and others can build... in-browser, desktop, mobile, embedded, we can't be silo'd into OS ghettos or device form-factors any longer. As I understand it, a Chief Software Architect is tasked with building a structure, while a Chief Technology Officer is tasked with determining the nature of the structure to build. The Macromedia acquisition was a gamble that there was some way to unite documents and videos and onscreen interactivity. What I'm seeing this week is a clear bet that we have seen the goal, and are fully committed to attaining it. I'm not sure I'm explaining myself well -- and this is definitely only me speaking; I haven't corroborated this understanding with my partners yet -- but I see this as a very dramatic moment, far larger than a single promotion. I'm seeing that The Platform underlies everything we'll be attempting from this point forward. It's an extremely exciting moment.

Posted by JohnDowdell at February 6, 2008 04:42 PM

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Posted by: Duane Nickull at February 7, 2008 12:30 PM