Out of Scope: Tales From The Tech Project Front - ' Status Check' (
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: NBC Universal's Web Master">
Status Check: NBC Universal's Web Master
Addam M. Driver is a Web developer and engineer for NBC Universal. He's been working with Adobe Spry, a JavaScript library with Asynchronous JavaScript and eXtensible Markup Language (a.k.a. Ajax), a popular Web programming framework, to build video pages on NBC.com for shows like Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip and My Name Is Earl. His developer team has more than tripled in size in about a year as demand has grown for more advanced features on the site.
How did Spry change the way you develop the site?
In order to pull off Web 2.0, you have to make the distinction between your back end, middle and front end. Spry allowed us to get that model down. If we have all the data [in one place, on the back end], and we can shape it any way we want and get some pretty great effects to go with it on the front end, that helps us evolve.
How much did that change things from a developer's perspective?
It is a totally different way of thinking, especially when you're dealing with Web 2.0. A lot of older developers were used to doing certain things. This is a total shift in the way you program.
Have you run into any problems training new staffers?
Spry is not necessarily an application—it's a collection of JavaScripts. So, if you get someone
who's a beginner with JavaScript, or an intermediate, they can pretty much figure it out. And there are plenty of those people out there. But there's a decent learning curve. Those who have been doing it well will have to step up their game, but it's well worth it.
Do you see any other new tools on the horizon?
Apollo [just released in alpha by Adobe]. It's a cross-operating system runtime [environment], able to render HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Flash and PDF documents with Ajax support inside of a desktop application. It's awesome. It allows us Web developers to move from developing "Web-only" applications to developing standalone desktop apps.
Snafus in the News: 2000 All Over Again?
Projects: Management 
