[Reader-list] fwd: petiton demanding equal Flash rights for Right-To-Left languages

[Andreas Broeckmann]

Date: Fri, 15 Aug 2003 17:59:06 +0200
From: Mushon Zer-Aviv <mushon at zeraviv.co.il>


The Right to Flash - A petiton demanding equal Flash rights for
Right-To-Left languages
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The Right to Flash is the initiative of Amir Dotan (London, UK), Mushon
Zer-Aviv (Tel-Aviv, Israel) and Naim Kamel (Ramallah, Palestine). It was
launched in July 2003 in order to make sure the middle east, doesn't get
left behind the development of the internet, believing it to be a powerful
tool for overcoming differences and for new methods of communication. In the
case of Flash both Palestinian users and Israeli users are united by the
similarity of our languages, both unfortunately left behind by Macromedia's
Flash MX technology.

Exerpt from the petition:
"...Macromedia Flash does not support Right-to-left languages. It is broken
and needs to be fixed. It currently doesn't meet the standards we've come to
expect from a company, which constantly expresses a commitment to show the
world 'what the web can be'..."

We believe The Right to Flash is universal and shouldn't be restricted by
cultures or languages. We look forward to start speaking Flash in our own
languages and to fully use its potential to make the web all that it can be.

PLEASE SIGN THE PETITION ON: 
<http://www.the-right-to-flash.com>http://www.the-right-to-flash.com


The Right to Flash

A petiton demanding equal Flash rights for Right-To-Left languages

Macromedia Flash does not support Right-to-left languages. It is 
broken and needs to be fixed. It currently doesn't meet the standards 
we've come to expect from a company, which constantly expresses a 
commitment to show the world 'what the web can be'. The following is 
a formal consumer's complaint addressed at Macromedia and the 
Macromedia Flash product manager.

We, Flash users from the Middle East, were very disappointed to find 
that despite numerous complaints, Macromedia has failed to offer any 
support for RTL (Right To Left) languages and by doing so continue to 
exclude an entire community of developers from using its product 
successfully. While Flash MX revolutionizes the Web, the Middle East 
is left behind due to Flash's fundamental defects.

The current state creates a reality where Flash is utilized mostly 
for design oriented projects and isn't being used to develop the sort 
of Rich applications Macromedia is rigorously promoting.
It is not that we don't want to - we simply can't. Flash sites and 
applications which do make use of RTL require innovative programming 
solutions which are not cost effective and are time consuming to 
develop. The end result is never sufficient and can't offer a 
satisfactory solution, especially when large scale projects are 
involved.

The fact of the matter is that Flash remains a costly technology 
which appears to be irrelevant in the Middle East and parts of Asia. 
We would like to change that. We are all deeply inspired by 
Macromedia's commitment to make the Web all that it can be and simply 
ask "Shouldn't we, as people who use RTL languages, have the right to 
use Flash in order to express our voice in our own language?".

The solution we are after is quite simple. We expect Macromedia to 
declare its willingness and commitment to deal with the RTL problem 
and offer a workable solution. Such a solution will probably involve 
implementing the bidirectional algorithm into the Flash player, an 
algorithm which is implemented in numerous other computing 
environments. We call on everyone who feels that the Middle East, 
especially at times like these, is a part of what the Web should be 
to join our campaign and sign this petition.

looking forward to your mail, (and your vote :))
Mushon. 


Mushon Zer-Aviv
Digital Art Lab's In-lab designer
<>www.mushon.com
<>mushon at zeraviv.co.il
Cell: 052-337637 Fax: 03-5580003