In an article on the web design site, A List Apart, author Dan Mall writes about the clash between the web design communities supporting Adobe Flash and the standard-in-development, HTML5.

Mall's primary concern about this clash is that there is too much bickering over which web technology is superior, rather than construction of a solid line of communication and collaboration between the two camps. He's right — it's about power and politics. Each side wants to gain the upper hand in influencing future rich application development on the web.

I was impressed by Mall's conclusions: who cares about the technology you used to build the web experience, because what matters is the experience of the people who use it. Use the tools that are right for the job — make wise decisions for the people who use your designs. He's right.

However, Mall ignores what I think is a large issue at stake: the development model. IT is riddled with clashes over issues of proprietary development vs open standards. Flash is developed and controlled by Adobe. HTML5 is being developed via committee and communal conversation. I understand that committees don't always do an amazing job of accommodating the right design concerns, but I have to believe that the process involved in creating the HTML5 specification is more healthy for the web community at large, and can more adequately address broader communal concerns about supporting new rich internet applications.

One of the great strengths of the web is its openness. You can look at the HTML, stylesheets, and scripting code of any web page. The web's most important technologies (the network protocols, markup languages, and data formats) are designed and specified openly.

I don't anticipate, nor do I necessarily want, flash to disappear, but I think it is important to look past the bickering about what certain technologies are and strongly consider how they are being developed when thinking about their future prevalence and relevance.