Flash vs. Downloadable Video? "Flash Is Viable Biz Model," Declares Ex-Macromedia CTO Jeremy Allaire -- Could There be YouTube Without Flash?

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We had a chat with Jeremy Allaire, founder and CEO of Brightcove -  the fash-growing Cambridge company that's been in the forefront of empowering big and small publishers to put their video content online.

Brightcove uses Flash to publish video. And Jeremey knows a thing or two about the software platform.  He was Chief Technology Officer at Macromedia (now Adobe), the creators of Flash technology.

Flash has become incredibly pervasive.  Forrester Research analyst Brian Haven says that the application is found on 95 percent of browsers.  This ubiquitous solution has made the explosion of online video possible.  Could there have been a YouTube without Flash -- how about Google Video?  CNET?  Yahoo Video The New York Times?  Who knows.

There a lot of discussion and debate among us video bloggers -- whether to publish our video in Flash or to provide idownloadable files.  Jeremy says that Brightcove is working on some downloadable file utilities, but he says, for now, downloadable video is only viable if there is a business agreement with Apple iTunes.   

I think he has a good point in general, yet there are vloggers who are creating viable business with downloadable video -- Rocketboom being one.

-- Andy Plesser

Jeremy Allaire, Brightcove, Online Video, Flash Video