Archive notice: This article was originally published on July 2, 2008. Links and embedded videos are preserved as part of the historical record.
Aachen-based multimedia agency Powerflasher GmbH is offering support to all public or officially recognized universities worldwide that provide multimedia degree programmes. It is making licences for the Enterprise edition of FDT 3.0, its Flash development tool, available to the relevant departments free of charge for teaching purposes.
The open-ended initiative is intended to give students an opportunity during their education to become familiar with the tool they will use later in their professional lives. Numerous agencies and development departments working with Flash, ActionScript and Adobe AIR already use Powerflasher’s FDT 3.0 worldwide. It is developing into a standard tool for creating multimedia applications.
At the end of June, Powerflasher presented Harz University of Applied Sciences with licences worth more than €10,000. FDT is also set to become a permanent part of the curriculum at additional universities in the near future. Powerflasher is providing Offenburg University of Applied Sciences in Germany with licences worth almost €18,000. Frank Piotraschke, Manager Business Development at Powerflasher, presented licences worth almost $38,000 to Harvard University in the United States. The Art Institutes International Minnesota received licences worth more than $6,000, while Edgewood College in Wisconsin will receive licences worth $33,000. Partnerships with Hagenberg University of Applied Sciences in Austria, Rochester Institute of Technology and Michigan State University are planned next.
FDT 3.0 Enterprise is the most fully featured edition of Powerflasher’s plug-in for Eclipse. Implementing FDT transforms the powerful open-source platform into a sophisticated, high-performance and stable development environment designed for Flash and ActionScript programmers.
Development of FDT began in 2004 when Powerflasher’s in-house programmers needed a working environment that offered the best possible support for developing professional Flash applications. Close cooperation with the international Flash community quickly produced a powerful tool that, in its current 3.0 version, has become a standard worldwide among developers of interactive applications. Continuous adaptation to new trends and technologies is intended to ensure the product’s continued growth.
