Date
Thursday, 07 Jan 2016 10:30 AM
The Relevance of FileMaker
Over the last few months there have been two very public departures of well-respected developers within the FileMaker developer community. Upon leaving, they vented their frustrations with FileMaker corporate in online forums which, in turn, generated a significant amount of conversation in the community. They also touted a few other development platforms that were “much better” than FileMaker.
And just a few weeks ago, a writer with Computer World posted a damning article about how FileMaker is a “dinosaur trapped in another age.” Be sure to scroll down the bottom of the article to read Hal Gumbert’s comments. Ouch.
Or maybe not.
For many of us, FileMaker is our bread and butter. It is how we make our living and It is critical for us to be able to present and defend FileMaker to our clients as the best platform for their needs. How would we respond to clients who may read the Computer World article?
There’s a saying that the most painful lies contain at least a grain of truth. As in all areas of our lives, we want to be able to discern what is true, what is not, what is a gray area, and what is misleading. And sometimes it helps to vet these kinds of things with others.
For this week’s meeting we will:
• Discuss some of what these departing developers have said and done
• Take a look at the Computer World article
• Peek at some of the “much better alternatives” to FileMaker
• Chat about how we can accurately position and present the FileMaker story.
We should all be comfortable arguing the validity, relevance, and strengths of
FileMaker as a platform to our employers, IT departments and clients.
• Talk about what issues and requests that we as developers and/or as a group
can present to FileMaker – with the goal of supporting our careers and the
future of FileMaker to which they are so closely tied.
Ye Olde Tech Shoppe – Open Mic for questions, code challenges (free tech support!)
Cool things you’ve seen, ideas to share