You bring up some good points.

Regarding browser compatibility: Yep, Flash offered a nice solution there, but by now that’s become less relevant with the advent of JS abstracted layers (libs like jQuery) and quite amazingly: better browsers coming from Microsoft :] Also, Flash created its own world of ‘Flash compatibility issues’, do we use Shockwave, AS2, AS3, Flex?.

I definitely agree that Non-profit decision making can be very messy and especially when it comes to producing good user experiences things tend to break down. So I think it’s key to find the right synergy between the two, but in the case of Adobe it’s ‘too little too late’ (they have started some OSS initiatives a la Sun Microsystems).

I agree that ‘Open Source’ should not be a magic word. You can open source anything, but if no one understands how to use it or if there is no activity / community behind it, it’s open sourcing doesn’t have any value. But in the case of Javascript we’re seeing clear signs of it taking of hugely. Best practice nowadays (even more so than a year ago) is to build a large part of your web app in JS (look at Facebook).

@ptegelaar

Regarding Flash games: They will most likely be here to stay for a while. Most people that want to build something highly interactive still need people that have those interactive skills, and those will be Flash developers. Just like many companies still use Enterprise Java because there is a huge number of trained people out there.

In the case of Flash games it might be better to ask the question: Is the browser a growing platform for games? Although the iPhone is on the rise, I definitely think so, if you factor in social network games like Farmville. For full-on 3d games however, I haven’t seen many commercial examples yet, those games still hold on to the ‘OpenGL’ and ‘Direct-X’ toolkits. So perhaps ‘WebGL’ is something to look out for?

But I really think I’m out of my depth in this area, you might have a better pulse on what’s happening here.

* Web browsers compatibilities suck. As a user, I want to see more browsers, but as a developer, I hope everybody uses Firefox.
* Non-profit organization decision sometimes sucks. After many discussions, what did the W3C come up with the video tag in HTML5? Ogg format, which *normal* people never heard of. The approach of “getting everyone involved” is sometimes wrong. That’s the reason I use Mac over Linux.
* A possibility solution may be that a company develops proprietary stuff first, then releasing part the stuff as an open source. Then the company can keep on innovating without getting into “getting everyone involved” and making the product into a) something bloated or b) something nobody uses.
* Lastly, open sourcing is not the magic word. Open sourcing any Flash component should be done in a reachable manner. Microsoft opened an XML for Office (if I’m correct), but too complex enough to use.