An Interview with Paul Neave (flashearth.com, neave.com)
Jason McVearry and Paul Neave of Flashearth.com and Neave.com got together recently for a question and answer session. Everyone at (mt) is a huge fan of Paul’s work (yes, even the receptionists) so we just had to find out more about what makes this genius tick.
(mt) How would you classify the projects found on Neave.com and why do you develop projects on various platforms such as the Flash/Google mash-up found in Flash Earth?
[pn] Neave.com is a collection of the best experiments I’ve created over the years, most of which are founded in Flash. Flash Earth is one of these experiments and was born out of a curiosity to see whether Google Maps could be made in Flash with a ‘smooth zooming’ functionality, similar to the experience found in Google Earth. Flash Earth now uses imagery from many sources including Yahoo!, Microsoft and NASA. I’m particularly proud of the NASA imagery as it allows you to zoom in to see full-color images of clouds over the Earth taken from space, and it’s updated daily!
(mt) What technologies have influenced you the most in the last 3 years?
[pn] Flash most definitely is my favorite technology. It’s still seen as a bit of an underdog, especially with so much attention given to AJAX-powered websites recently. Flash only has a bad name because it’s easy to misuse it. Technology should only be used for its strengths, not its weaknesses, whether it’s Flash, HTML or an animated GIF. In the last 3 years, Flash video has finally laid most of the haters to bed – it’s almost ubiquitously the way to publish video on the web, especially since the rise of YouTube. But technology is only a means to an end, not the end in itself. Ideas matter so much more than what technology you use. The founders of YouTube didn’t think “hey, let’s try to use this Flash video somehow” but “let’s have a community-driven site where people can watch, rate and share videos online”. Flash was just the best way to do it.
(mt) How many times has your site been Dugg?
[pn] I think each of my experiments have been Dugg at least once! My games are very popular too. Here’s a tip: make sure your site gets submitted to Digg on a Thursday evening/Friday morning. That way all the bored office workers around the world will have time to check your site on Friday!
(mt) How many visitors do you get a month? Do they tax your bandwidth?
I’m not sure of the exact figures, but a conservative guess is that Neave.com (and particularly Neave Games) receive roughly 30-40,000 visitors a day, which is about 1 million a month. Flash Earth gets a little more, about 1.5 million a month and rising! It definitely taxes the bandwidth, but (mt) now have oodles of room to spare on both the (dv) and (gs) servers. Thankfully most of my files are very small (only a few KBs) so the sites are kept nice and speedy.
(mt) How does the Grid aid the functionality of your projects hosted on the Grid? Have you found the technology to be up to the task?
[pn] I use a Grid-Server service for Flash Earth and find it extremely flexible. The account manager is very easy to use. And only recently the site received a surge in traffic from a high-profile Japanese blog and the number of visitors doubled for one day. If the site were hosted on a dedicated server, it’s very likely the site would have been largely inaccessible, if not very slow to respond. With the Grid, there’s no perceivable difference, it just powers on through!
It’s three thumbs up from me.
(mt) What’s the next project we should expect from Paul Neave?
[pn] I’m currently learning how to use ActionScript 3.0 and hope to create many more experiments, tools and toys that other people can customize for use on their websites using the many APIs now available, such as Flickr, del.icio.us, Digg and others. Also, I hope to return to do more work with Flash Earth and add even more clever functionality to it.
(mt) Are these projects seen on Neave.com personal projects? Does your personal work influence your professional work? What are some professional projects you’re working on currently?
[pn] Yes, Neave.com is my ‘personal playground’ for projects I’ve made by myself. But the line between my personal and professional work is blurring all the time. My personal work can sometimes be tools and toys that people can take and customize themselves for their own purposes, like my games have been in the past. But sometimes my experiments, like Neave.tv, set out an idea, a general new way to do things, and professional work sometimes comes out of that. The last commercial project I worked on was Blueprint Studios http://www.blueprint-studios.com/ with the design agency magneticNorth in Manchester, UK, as well a project for BBC Jam http://www.bbc.co.uk/jam/
(mt) Who do you look to for inspiration?
[pn] I have hundreds of disparate inspirations and interests, but I don’t go looking for inspiration as you often end up disappointed. You’ve got to go with the flow, turn off the computer, talk to some random people who don’t know what a JPEG is and take time to absorb the world around you. It sounds cheesy, but inspiration comes from the most unexpected places, so I try to immerse myself in new experiences all the time, especially music.
(mt) What’s showing up in your “most played” playlist these days? Do you have a Zune? Does anyone have a Zune?
[pn] Let me have a look-see… wow, I’m quite surprised… we have a Personal Jesus cover by Johnny Cash, DJ BC & The Beastles (Beastie Boys vs. The Beatles mash-up!), Cinco De Mayo by War, One Night In Bangkok by Murray Head. And they’re the least embarrassing ones!
What’s a Zune? You mean one of these?
http://www.microsoftshitbrick.com/
(mt) Where are you physically?
[pn] Lying across my couch in Manchester, UK, looking out at the trees, squirrels and drizzling rain through my window.
(mt) Dog or cat?
[pn] Cat. Dogs are stupid. Cats are independent free thinkers, and I can relate to that!
