"There has been a lot of buzz around rich Web 2.0 applications, but they will not become mainstream until the next generation of web platforms emerge - fully integrated platforms that enable RIA + SOA." That is the current state of the enterprise Web development union according to Appcelerator Co-Founder & CTO Nolan Wright.

"Developers are currently caught in the middle of a fundamental shift in web application development," Wright notes.

"We are moving away from the server-side MVC frameworks of Web 1.0 and towards a client/server architecture for the web, or more specifically RIA + SOA. As a result of this shift, developers have been left to piece together their web development platform for rich web applications."

"Of course, change creates opportunity," continues Wright. "The opportunity in this case is to build a next generation web platform that provides end-to-end support for building Web 2.0 applications. At Appcelerator, we saw this shift coming well over a year ago. Our response was to build the Appcelerator Platform; a platform built from the ground up to support RIA + SOA."

Company co-Founder & CEO Jeff Haynie is giving a general session in the Keynote Room at AJAXWorld 2008 East entitled "Think Fast" in which he will introduce the audience to Appcelerator’s open-source RIA platform.

Haynie will discuss the current technology options for rapid RIA development and how developers can leverage pre-built AJAX widgets, Web Expression Language, and other open standards-based languages to create RIAs with more functionality and less code.

Attendees will learn how Appcelerator has been able to help developers create AJAX-based RIAs in less than 1/3 of the time, with up to 90 percent less code, and with no JavaScript or third-party toolkits. Key takeaways from Haynie's session will include:

• Developing fully-functional, client-only prototypes without writing a line of server code
• Creating service-oriented UIs that can simultaneously access services in any language without code changes
• Decoupling client and server components for accelerated development, simplified maintenance and rapid iterations

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• How Appcelerator is Building the Largest Open-Source Community Dedicated to RIAs
• Open Source Visionary Larry Augustin Joins Appcelerator Board
• Think Fast: Accelerate AJAX Development with Appcelerator
• Bye Bye MVC, Hello RIA + SOA
• RIA Opinion: Is "Rich Internet Application" Too Broad a Term?