Sean McSharry has been a Flash developer and designer since 1999 (Flash 3). He runs the popular Flashcoder blog (Flashcoder.net/blog). He has consulted in many business sectors from oil exploration to banking to Internet protocol television (IPTV), for major industry leaders such as Microsoft and Adobe Consulting. He is an Adobe Certified Flash Developer and Designer and has worked on everything from banners to massive rich Internet applications. He has worked in Europe and America and is the director of creative research and development for AKQA in New York. He uses the entire Flash platform in his development (Flash, ActionScript, Flash Lite, Flash Media Server, etc.). He is a pre-release tester for many Adobe products and is actively involved in the Flash community. He strongly believes that Flash developers and designers should be as comfortable with and passionate about code as they are about aesthetics and design. "Flash allows you to bring everything together in one development environment for many platforms. So to produce the best work you need to be skilled in coding, design, video, audio, stills production, etc. Even if you don't actually do them, you have to have a good understanding of them all if you want to produce the best work."