I've never been a big fan of Flash.  Even before the term Semantic Web was a buzz word, I would point out that Flash sites were unsearchable and lacked unique URLs to deep link to specific content.  I found myself giving people instructions like, "go to this URL, click the products tab, wait for the icon to stop spinning, scroll down until you see product x, click on that, now click on the spec tab".   When Travis was getting her MA in Interactive Multimedia from SIU, she was taught a very Flash centric approach to multimedia production.  She would defend building Flash sites by saying the HTML was too limiting.  It didn't allow her enough control over her designs.  10 years later, I find myself having the same Flash vs. Semantic Web discussion in the weeks leading up to the launch of the OurTahoe.org.

When I teach web development, I usually start the class by talking about how lucky I was to learn HTML in 1996 when it was still a markup for outlines.  I quickly mastered <b>, <i>,<img src=>, <a href=>, and the basics of ftp and http.  I continued learning new technologies as they became mainstream.  In in 1998, I learned to script with Microsoft's Active Server Pages and to write basic Structured Query Language (SQL) with ADO connections to an MS SQL or Access database.   After mastering variables, if/then, and case statements as well as INSERT, UPDATE, and DELETE SQL.  Then I started applying sitewide designs using Cascading Style Sheets (CSS).   Then as the average computers went from 32 > 64 > 128 > gigs of RAM, there was more memory to allocate to running increasingly advanced JavaScripts for clientside scripting and I started using that more often.  Along the way I added networking and server administration as well as Photoshop and Flash to my ever growing list of skills.  

I learned HTML using the "View Source" function in Netscape.  There was very little being done on the server side in 1996, so everything was there for me to see, copy, and modify.  Things are much more complicated now.  Students hoping to get a job with the next big Web2.0 start-up are expected to learn in a few semesters what I mastered over several years.