Having just looked over the Adobe MAX 2009 Finalist’s I thought I’d chip in about why I voted for what, with the easiest first.

Big & Small by Plug In Media

Having a look through the entries in entertainment the first one to instantly stick in my mind to get a vote would be Plug In Media’s Big & Small site. Having been to see Seb Lee-Delisle in a couple conference’s I was of course a little bias towards this vote but 1 reason assured me that my vote for Big & Small was the right one and not bias.

After going round to a friends house whom has a younger sister I saw first hand the reaction from Big & Small’s target audience for the site. She was splashing paint around, brushing teeth, making music and generally having a blast which was a treat to see and something which to the credit of Plug In Media would not of been the same experience without there hard work on creating the rich 3d environment for children to immerse themselves in.

Fanbase Mobile by AgencyNet

This finalist caught my eye from the talk at FITC Mobile 09 by Mark Doherty about Flash Lite Distribution and the Open Screen Fund where he showed how Fanbase had created a multi-platform application utilizing mostly the same assets.

For me the reason Fanbase Mobile gets my vote is that Its bringing innovation to the music industry with regards to how it distributes content utilizing many different social services which is great to start seeing. Also Fanbase is a shining example of how other companies could utilize the flash platform to create a multi-platform experience that enriches the users interaction with the brand across many devices, which in this day and age is becoming more and more of a necessity.

Synchronous Objects by Tracermedia

The education section was a tough one to decide on, Having looked at the awesomeness of Synchronous Objects by Tracermedia and The fantastic learning tool PianoMarvel by Rain I struggled to decide which to vote on. Luckily for me I just voted for both of them :) but if I were have to choose one it would be Synchronous Objects.

The complexity of Synchronous Objects with regards to its data visualization, video annotations and other rich information available is amazing, What makes this even better is that there has clearly been a team of very intelligently minded individuals working on several different ways in which you can visually see the complexity of William Forsythe’s Choreography of One Flat Thing. For me my favorite visualizations of the dance is the Cue Visualizer and Difference Forms.

Morgan Stanley Matrix by Morgan Stanley

For Enterprise Productivity Morgan Stanley’s Matrix gets my vote. Having seen this at a Flex London Meetup it was some seriously impressive stuff then, having a look over it again only solidifies this. The problem with this category is that all of the finalist applications are very impressive so I would have to say that not being an enterprise kind of guy it would be difficult for me to really sit on one side of the fence. Morgan Stanley’s Matrix sure does look nice though right?

Pepsi Max It by BBDO

Come on, who wouldn’t vote for the internet controlled claw machines over at Pepsi Max It’s Campaign. Looking over some previous press this was quite the big deal and its great to see how its heart and sole was so heavily relied on the online part of the campaign. Would love to off seen the development process of how they translated the claw controllers to be able to deal with internet interaction.

Geni Family Tree by Geni

Another tough choice for the Social Computing category. Kontain a simplified blogging portal and Geni Family Tree a family tree creation tool both are real contenders but there is something about Geni Family Tree that appeals to me more than Kontain.

Looking over Kontain its a really feature rich and well polished application but I’m not going to lie, there are others. Now Geni Family Tree on the other hand is an excellent application for creating a family tree collaboratively with others, it has a huge amount of tools at the users disposal and the actual creation of the family tree is very initiative and interactive. All of these things together makes Geni Family Tree a winner in my opinion over the others purely for the good it could do for peoples lives if they were to find distant relatives they never knew about.

Own Your C by AgencyNet

Own Your C won in this category by a long shot, its a beautifully interactive site with lots of love and care being given to it. Looking over the questions and amount of responses to them, it seems to be going down really well. You could say that I was sold by this by the eye candy of the 3d transitions and you’d be right but what can I say I’m a sucker for pretty things.