Blog has moved

So I've moved my blog from blogger to wordpress, and will be trying to share my thoughts periodically at:

blog URL: http://jonwall.org
feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/Jonwallorg

Really, its not me, its Dan and Lily

A few days back, the next generation of the MXNA blog aggregator, went live, at feeds.adobe.com. At that point in a time, a number of people thanked the team that worked on this, and included me in those blogs.

While I did a little on that effort, it really was only a tiny, tiny bit of work, boiling down to a few emails. What hasn't been mentioned, is that in addition to Christian, Ben, and Mike C, there are two unsung heros who helped make this happen.

Daniel Taborga, who is a member of my team and also runs Adobe Labs, and Adobe Open Source, along with Lily Lee in Adobe Web Operations, worked very hard to help breath new life into such a critical source of news for the Adobe community that MXNA has been, and will continue to be. Like everyone else in the project, neither Dan nor Lily had been responsible for MXNA, and really just jumped in and worked hard to bring the app back online.

So while lots of folks helped out with this effort, and I'm sure there are a number of people who helped who still haven't been recognized publicly, I just wanted to take a second to sincerely thank Lily and Daniel.

Now with commenting!

As you may have heard from a few other blogs, especially Amy Wong on the Adobe Developer Connection blog, we launch some new stuff we've been working on to help developers get the best possible answers to their questions, and also help us deliver the best possible content.

First, search. We launch a beta of what we are calling Community Help. Its starting just with Flex. Whats cool about this is that it searches adobe.com, as well as specific community resources, to help you find the best possible answer, no matter where it is. There are number of folks at Adobe and in the community that add resources to the search index, so as new things become available that have good answers, we'll index them.

Commenting - Commenting isn't new. We've had commenting in a number of place on adobe.com for a while. But whats cool here is that with this implementation of commenting across the Flex Developer Center on the ADC, and livedocs, commenting has become consistent and integrated across both of those locations. This will really help our teams deliver the best possible technical content to help you be more productive.

Check out all the new stuff on the Flex Developer Center. http://www.adobe.com/devnet/flex/.


If you have additional questions how all of this works, Amy Wong's blog entry at the URL at the beginning of this post has more info too. And be sure to leave us feedback on what you think about all of this here. Or feel free to post comments on my blog and I'll make sure they are passed along.

- Jonathan

Adobe Developer Connection improvements

While I'm sure lots of people are focusing on Flex 3 and AIR 1.0 going live, and I hope lots of people think that the new opensource.adobe.com site is great, we've also made a bunch of improvements to the Adobe Developer Connection (ADC).

Since I know there is a lot of news for people to digest right now, here are the highlights of changes to the ADC. (with more detail below)

1. New navigation just for developers - the collapsible panels that made their debut back in October now extend across the site.
2. The ADC content has returned to the center of the page
3. The Search UI and functionality has been enhanced
4. Some of our existing membership benefits got better - more on that below.
   

So for those of you that want to get back to playing with the latest shipping technologies, just check out the updated ADC. And then you can feel free to stop reading. Don't worry. I won't be offended.

But for those of you that are interested in the details, here they are....

The new navigation extends across the entire developer site, so with just a few clicks, you should be able to find just about any necessary Adobe developer resource you need. And we've removed the regular Adobe.com navigation, with just a link to the Adobe.com site at the top. The goal is to provide just what you need and nothing to get in the way of that.

Content is back in the middle. Back in December, when Adobe.com got a makeover, the ADC content got pushed to the left side of the page. A few days ago, even in advance of this post and the big launch of Flex 3 and AIR 1.0, ADC content moved back to the middle. The pages were always designed to display content in the middle so hopefully its easier for you to browse and read now then it was just a few days ago.

Third, the ADC search box is now more closely aligned with the centered content, so it no longer floats out on the right side as it did starting in December. We added in the ability for a user to narrow down their search based on the type of content before they conduct their search. Thats a nice little time saver in my opinion.

Lastly, when you login to the ADC, you get a whole bunch of benefits for free. We've updated two of the more interesting ones. The ADC introNetwork - which lets you visualize your relationships with other developers and designers based on things like your skills, projects, and personality - now includes the ability to use video in your profile.

And we've made a number of enhancements to the Developer Desktop AIR application. The app got a facelift, and you can still track and get desktop notifications of changes in bugs in the public bugbase at bugs.adobe.com. The new feature that I think is pretty cool though is the new Component Explorer in the ADC Desktop. It aggregates a wide range of Flex components and lets you browse though and track updates to them. Be sure to login, then download it and check it out.

See, like I said, lots of details. So when you are done downloading all the new stuff, blogging, writing a few apps, etc, take breath and check out the new stuff on the ADC. In addition to all of this stuff, there is of course the new content, around Flex, AIR, and BlazeDS. Please let me know what you think about the changes to the ADC via the comments in this blog. And even more importantly, let me know what we can continue to improve, or do differently to help you find the information you need as quickly as possible.

Adobe open source site goes live

As Flex 3 and AIR 1.0 go out the door, some other very exciting things for developers are happening at Adobe. I'll have some news in a later post about the Adobe Developer Connection, but right now I want to share the news about the new Adobe Open Source site.

This new home for open source projects from Adobe serves as a hub to connect developers with all the code, projects, and news that we can. And for projects that Adobe hosts, like Flex 3 and Blaze DS, we have Subversion setup to let you check out the code, documentation, forums, and bug bases.

Plus, whats kind of interesting, at least if you ask me, is that the content publishing on the site is all handled by a wiki. So thanks to the good folks at Atlassian, for granting us an open source license to Confluence.

So check it out, and be sure to add the open source news rss feed to your feed reader. As always, let us know what you think.

Facebook Flash and Flex

I've been talking to the folks from Weekend Apps over the past few days, and they are getting 100 or so developers together in Santa Clara next weekend, February 22 to 24th, to build 20 Facebook apps in less than 3 days.

And since I'm biased, I think its very cool that Alex Notov will be presenting on how to use Flex to build a Facebook application. Adobe is helping out by providing some giveaways - one Creative Suite bundle (the winner of the suite can choose between Design Premium, Web Premium or Production Premium) and 2 copies of Flex Builder 3 (when it ships).

If you want to learn more, or happen to be in the Bay Area and want to join these guys, you can join their Facebook group, or visit WeekendApps.com.

For me, I'm just looking forward to seeing the apps at the end of the weekend.

The RIA universe is ever expanding

Once again, apologies for being quiet for so long on this blog. But there is so much exciting stuff going on right now that I had to stop for a second and make sure I shared the news with anyone who reads this blog, just in case you didn't hear about this anywhere else.

First, earlier today, O'Reilly and Adobe launched a new site called InsideRIA.com. This new community site covers all things RIA, including Flex, Flash, AIR, and AJAX. Rich Tretola is the editor and Andre Charland is the lead blogger. I'd definitely recommend checking it out.

Secondly, in the past few months, we've expanded the Adobe team that works with the development community. Specifically, we've added three new team members to spend a lot of time supporting Adobe RIA developers. The team is comprised or Raghu Rao, Anirudh Sasikumar, and Sujit Reddy Gurrala. All of them have great blogs, so you may want to pay them a visit. And if you haven't seen them online responding to technical questions on the wide range of forums and lists, then I'm sure you soon will.

Lastly, if you haven't heard about it already, the Adobe evangelism and product teams are hitting the road, bring the latest news about AIR and Flex to user group near you. The tour is underway already but there are a lot more events coming up. Check out the schedule at http://flex.org/tour/

- Jonathan

Did You Know...vol. 4

OK, so it has been awhile since my last post, but sometimes you just get busy!

Lots of good nuggets today, so I am going to dive right in!!

Did you know that:

• Mike Chambers and Lee Brimelow are doing a mini AIR user group tour in Europe? Be sure to check out Mike's most recent blog post for cities and dates. This is going to be a great tour so be sure to check it out if it is coming to a city near you!
• Adobe SF is hosting a RIA Developer Camp on November 5? This will sell out fast, so be sure to register early!
• The Adobe Mobile & Devices user group managers collaborated on a huge Flash Lite mobile game contest? Click here for more information.
• The Pacifica beta was open? Check out Renaun Erickson's blog for more details on what Pacifica is and how to sign up.
• Starting in November, Adobe will be making Flex Builder 2 available to qualified students and educators worldwide at no cost! Check out the press release for additional details.

If you already knew all of the above then you are keeping one step ahead of me!!

Until next time...

Ed Sullivan

Great new content and videos on the ADC

Craig Goodman, George Fox, Hong Qiu, Amy Wong, Stefan Gruenwedel, Michael Koch, and Julie Campagna continue to churn great technical content and videos on the Adobe Developer Connection (ADC).  If you haven't seen this stuff, or aren't a member of the ADC, and don't subscribe to the biweekly update or RSS feeds to get updated, then you may have missed some of this. 

Here's a laundry list of great stuff for you.

- Jonathan

**************************

Adobe AIR
 
Uploading files to a server from an Adobe AIR application 
http://www.adobe.com/devnet/air/flex/articles/uploading_air_app_to_server.html 
 
Mashing up Google Maps with Adobe AIR
http://www.adobe.com/devnet/air/ajax/articles/air_map_mashup.html 
 
Taking a Flex app to the desktop
http://www.adobe.com/devnet/air/flex/articles/flex_to_air_migration.html 
 
----------
 
Flash
 
Creating a preloader in ActionScript 3.0
http://www.adobe.com/devnet/actionscript/articles/lightweight_as3.html 
 
----------
 
Dreamweaver
 
Introducing the Adobe Spry framework for Ajax
http://www.adobe.com/devnet/dreamweaver/articles/spry_simulations.html 
                               
----------
 
Flex
 
Communicating between Flex and .NET
http://www.adobe.com/devnet/flex/articles/communicating_flex_dotnet.html 
 
Building a standalone Adobe AIR app on salesforce.com with Flex 3
http://www.adobe.com/devnet/flex/articles/flex_air_salesforce.html 
 
----------
 
Flash Lite
 
Flash Lite 3 video capabilities
http://www.adobe.com/devnet/devices/articles/fl3_video.html 
 
----------
 
ColdFusion
 
ColdFusion 8 Server Monitoring - Part 2: Using the Server Monitor in production
http://www.adobe.com/devnet/coldfusion/articles/monitoring_pt2.html 
 
Learning stored procedure basics in ColdFusion 8
http://www.adobe.com/devnet/coldfusion/articles/stored_procs.html 
                               
----------
 
LiveCycle
 
Passing credentials using WS-Security headers
http://www.adobe.com/devnet/livecycle/articles/passing_credentials.html 


Developer Videos
 

These live on the MAX blog, and if you haven't been checking that out, you may have missed it. 

Rick Treitman, Buzzword / Virtual Ubiquity

http://blog.adobemax2007.com/2007/10/get-buzz-on-buzzword.html

Flex, AS3, deployed via Flash player (AIR version soon to come)

Troy Hahn - Auburn University Fisheries website

http://blog.adobemax2007.com/2007/10/nothing-fishy-about-spry.html

Dreamweaver /Spry data set, along with Contribute, Acrobat (PDF), and Captivate

Anthony Franco, Discovery Channel's Cancer Collage

http://blog.adobemax2007.com/2007/10/living-with-cancer-ria-with-mission.html

Flash and Flex

Frog Design - Disney Travel Agent App

http://blog.adobemax2007.com/2007/10/online-offline-travel-planning-to-magic.html

AIR, Flex, and Flash and Photoshop CS3 for building comps

Alan Queen - Digimix

http://blog.adobemax2007.com/2007/10/meet-alan-queen-developer-of-digimix.html

AIR, Flex and ActionScript 3

John Wu - Ora Time and Expense Tracker

http://blog.adobemax2007.com/2007/10/meet-john-wu-developer-of-ora-time-and.html

AIR, HTML, JavaScript, EXTjs framework

Ed Finkler - Spaz.AIR

http://blog.adobemax2007.com/2007/10/meet-edward-finkler-developer-of-spaz.html

AIR, HTML, JavaScript

Tom Bray and Robert Cadena, Searchcoders Dashboard

http://blog.adobemax2007.com/2007/10/meet-tom-bray-and-robert-cadena.html

AIR, Flex and LiveCycle Data Services

Marc Hughes, AgileAgenda

http://blog.adobemax2007.com/2007/10/meet-marc-hughes-developer-of-agile.html

AIR, Flex, PHP

Rachel Roth, DHAP - Pirates of the Caribbean

http://blog.adobemax2007.com/2007/10/see-cool-visual-effects-of-pirates-of.html

Flash, Illustrator, Photoshop, After Effects

Michael Carbajal, NASA interactive reference guide

http://blog.adobemax2007.com/2007/10/fly-aboard-international-space-station.html

Flash, Photoshop, Illustrator, PDF, After Effects and Premiere

Marc Cadle - OASSIS (Homeland Security)

http://blog.adobemax2007.com/2007/10/learn-about-oasiss.html

100% Dreamweaver, ColdFusion 8 (Flex and AIR app in development)

Josh Hirsch, Big Spaceship / HBO

http://blog.adobemax2007.com/2007/10/rear-window-20.html

AS3, Flash, FLV, Photoshop (comps), After Effects, Papervision

Some additional notes about the Adobe Developer Connection

Since we launched the new Adobe Developer Connection on Friday, I've been thrilled to see a number of posts, as well have had a number of conversations with folks at MAX about how much everyone likes the new user interface.

Over the weekend, a few key membership benefits went live.

1. The ADC introNetwork - This is a professional network for developers and designers who want to share their backgrounds and skills to connect with others, share their knowledge, and perhaps even find a job. There are more than 800 professionals in the network today, including more than 100 adobe staffers. And if you are looking to hire someone for a short project or a full time job, there are 80 people that have said they are interested in being contacted about a job. I have a feeling the number of people in the network is going to increase over the next few days.
2. The ADC Developer Desktop is now live as well - This is a Adobe AIR application and is a handy way to receive desktop notifications about changes in status of bugs in the Flex bugbase What I think is cool, is that you can drag an item from the bugbase website, and drop in into the desktop app to track it. From that point on, when there are status changes to the bugs you are watching, you get toast notifications when the app is running.

You can get access to these applications by joining the Adobe Developer Connection. Once you've signed it, you can click over the introNetwork, or download the Developer Desktop. And if you are attending the MAX conference in Chicago, please join me and some of the folks behind the ADC, as well as the team of folks that helps manage many of our relationships with community leaders tonight, at our Birds of Feather Session. Its at 8:30 pm in room 184B. Hope to see you there!

The new Adobe Developer Connection: Content and community for developers

I've been extremely silent on my blog for the past few weeks and months. I've been very focused on a big project to help the Adobe developer community.

And I'm very excited to say that that new project is out the door. Its called the Adobe Developer Connection or ADC. You can visit the new site at http://developer.adobe.com/

or you can read more details below.

Over the past few months, the team here at Adobe has launched several projects that we believe will improve the web and help developers build better projects faster. First, in November 2006 we announced the Tamarin project with Mozilla, open-sourcing the virtual machine behind Flash Player. Then, in April 2007, Adobe announced that the Flex SDK would be open-sourced. And throughout the year, we've delivered beta versions of Adobe® AIR™ so that web developers can take their application ideas to the desktop.

Now Adobe is taking the next step to support the web and application development community. We're delivering a new developer site and program, the Adobe Developer Connection or ADC. I've been working on this project with a bunch of other folks for the past few months and wanted to share some of the details of this new resource with you.

What is the ADC and why should I visit?

The Adobe Developer Connection (ADC) at http://developer.adobe.com is the next generation of what you may know as the Adobe Developer Center. It's a portal to connect developers to technical articles, tutorials, code, documentation, as well as to other developers. By visiting the ADC, developers can learn how to get started with Adobe technologies and find the right resources to advance their projects. And best of all, joining the ADC is completely free.

So, why should you visit the ADC? If you are reading this on Adobe.com, then you probably already know the answer to this question, but for those of you reading on my blog or somewhere else, here's the answer: The ADC serves as the definitive developer resource for how-to information from Adobe.

By visiting the ADC, developers can:

• Find articles, tutorials, downloads and code to help start or advance a project. The ADC enhances delivery of technical content focused on core use cases, including RIAs, website and mobile development, interactive media, and video on the web.
• Take advantage of the newly enhanced, streamlined search capabilities, improved design, page layout and information architecture as well as a new resource panel to easily find helpful resources, including forums, documentation and bug bases.
• Connect with other developers and community resources.

A plethora of benefits—and we're just getting started

Most of all, I'm excited by the wide range of free benefits the ADC offers for developers who join. By joining the ADC for free—all you have to do is provide an e-mail address and password—you can:

• Connect with other professional designers and developers through the ADC introNetwork.
• Download the first release of the ADC Developer Desktop, an Adobe AIR application you can use to track Flex bugs.
• Receive a special "Buy 2 books, and get 1 free" offer from O'Reilly Media, with free shipping in the United States and Puerto Rico.
• Share code and solutions to technical issues through the Flex cookbookCSS Advisor. and
• Choose to subscribe to developer newsletters, including the biweekly Developer Connection Update.

The ADC introNetwork: Connecting with other developers

Social networking has emerged over the past few years as a way to find friends and maintain contacts. Everyone I know is in at least one social network, if not two, three, or more. And you may be asking yourself, "Why is Adobe introducing another one?"

Quite simply, the ADC introNetwork is different. It's a way to connect you with other developers and designers based on their professional background, skills and personality traits.

Unlike other social networks, the ADC introNetwork is focused on professional attributes and individual capabilities, not just personal interests or relationships. The ADC introNetwork features an innovative Pin View (see Figure 1), which allows users to visualize how close or far away their profiles are from other participants. Users can provide details of their technology certifications, as well as spell out interest in learning about job opportunities or sharing technical knowledge with others.

Figure 1. IntroNetworks Pin View

ADC members can create a personal introNetwork profile as a free benefit for joining the ADC. You can access the ADC introNetwork by joining the Adobe Developer Connection.

ADC Developer Desktop: It's not just a website, it's a desktop application

With this launch of the ADC, we are also delivering the first release of the ADC Developer Desktop, a free desktop application that makes developers more productive. This first release brings the public Flex bug base to the desktop using Adobe AIR. Flex developers can use the Developer Desktop to track bugs and receive desktop notifications to changes in Flex bug properties.

Search: Finding answers—faster

The improved ADC search presents clearer search results that contain with more information, such as a display of the URL where the information can be found. It also lets you narrow down search results by where the information is located on Adobe.com. For example, after conducting a search for an Adobe product, you can narrow down the results to only include product documentation.

In addition, search results are displayed using wider screen resolution to allow more results to appear without scrolling, and users can also determine how many results appear per page.

Cookbooks: The perfect recipe

As part of this launch, we've updated the Flex cookbook—a way for developers to share techniques and code samples with others in the Flex community. The newly redesigned Flex cookbook home page makes it easy for developers to navigate to answers they need through new features, including:

• An increased number of highest-rated and recent posts surfaced on the home page
• A convenient tool-tip that developers can use to read problem/solution summaries without leaving the page
• Navigation by top searches
• RSS feeds for recent posts, comments, and edits
• An extension for Flex Builder and Eclipse that developers can use to read cookbook posts from within their development environment

What's next? We want your opinion

First, if you haven't done so already, be sure to visit the new improved home page at http://developer.adobe.com. From there, it's easy to join and get the full benefits of the program by clicking the Join link in the upper right corner of the page.

For future releases of the ADC, we are currently looking at ways to increase visitor participation through community features such as rating, tagging, and commenting of content. We want to continue to enhance the visual presentation of content and make it easier to find technical resources quickly. The ADC team is also planning to deliver additional features for the ADC Developer Desktop.

The ADC is for the developer community, so the most important factor in determining future features is user feedback. Tell us the good and the bad, or ask questions in our feedback forum. We want to know what you think about our content, as well as what you'd like to see in the future.

Did You Know...vol. 3

Back with more news and notes from the Adobe community as we feverishly make last minute preparations in advance of Adobe MAX Chicago that begins on September 30.

Ok, on to the tidbits...did you know that:

• Adobe just announced an offer to receive 30 free days of online Flex training through Total Training! All you need to do is create a Total Training acct if you do not already have one and then follow the instructions listed on the offer page. This offer runs until December 31, 2007, so don't delay...sign up now!
  
• The Adobe product forums will be down on Sunday and Monday (Sept 23 & 24) as they are undergoing a major renovation and will be re-launched with a new look and feel. The re-launch is scheduled for Tuesday, September 25. Additional details may be seen here.
  
• Every wonder if an application that you come across is a Flex app or not? Well don't wonder anymore...use James Ward's handy "Is it Flex" application! All you need to do is enter the URL a URL to a SWF and submit your query to find out!

OK, that's all for now...enjoy!

Ed Sullivan

Did You Know...

I wanted to pass along a couple of tidbits before the weekend. It is an absolutely perfect fall day here in the Northeast and hopefully that will be the case all weekend!

On to the gossip...did you know:

• Adobe is hosting a FREE ActionScript 3.0 tour featuring Colin Moock? For more information and registration please check out the event site.
• Adobe is proud to sponsor An Event Apart San Francisco on October 4-5. Get $50 off the ticket price using this promo code: AEAADOB. For more information and registration please check out the event site.
• Adobe MAX North America is fast approaching?? If you haven't registered yet, don't delay, it is going to be a GREAT event!

OK, that's all for now. Have a great weekend everyone!

Ed Sullivan

esulliva@adobe.com

MAX Chicago IntroNetworks Now Live!

For those of you attending MAX, the IntroNetworks application is a great way to network and meet folks, in addition to being just plain fun and interesting.

I encourage anyone attending MAX Chicago to log into the MAX site and fill out your profile. It is a pretty painless process:

1. Log into the MAX Chicago site.
2. Click the "Community" link on the left vertical nav.
3. Complete your profile.
4. Start having some fun!

Hopefully your pin won't be too close to mine as that would imply some very disturbing things, but if you locate me on there please feel free to drop me a note.

Also, if you are attending MAX, please feel free to pop into the Community Lounge and introduce yourself.

Ed Sullivan
esulliva@adobe.com

Did You Know...

From time to time I will be providing quick updates on items of note that I feel the larger Adobe community may be interested in. Thus, my first "Did You Know" post! So, without further ado....did you know:

Flex Developer's Journal - Yup, that's right. SYS-CON has started a DJ exclusively focused on Flex, mirroring the popular CFDJ. Check it out at: http://flex.sys-con.com/.

Flash Player 9 Update - has been released on Adobe Labs. This update, codenamed “Moviestar,” includes new features, enhancements and bug fixes for Windows, Macintosh, and Linux versions of Flash Player 9, including:

• Support for H.264 video and HE-AAC audio codecs (new Aug. 21).
  
• Multi-core support for vector rendering.
  
• Full screen mode with hardware scaling.
  
• Flash Player cache for common platform components, such as the Flex framework.
  
• Support for Microsoft Active Accessibility (MSAA) in the Windows plug-in.

Get it now before they are sold out!!! OK, they won't sell out, but seriously, check it out!

That's all for now, folks. For those of you celebrating, have a great Labor Day weekend!

On AIR Bus Tour - Philadelphia, PA

Wow. Where do I start?

What a great event we had in Philadelphia...and for so many different reasons.

First off the venue was terrific. We were in The Franklin Institute Science Museum for the event. We had the Planetarium inside the museum dedicated for the game room, bar and break area for in between sessions. And then a sweet auditorium for the actual presentations.

The Adobe guys did their normal bang-up job presenting their sessions, but what made the event extra special was the audience involvement and excitement. Local Adobe Flash Platform user group manager, Robert Hall, held a contest for local community members to develop AIR apps. Four entries were received and the creator of each app got time on stage to showoff their app! They were super cool apps and each received loud rounds of applause.

Just when you thought the night couldn't get any better, I was pointed to a new online AIR resource, AIRDev and then told that the guys who developed it were in the audience, live blogging the on AIR event. THEN, an hour later I find out that the two "guys" in the audience are actually a couple of 13 year olds; my new friends Ari and Ben!! So I went down between sessions to introduce myself and you won’t meet two nicer kids. They were sitting there with their laptops open, furiously typing notes...it was great!

I wanted to take a minute to give a massive shout out to the local Philadelphia Adobe user group managers who went all out in helping us promote this event. Guys, it would not have been the same without all your support, so thank you for everything!!

So I took the easy way out...while the rest of the guys piled back on the bus and started a midnight trek to Boston, I cozied up in an airport hotel and flew home this morning. I cannot make the Boston on AIR stop, which is a shame because it is in my home town, but you should still go if you can!

On AIR Rewind - Pittsburgh

Just a quick post as I sit here at the Philadelphia event (more on that to come in a separate post) about a great video that some of the Pittsburgh user group guys shot at the Pittsburgh event.

This video is definitely worth checking out!

On AIR Bus Tour - Baltimore

Another great event in Baltimore last night. And even with the full day event the day before in nearby Washington, DC, we still had a terrific turnout for the Baltimore event.

The venue (Frederick Douglass-Isaac Myers Maritime Park) which was right on the waterfront and overlooked the water was absolutely terrific. The food was right up my alley...appetizers were everywhere and I did some major damage at the mini-hamburger and mini-hotdog stations. In case I haven't mentioned it, I have a very unsophisticated pallet.

Back on the bus and off to Philly in an hour or so for another event tonight. The local Adobe user groups in Philly have really gone all out in promoting this event, so I wanted to give you guys a big shout out to express my appreciation and I look fwd to seeing you guys and meeting some of your members tonight. If you are local to Philadelphia, plan on coming out for the event!

OK, that's all for now. The live feed on the bus will probably kick in around 10:30 this morning, so if you have nothing better to do, take a peek!

On AIR Bus Tour - Washington, DC

I am officially on the bus and love is in the AIR (sorry, I couldn't resist)!

Currently we are on the bus, headed to Baltimore for tonight's AIR event. I flew into DC Sunday night to join the tour and attended yesterday's all day event in DC which was a tremendous success. We had a packed house at a super cool venue (The State Theater in Falls Church, VA) watching a series of presentations from community stalwarts like Mike Chambers, Mike Downey, Ryan Stewart, Kevin Hoyt, Ben Forta and many more!

The crowd was very lively and extremely engaged. Plus, most of the local Adobe user group managers attended so it was great to see so many familiar faces at the event. Thanks for coming out, guys!

There are still several tour dates left, so be sure to check the remaining tour dates and plan on coming out if we are coming to your city.

As I type this post live from the bus I am enjoying some episodes of Reno 911 (first time I have seen it) next to Ben Forta, who is thoroughly enjoying it!

More posts after the Baltimore and Philly events that are tonight and tomorrow night respectively.

Let the games begin....

Well I guess this has been a long time coming. And thanks to everyone for the warm welcome.

As Jonathan mentioned, one of my main responsibilities is overseeing the Adobe User Group Program. If you are not hooked into your local user group, you really should be. They are a tremendous resource for learning new skills, honing existing skills and keeping current on the latest and greatest from Adobe. If you are unsure if there is an Adobe UG in your area, please check out our handy UG locator at: http://www.adobe.com/cfusion/usergroups/. If there is no UG in your immediate area, maybe it is time for you to start one!? If so, please feel free to drop me a line.

As also mentioned by Jonathan, I will be on the AIR Bus Tour all of next week, so if you are in DC, Baltimore, Philadelphia or Boston, plan on popping in to say hello. Early feedback from previous tour dates has been positively glowing! Additionally, I will be attending MAX in Chicago and will most likely be providing live updates from the conference via the blog for those of you unable to attend.

So, what can you expect to see from me in this space? A lot of the information that I make available to my user group managers would also be plenty valuable to the communities they serve, so expect to see that type of info frequently. Everything and anything as it pertains to the Adobe user communities will be fair game...information on user group events and meetings, special initiatives, technical content, as well as updates from adobe.com and Adobe Labs that folks may not have time to seek out on their own.

One great example of the type of info I will be surfacing is the fact that Adobe ColdFusion user groups worldwide are holding CF8 launch events in the month of August in support of our recent announcement regarding the immediate availability of CF8. Check the UG locator posted above to see if a CFUG near you is participating. These meetings will be a great resource for learning more about the latest CF release as well as provide an opportunity to meet and network with local like-minded professionals, win one of a kind CF schwag and maybe even walk away with a complimentary copy of CF8 Standard!

So thanks again to everyone for the hearty welcome and feel free to let me know via the comments section what type of information you would find valuable in this space.

One thing I can state in no uncertain terms is that the Adobe community absolutely rocks and it is a pleasure to work the leaders of these communities on a daily basis.

Thanks for listening (err, reading)...Ed