Help us help you - but wait, there's more

Ok, actually there isn't more, as my title would suggest. This post only has a request for your participation in a survey. We tend to do a lot of research in the community, asking developers and designers for their opinions on lots of stuff, ranging from product features, pricing to marketing.

Here's one more survey to add to the mix. But I'd like to add a personal request for readers of this blog, and anyone else who links to this post to please complete the survey at the link below. Your responses will really help us shape the resources we provide for you as developers using Adobe technologies.

So in the end, if you take 5 minutes or less right now, and voice your opinion about developer resources and programs, it can have a big impact on the type of content and resources that we provide down the road. (Wow does, that sound like one of those cheesy ads you see on TV? I certainly hope not. Otherwise, I'll have to send out a lot of Ginsu knives. Which by the way, you can see the original Ginsu ad below.)





You can also feel free to blog it or share the link to the survey with co-workers if you want. (Feel free to share the link to the Ginsu knife video too, but I'm definitely not asking you to pass that on. I'm only asking you to pass on the survey to other developers using Adobe technologies.

And lastly, note that we are focusing this research a bit more on the developer than the designer, but lots of people in the community cover both design and coding, so feel free to take a look and see if you think its relevant to you.

You can take the survey via the following link http://snipr.com/adcsurvey

My apologies to commenters on my blog

So it seems that people that have submitted comments on my blog recently haven't seen them posted, until now. It looks like the adobe spam filter somehow flagged the verification emails from blogger to allow me to approve them. So I only realized I had a number of unapproved comments a few minutes ago. Sorry about that. I hope to get the spam filter issue fixed asap.

Please keep commenting away.

Highlighting the community and developers on adobe.com

For the past few days, I've been spending time with many of our Community Leaders (User group managers and Community Experts) who have joined us at Adobe HQ for our annual Community Leadership Summit.

One of the things that multiple people mentioned to me, from pretty much the first second I walked in the door is that Adobe needs to a better job highlighting the community on Adobe.com. I completely agree. One of the suggestions a number of attendees mentioned at the summit was to include the community on Adobe Labs. We took a small, quick first step at that here. And Elaine Montoya even stayed up late on Tuesday night to do a mockup of her ideas. Thanks Elaine.

So, for people who already read my blog, you already know this. But if you are a first time reader, I'm using this blog for feedback from the Adobe community on how we can improve our support of you. And thats today's question. What ideas do you have on how Adobe can highlight the community more on Adobe.com.

Please comment away on my blog.

What does MAX mean to you?

I'm assuming that most people that read this blog, or will read this post, have already been to least one MAX conference, and before that Macromedia Devcon, or even dating back to stuff that took place at the turn of the century, Allaire Devcon. I'm really excited this year that we're going to have MAX not only in North America, but also in Barcelona and Japan.

Having been to every one of these conferences since the infamous election of 2000, I think each MAX is a bit different. But at the heart of it, if you ask me, is that you can learn, develop and connect. Learn about new products, new technologies, cool ideas, best practices. Meet new people and some friendly faces. I think most people leave MAX a bit tired - but also a lot smarter, and more inspired.

What I really want to know from everyone reading this is whats does MAX mean to you? What's the essence of those four days in the fall? Please comment in my blog.

Certain about certification

How do companies get clear indicators that you are a good developer? Do they look at your work? Give you a test, or ask you to build something? Talk to your old employers?

One of the things I think many companies look for is certification on a specific technology.

I'd love to hear from Adobe developers that have gotten certified on any technology, not just Adobe product. Was it worth it? Did it help you get a job? Did it help you earn more money? Would you do it again? Please comment on my blog. I'd love to hear about the good, and the bad.

And by the way, many people don't know this, but Adobe has a wide range of certification programs. You can learn about Flex certification, for example, here. And many of the other certification offers can be found here.

Adobe Developer Library - from O'Reilly

I'm guessing that most developers have, at some point in time, had at least one O'Reilly book on their desk. And its probably right by your computer, serving as one of your primary references to help you build great applications. I know many developers swear by O'Reilly titles as the best in business.

You may have seen some of the early work of a relatively new partnership between O'Reilly and Adobe, but you may not have realized how many great books are out there.

Now, you can check out the Adobe Developer Library Store on O'Reilly.com to see whats available. I've also listed some of the titles below.

Essential ActionScript 3.0 (available 6/15/07)

http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/essentialaction/

ActionScript 3.0 Cookbook

http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/actscpt3ckbk/

ActionScript 3.0 Programming: Overview, Getting Started, & Examples of New Concepts

http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/actionscript3qr/

Intro to Flex 2

http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/9780596550035/

Programming Flex 2.0

http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/9780596526894/

Flex Early Evaluator Guide by Effective UI

http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/evaluator1/

And coming soon...

ActionScript 3.0 Design Patterns

http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/9780596510343/

Happy reading!

Anything besides Google?

I've been thinking a lot about search lately. Specifically, what are the most popular, creative and unknown, but perhaps extremely effective ways for developers to find information? And with Google's recent updates, I figured its time to blog about it.

More than anything I'm really curious how developers are find finding answers to their technical how to types of questions. Quickly finding answers problems is key to being a productive developer, and hitting project milestones. Clearly the folks at Searchcoders have realized this, and they've done a great job aggregating resources for Flex developers and making it easy for people to find answers. If you haven't seen their demo, or downloaded the Apollo based desktop version of their work, its really worth checking out.

So how do you find answers to your questions when developing stuff with Adobe technology? Do you Google it, and that's it? (And is there anyone that doesn't use Google as their default search engine? If so, what are you using?) Or perhaps you use Google's advanced search capabilities to search, like inside a specific domain.

But what if Google doesn't find your answer? Then what do you?

Do you come to Adobe.com and search for an answer? And when on Adobe.com where do you look? Do you browse through the Developer Center? And check out things like the Flex cookbook? Visit the forums? Check out livedocs (that's a link to the Flash CS3 livedocs)? Use Adobe.com search? Search for knowledgebase articles in the Support Center?

Do you check out sites that index code and APIs for you like gotapi.com and Krugle?

Or perhaps you just look to your specific community for the answer, and post your question for others to help you out?

I'd love to hear from people in the Adobe community on this. So please comment away in my blog and let me know how you find answers.