Our next meeting is scheduled for July 8 from 6-8 pm at Appalachian Brewing Company in Harrisburg (upstairs). We’re going to start a series of meetings covering “Actionscript 3.0 Animation: Making Things Move!” by Keith Peters. Attendance is free, though you’re encouraged to bring a copy of the book and a laptop with Flash installed (if you have either).

Also, feel free to bring Flash-related questions or suggestions you may have for group. Hope to see you there!

Top

Thanks, apparently, to the software the Adobe Groups site runs on, the scheduled events are not being propagated to the members.  I canceled the original meeting and have rescheduled for June 17th, 7-8 pm.  I have not locked down a site for this meeting yet but it will be a one-hour meeting at which I want to accomplish two things: conduct the semi-annual CS5 software raffle (it has to happen this month) and discuss where we are headed in the “post Shane” future.

If this is all news to you, please read my posts from May 25th either here or the Adobe groups site (cpfug.groups.adobe.com).

Top

I’m sure that many of you have already heard that Shane announced his resignation as CPFUG manager at the May meeting.  Shane is trying to deal with the needs of his family and the demands of a new job and continuing as user group manager in Harrisburg doesn’t make sense.  I’m sure I’m not alone in expressing gratitude to Shane for all his work in getting CPFUG off the ground and running.  He will continue to participate as a member when practical.

So where do we go from here?

For the moment, I have agreed to take over as manager. I will continue in that role for as long as you, the group members, want me to.  But I can’t do it alone.  I don’t have anywhere the experience with Flash and other CG tools that Shane has.  I don’t have the community and industry contacts that Shane has.  So I will need help.

If you want someone else to take over, I would be willing to drop back to my role as co-manager.  If you think there is someone else who can serve in that role better than I can, I won’t be offended.  I want to see some life return to the group. I’ve learned a lot from you members and I don’t want to stop learning now.  I believe in contributing where I can, so let me know what you think.

Our next meeting is next week, June 3rd at 6pm.  UPDATE: This meeting will be held at JPL, 471 Jplwick Drive Harrisburg, Pa 17111. The main focus of the meeting will be a discussion of where we want to go as a group.  To add an incentive for attending, we will have our semi-annual Creative Suite (CS5) raffle.  Same rules will be applied as in the past.  You must be a member.  You must be present to win.  You must have attended at least one meeting prior to the giveaway meeting. Extra chances to win will be awarded based on the number of meetings attended, whether you presented, whether you brought a guest to any meetings.

So come on out next week.  I’ll even guarantee that there will be refreshments.  I will post an update as soon as I know where we will be meeting…it will be somewhere in the Harrisburg area.  In fact, if anyone has a suggestion for an alternate meeting location, please let me know.

If you have questions or comments for me, post a response here.

Since I’m not entirely confident in the functionality of the new group management system (Picard), I will repeat this post on the old blog and I will Tweet (from @CPFUG) a link to this posting.  I will try to post an event on this site but it may not let me do so without a location.

Thanks.  I look forward to seeing many of you next week.

Art

(I haven’t straightened out the admin on this site yet…that’s why it says “posted by Shane”.

Top

Harrisburg University of Science and Technology invites candidates to submit their interest in the Learning Technologies Production Coordinator position. This exempt, full-time position reports to the Director of Learning Technologies. In collaboration with the Director of Learning Technologies and the Director of the CAE< this position will design and implement learning projects and courses aimed at supporting growth in both areas.

The position requires a Bachelor’s degree and four to six years experience in instructional technology. Qualifications include experience in designing, writing and developing instructional materials for digital delivery, excellent project management skills, public speaking abilities, and interactive development with Adobe Flash and ActionScript 2+. Experience in K-12 teaching, graphic design, HTML, JavaScript, Moodle, and Distance Learning are preferred but not required.

The ideal candidate will possess strong communication skills and the ability to thrive in an entrepreneurial setting.

Responsibilities

• Coordinate, design, write and develop instructional materials for asynchronous and synchronous delivery.
• Manage the effective use of resources in individual and team projects.
• Align project goals, objectives and activities with the University’s mission.
• Assist with developing courses in the Learning Technologies Masters of Science (LTMS) program.
• Assist with coordinating LTMS program delivery at a variety of locations.
• Develop multimedia and web-based applications in conjunction with the CAE< staff.

Position Qualifications and Requirements:

• Four to Six years experience in instructional technology, with at least 50 of duties as an instructional designer.
• Experience in designing, writing, and developing instructional materials for digital delivery in asynchronous and synchronous formats.
• Ability to communicate and work effectively with students, faculty, staff, administrators, alumni, and the community
• Excellent project management, interpersonal communication, organizational, presentation, public speaking, program coordination and problem-solving abilities, combined with a collaborative work style
• Bachelor’s degree in Learning Technologies or Instructional Technology required, Master’s degree preferred.
• Experience required in instructional design, teaching or public speaking, writing, project management, Adobe Flash and ActionScript 2+.
• Experience in K-12 teaching, graphic design, HTML, JavaScript, Moodle, and Distance Learning desired.
• Ability to thrive in an entrepreneurial environment

To apply for this position please go to www.HarrisburgU.edu to complete the application, and include your resume, cover letter, salary requirements, and the name of the position for which you are applying. Email to HR@HarrisburgU.edu. Applications will not be accepted via fax or regular mail. This position search will remain open until filled.

Harrisburg University is an Equal Opportunity Employer.

Top

Date: May 6, 2010
Time: 6:00 PM – 8:00 PM
Location: JPL, Directions

The recent release of Adobe Flash Builder, the Adobe vs. Apple wars, the new Adobe Groups site, and now the availability of Creative Suite 5! Wow, a lot has happened since our last meeting. We will have plenty to talk about this meeting.

As you may have read, CS5 has a ton of new and exciting features. Join us as we go over those new features in Flash CS5. We will also go cover some new features of Photoshop CS5 as well. We will  also have some really cool giveaways to raffle off.

I hope to see everyone at the meeting! Please RSVP if you plan on attending.

Top

Top

The Adobe Groups site is in the process of a major rebuild. There are a number of bugs still remaining in the system. One bug in particular with our group site is that the entire site goes down when you are logged in. We are currently working towards fixing all of the bugs. In the meantime, we will be using our old blog for communication. Thanks for your patience.

Top

I’d like to officially announce our new site on Adobe Groups.

http://groups.adobe.com/groups/5302eef0b5

We have shared this with the group at past meetings, but moving forward, we will be posting all content to our new site. This site (cpfug.com) will eventual redirect to our Adobe Groups site.

Adobe Groups is, in sense, a social networking site where you can create a profile, and start communicating with our group. You can also join other groups from around the world, if you choose. Among several great features, we have a discussion area where we can communicate with each other. You can also subscribe to be notified when certain areas of the site updates.

Make sure you join the group so you can have access to all of our content. You will sign in with your Adobe ID. If you don’t have one, you can sign up for free when you go to join our group.

See you on Groups.

Top

Date: April 2, 2009
Time: 6:00 PM – 8:00 PM
Location: JPL, Directions

Topics will include:

From PSD to FLA
by Doug Logan

Doug (manager of Cental PA Photoshop User Group) will be showing us how to take a design from Photoshop and properly slice it and place it into Flash for other developers to work with. Doug will take into consideration organization, optimization and revisions to the Photoshop file.

Object Oriented Programming- An Introductory Overview for the Non-Programmer
by Art Straub

If you are doing anything creative on a PC, Mac or Web-Based platform these days, it’s almost impossible to avoid interacting with object oriented or, at least, object based systems. It doesn’t have to be Java or C++ or .Net; HTML, XML, scripting languages, even Flash are built on the object model.  There are ways of dealing with these mechanically, without really knowing much about them.  But if you at least understand the concepts these are built on, there’s a good chance you can make them work better for you.  And if you can get past the “secret language” that object oriented programmers use, you might find you can actually use it creatively.

Art will present a high-level introduction to the major concepts of object oriented programming.  The objective will be to enable the members of the audience to participate intelligently in a discussion that deals in part with object oriented ideas and terms without developing the “thousand-yard stare”.

Qualifications: Art started object oriented programming 20 years ago and has been doing object oriented programming and design on and off since then.  He has taught programming classes for a number of platforms including ASP.Net and has lead teams developing system using object oriented tools.

Top

Speaker: Mark Piller, Founder and Chief Architect of Midnight Coders.

We will be teaming up with Central Penn Adobe User Group for a two part session on Adobe Flex. The first part will an online meeting on April 14, at 6:00pm. Part two will be at a live meeting at JPL on May 28.

Flex Sesson – Part I (April 14)
Live, Remote Event via Webconference:

• Optimizing Flex client/server integration with Java, .NET, PHP backends
• Testing and debugging Flex application

Flex Sesson – Part II Live (May 28)
In-Person Event: (at JPL)

• Generating PDF documents from Flex clients
• Tracking user behavior and analytics for Flex applications

This two part session will provide an overview of various techniques and approaches developers can use in day-to-day activities for Flex and Flash application development, testing and runtime optimization. You will learn about ActionScript code generator for remoting and data management use-cases, learn how to create real-time messaging applications, see a demo of remoting invocation debugger and AMF traffic visualizer. Finally, you will see a demonstration of user behavior tracking and analytics in a Flex application. The session provides a lot of coding samples and API reviews. It is targeted at a wide range of developers ranging from beginner level to very advanced. Parts of the presentation will be useful for management folks and they are welcome to attend as well.

Top