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

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

Thanks a lot to everyone who came out Thursday night. We had a great meeting with some really fantastic content. Around 18 in attendance. Rob brought a case a beer, we raffled off two $50 vouchers to Flashden.net, and Hollie won the FlashEff raffle by participating in the banner ad contest.

Congratulations…
to Winton for winning a copy of CS4 Production Premium and Flex Builder 3. He submitted 10 posts to the Adobe Developer Connection for the Cookbook promotion. You can find his posts here.

Special thanks…
to Chris Buchholz for presenting on character animation. You can get his source files here. And to Winton DeShong for presenting on AMF. If you weren’t able to make it on Thursday, Winton recorded his session. Download it here.

Our New Home on Adobe Groups
Within the next month, we will start to transition our site to it’s new home on groups.adobe.com. Having our site on Adobe Groups will really open the doors of communication for us. Be sure to create a profile and join the group. Then start posting questions, comments, content, discussions, etc. This is “our” site. The managers are simply organizers for the group. Its up to you to make this community come alive. The url is http://groups.adobe.com/groups/5302eef0b5 (it will eventually be a more readable url). Once the site is all set up and all of our current content is transferred, CPFUG.com will redirect to our Adobe Groups site.

Our next meeting…
will be on Thursday March 5. Stay tuned for topics. Please let me know if you would like to present anything or have any ideas on what you would like covered.

Top

BarCampHarrisburg is a participatory unconference for students, enthusiasts, and professionals to network and share knowledge in an open environment. The event involves discussions, demos, and interaction with participants. Please see the Rules of Barcamp for what to expect.

The focus of this BarCamp will be on Web design, development, and online social media within the context of the Central PA area.

When: Saturday, January 10, 2009 : 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
Where: Temple University Harrisburg
Cost: Free

Proposed Sessions/Workshops

• Building a site using the Gaia Flash Framework
• Open source content management systems
• Developing Desktop Applications using AIR
• Developing Android Applications

For more recent details visit http://www.barcamp.org/BarCampHarrisburg.

Top

Where: Jackie Gleason Theater in Miami, FL
When: April 6-8 2009
Site: www.flashonthebeach.com

If you are a designer, developer, coder, student, manager, game developer, artist, animator or a newbie, then this conference is for you! Don’t miss this opportunity to see nearly 50 of the best minds in the industry delivering 3 full days of awe-inspiring sessions.

Stay tuned. CPFUG members may be able to receive a discount on the admission.

Pricing:
Super Early Bird: $299
Super Early Bird for students: $149
Other pricing options

Top