Flash in the Peg

Hope you’re all having a great summer! My apologies for the long period of
radio silence, but the last month or so has been kind of hectic around
these parts, to say the least.

Now that things are settling down, I just wanted to drop a quick note to
update you all on a few things:

1. Topics for upcoming meetings. I thought I’d give you an idea of what
   some of the next meetings will look at:
   • Introduction to Ajax. What’s Ajax and what can it do for you? We’ll look
     at the basic concepts behind Ajax, then take a look at Adobe’s Spry
     framework for Ajax, and how that’s been integrated into Dreamweaver CS3.
   • Prototyping in Fireworks. Fireworks CS3 has some nifty new features that
     make developing web site prototypes much, much easier. We’ll walk through
     how Photoshop and Fireworks work together at the mockup stage, and how
     Fireworks can be used to develop wireframes and walkthroughs of a proposed
     web site.
   • Flash Lite primer. Flash Lite is a version of Flash optimized for mobile
     devices. I’ll show you what the current Flash Lite environment looks like
     and what’s involved in developing in Flash Lite.

   For other meeting topics, there has been some interest in a general Flash
   primer. I think this is a great idea, and would definitely love to put
   something together for a future meeting. But I’d like to target it at the
   broadest range of people, so if you’re interested in this topic, please
   email me privately and let me know what you’d like this meeting to cover.
   Are you brand new to Flash and would like to learn the basic principles?
   Have you got your feet wet and would like to start moving toward the
   deeper end of the pool?
   Any other ideas? What would you like to learn about/discuss?

2. Our next meeting. A couple people have expressed a preference for a
   summer meeting hiatus, and a couple others have been curious about when
   our next meeting will be held. Given how short our summers can be, what
   are your thoughts on holding a meeting at some point in the next month or
   so?

   (As of about September, I plan to establish a regular, predictable
   schedule for meetings. If you have a preference for when that would be –
   earlier in the month? later? – let me know!)

3. Software raffle. Twice per year, Adobe provides software for the group
   to raffle off. The winner gets to choose the software package of their
   choice, valued at up to $2100 (USD - practically the same thing at $2100
   Cdn these days!). I’m working up the rules for how the raffle for the
   second half of this year will work, and will post them in the next week or
   so, but to give you some advance warning: one way of earning extra raffle
   ‘tickets’ will be if you make a presentation to the group. So if there’s
   something that you’d like to present, send me an email!
4. Discussion list/forum. I’m exploring alternatives for setting up a
   web-based forum. The flashinthepeg.org blog uses Wordpress, and they also
   make forum software. It looks pretty slick and integrates nicely with
   Wordpress, so at some point in the next week or so, I’ll try installing
   that, so people can give it a try and see if it’s something they’d like to
   use.
   If folks would rather have something email-based, I could create a
   separate email list to be used for general discussion, and reserve this
   list for announcements only. How do people feel about having to subscribe
   to multiple lists?