GIVE BACK TO THE COMMUNITY: Web Pro Community Challenge

The World Organization of Webmasters (WOW), a non-profit professional association, has teamed up with the Adobe Corporation to conduct the first international Web Pro Community Challenge, to be announced at Adobe MAX in Chicago, IL, October 1-3, 2007. WHAT IS IT? The Web Pro Community Challenge (http://www.webprochallenge.org) is an opportunity for industry professionals to give something back to the community by designing, developing and promoting a fully functional web site and/or web application for a designated non-profit organization. The idea is very similar to the Flex CodeJam that was run as part of 360Flex - Seattle, where a group of developers got together for a code-a-thon to build an application for a non-profit organization (more info at: http://www.flexcodejam.org/). WHO ARE WE SUPPORTING? The Challenge is supporting two charities: Say Yes to Green; http://sayyestogreen.org/ and Direct Relief International, http://www.directrelief.org/. The SayYesToGreen.org initiative Statement of Work surrounds a complete makeover that includes elements of Web site design, development and business. The SayYesToGreen.org initiative is an international effort to educate the population about energy saving tips and resources. The Direct Relief International's Statement of Work surrounds a Flex Based Multimedia Annual Report which will be used within their website. Since 1948, Direct Relief International has worked to improve the quality of life for people in need. Direct Relief provides medical assistance to improve the quality of life for people victimized by poverty, disaster, and civil unrest at home and throughout the world. According to Charity Navigator (http://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=search.summary&orgid=3626) this charity is rated 4 out of 4 stars, and your contribution in time will help this charity grow in the future. HOW TO GET INVOLVED Grab a couple of friends or co-workers and join other web professionals in giving something back by signing up your team of 3 to participate at http://www.webprochallenge.org/enter-now.html! Also, feel free to take a tour of the challenge web site (http://www.webprochallenge.org) for more information

Adobe launches new Developer Center

http://developer.adobe.com - check it out!

50% off MDM Zinc v2.5 for Adobe User Group Members

From 9:00am Monday 24^th September to 5pm Friday 28^th September (EST) MDM will be offering all Adobe/Macromedia User Group community members 50% off all software, including Zinc v2.5!

Multidmedia Limited (MDM) are a software company that specialise in Development Tools for Adobe Flash and Flex and our flagship title, Zinc v.2.5, is a market leading SWF2EXE programme for creating standalone desktop applications via Adobe Flash. Zinc v2.5 empowers your Adobe 6, 7 8 and 9 SWF files with unrivaled functionality and flexibility by adding over 800 new and extremely powerful ActionScript commands for your Flash projects (please see http://www.multidmedia.com/software/zinc ).

To claim you discount, email MDM’ Sales Manager, Paul Tunnicliffe at Paul.Tunnicliffe@multidmedia.com with the subject header as ‘User Group Discount’ . You will then receive a special discount code that allows you to purchase your software via our online shop at half price! The code can be used on all MDM software as many times as you like during the offers lifespan. You can email in anytime from now to order your discount code, but you will not receive it until Monday 24^th at the earliest.If you work for a company and prefer to pay by Purchase Order, that’s fine to. Simply send your P.O as normal stating your ‘User Group Discount’ as a reference.

New Adobe Flex Showcase - Now Live

Hot off the press: At 4 PM EST today, Adobe launched a new Flex Showcase live. The new showcase uses Flex and some custom Flash components, and replaces the single page of Flex apps now on http://flex.org/showcase. Check it out now: http://flex.org/showcase/. I think I may need to try the "Weight Watchers Turnaround" application soon.

Google Gadget Ads

This is really cool for Flash designers: http://www.google.com/adwords/gadgetads/index.html Google Gadget Ads allow advertisers and agencies to engage audiences on Googe's ad network with a rich and interactive new ad format in the form of a Google Gadget. This is important for advertisers because it's a great new way to create and distribute rich media ad units on not only high traffic sites like iGoogle but also any web site or blog.

AbleCommerce 7.0 released

One of our favored eCommerce vendors has announced a new version & promotion: In celebration of this event, we are offering a free year’s upgrade subscription and a free develpment server license to all clients purchasing AbleCommerce 7.0 during this beta period, http://www.ablecommerce.com/AspNet-Shopping-Cart-70-Beta-by-AbleCommerce-P156C20.aspx, a savings of almost $300!

Calling All Flex Developers!

Are you doing any development work (including skinning and UI design) with Adobe Flex? Here's your chance to be a contributor to an Adobe Developer Library book to be published in 2008, "Flex 3 Cookbook." Adobe's got a terrific site for Flex developers of any stripe to show their best stuff, and O'Reilly and Adobe are partnering on a book that will include some of the best contributions from the site. Each contribution uses the classic O'Reilly cookbook "Problem/Solution/Explanation" format; if you've got strong material to show the rest of the world, it couldn't be easier to write up your material in the online fields, and join the cookbook party. Flex developers are in very short supply in an exploding market, so here's your chance to show your stuff to the rest of the community!

http://www.adobe.com/cfusion/communityengine/index.cfm?event=homepage&productId=2