A few months ago, I started a project to make a framework for ColdFusion to enable its functionality as an Enterprise Service Bus (ESB). I kept running into roadblocks in my mind as how to structure things, but I realized something. Everything I was trying to do to make ColdFusion an ESB was simply hindering tasks that were already easy to do. ColdFusion, out of the box, can function as an ESB.
It wasn't always this way, but over the years, with the addition of things like JMS gateways, .NET integration, HTTP, and FTP integration; it's easy to create workflows that receive data from an input, processes it, and sends it to another destination. ColdFusion 9 enables this even more so with the addition of Sharepoint integration.
Why worry about installing something like Mule? ColdFusion already does everything you need it to do out of the box. ESBs are the next generation in integration. ColdFusion just makes it easier and faster than traditional Java or .NET based solutions.
This past Friday, I gave a presentation, "UX For The Development-Minded" at RIA Unleashed. It went really well, but I have to admit, the audience got short-changed. I actually cut a lot of content out, about one third, because it was orginally written to be a longer form presnetation for 360|Flex. Well, I'm happy to say that you can see the entire presentation, unabridged, at 360|Flex San Jose in March of 2010 because I just got notice that I will be giving the full presentation. Let's call this version the "director's cut."
Brian put on a great event this past Friday at Bentley University. The attendance was more than most other conferences I've been to this year. I am wondering if these one-day events are the way that conferences should be trending. The content was great (amazing speaker lineup) and the location was great.
I gave an overview of some Experience Design concepts, from a developer's point-of-view. Here are the slides, but I really feel that without the rest of the preso experience, but here they are if you want them.
As many of you know, Universal Mind grew from the ashes of Macromedia Consulting. At the time, there was no talk of Web 2.0, Flex, or anything like that. We grew our business on ColdFusion. ColdFusion is in our DNA. It's always been a part of what we do, but lately I've heard rumblings from the community that Universal Mind has abandoned ColdFusion. Nothing could be further from the truth.
While people have been saying that Universal Mind has left ColdFusion behind, we have been quietly building up our ColdFusion talent with some of the strongest people in the community. Some are names you know, some are names you do not. Chris Scott, Dan Wilson, Laura Arguello, and Dan Skaggs are just a few of the great ColdFusion developers we have working with us.
Yes, we build RIAs. That includes Flex, AJAX, Silverlight, and the technologies that power them, including ColdFusion and Java. We've got some of the best Java talent around too, but that's a post for another day. This all means that we can build not only your RIA, but the complete solution from back to front. When it comes to building ColdFusion back-ends for your Flex application, nobody has more experience than Universal Mind.
So despite rumors to the contrary, our ColdFusion practice is very much alive and kicking. What do we build? Enterprise Class Rich Internet Applications, including those powered by ColdFusion. After all, ColdFusion is in our DNA.
We're just over a week away from Flash Camp Atlanta and tickets are almost sold out. If you're interested in going, but have been on the fence, all the sessions are posted here. There are cheap flights and hotels available still. Sign up today at www.flashcampatlanta.com and ensure your seat before they're all gone!
Time to digest another CFUnited. I didn't go last year because I was not too happy with the event after 2007. It had gotten too kitschy and too, for lack of a better term, silly. This year though, it seems things have turned around. I think we have to attribute that to the conference being under Stellr's guidance.
Overall, I'm very happy with how the flex tracks turned out. Great speakers, great content. The venue was good and it was a bit spread out, but that's how it is. The content in all the sessions was very strong. That's something that has been lacking in years past; the content was too rudimentary. This year, however, it's come back around. I think that competition from 360|Conferences and cf.Objective() has been taken to account and the content has been upped, in concequence.
The high point, for me, was the end of the demo mania when Doug McCune brought the house down. Now, note the irony here, one of the biggest names in the flex community brought the house down to close the show at CFUnited.
If you missed Doug's video (a mashup of the Adobe OSMF and FlexLingo), here it is:
The early bird pricing for Flash Camp Atlanta ends in less than 24 hours! Tickets are on pace to sell out soon, so if you don't want to pay more later, go sign up now. The early bird pricing is dirt cheap, only $40 for the main session and $15 for the introductory session ( an intro to Flash, Flex, and AIR ).
A few days ago, we were having some internal discussions about Flash Camp Atlanta. We had gotten a couple of topics in, and oddly enough, they all had a common theme. So, through part of our discussions, we decided that we were going to have a theme for Flash Camp Atlanta. The first theme we came up with, "80's day", had been done before and was a bit tired. The second idea we had was much better: "Enabling The Convergence of Art & Design With The Flash Platform".
A couple of things inspired this theme. Firstly, this document, by Christian Saylor, has been a huge inspiration in everything we do at Universal Mind. Go ahead, take a minute or two and read it; this post will still be here for you to read. Second, Ben Stucki submitted a topic along these same lines (session descriptions are coming soon). So what does this mean? It means that we are going to strive to have all of our topics tie into this common thread through the day. We've got a great littany of speakers lined up and it's an event that you won't want to miss.
I'm also working on lining up a great venue (not Stats, it's been played out) for the community get together the night before. Also, Delta Airlines announced a slew of cheap fares (as low as $80 roundtrip from Charlotte, NC) today that are valid for the dates of Flash Camp Atlanta.
Flash Camp Atlanta is a full-day event featuring some top industry
experts on the Adobe Flash Platform from both inside and outside Adobe.
Come advance your Flex and Flash skills, meet members of the Adobe team
and network with local companies and fellow developers. Sessions will
be geared towards developers and designers with little to advanced
level of experience with Flex and/or ActionScript. There will be plenty
of giveaways, raffles and swag (and lunch).
In addition to a great Main Session (9am-5pm) there will also be a special Introductory Session (8-9am)
for developers who are new to the Adobe Flash Platform. This special
session only costs an additional $15 (until July 30th and $25
thereafter). This session will get these developers up to speed
aspects of the Flash Platform like Adobe Flex, AIR, and Flash Builder.
We are trying to gain more information about potential attendees for Flash (Flex) Camp ATL. If you would like to help shape the direction of the event, please fill out the following survey:
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