Introduction
by Robb Jacobs
Welcome to the February 2008 issue of the Rivertown Communications newsletter. This month we’re sharing some of the inside information we learned at the Adobe developer conference last Fall. During this time we were able to view and test pre-release versions of Adobe software, talk to the people who program the applications we use every day, and look at what new tools we can expect from Adobe later this year.

Rivertown continues to grow, both with great new customers and three new team members. New to Rivertown are: Tammy Paulson, who will be helping us with government sales and quality control, Micah Hoyt, a graduate of Brown College and an e-learning developer, and Dave Huston, also from Brown and a developer specializing in creating games and simulations to enhance e-learning. Welcome to you all.

We also thank all of you who have trusted us with your projects in 2007. We had another year of increased sales. Without you we wouldn’t be here.

Robb Jacobs
Rivertown Communications, Inc.

Adobe Max 2007
by Robb Jacobs
This past October, three members of our Rivertown development team joined 4,500 other developers at the annual Adobe conference in Chicago.  This is a major event at which Adobe executives and product team leaders give us a look at the products Adobe has in development and samples of innovative uses for the solutions available now.  Add to this over 250 quality training sessions and hands-on workshops and you have 3 days of inspired learning.
 
The star of this year’s conference was the web application. Web apps and their creation permeated nearly everything that Adobe announced at the massive event. With a growing family of products, including those from Macromedia and Serious Magic, Adobe is demonstrating a commitment to making the lives of web application developers easier than ever.  Highlights of this year’s conference for our team included looks at:
 
Flash – Flash has been in the Adobe stable for over a year now and they have done a fantastic job with it.  Added features for developing accessible applications, a new and more powerful ActionScript language and the HD quality video capabilities and h.264 standard of Flash 9 will be included in the next beta of “AIR” (Adobe Integrated Runtime)  Adobe also indicated that it has high hopes for Flash Lite 3, saying that it expects Flash to be deployed on a billion mobile phones by 2010.  Flash Lite 3 became available on the Adobe Labs site soon after the conference.  We see Flash continuing to play a large role in our e-learning development.
 
AIR – This is the realization of the product that was code-named Apollo.  AIR (Adobe Integrated Runtime) will let developers use their existing web development skills in HTML, AJAX, Flash and Flex to build and deploy rich Internet applications to the desktop.   AIR Beta 2 was released while we were in Chicago and Rivertown Communications is currently planning on using AIR to add functionality and convenience to our Compass Plus™ survey tool.  AIR will give us the ability to drag and drop rich content between AIR apps and the desktop, from the web to AIR apps, and even between multiple AIR applications.
 
Flex - Adobe® Flex™ 3 is a cross platform, open source framework for creating rich Internet applications that run identically in all major browsers and operating systems.  Flex is like Flash in that it creates SWF files that are rendered by the Flash Player.  However, Flex is primarily a developer's tool (as opposed to Flash which is a designer’s tool) and the way you develop Flex applications is entirely different than the way you develop Flash RIAs (rich Internet applications).  One huge positive aspect that we see is the ability to design and implement human-centered user interfaces without worrying about browser limitations. 
 
Thermo – This is the application that has everyone excited, including Jessica, our lead graphics developer.  Thermo is currently in development and when released will make it easy for designers to visually create rich Internet applications. First, you create a layered composition using an Adobe CS3 product (Illustrator, Photoshop, Fireworks, and so on). Then you open Thermo, import the file you created previously, and transform that artwork into a working application—without having to write a line of code. Also, the application you create in Thermo can then be loaded directly into Flex Builder.  Thermo is scheduled for release sometime in 2008 (sorry, Jessica).
 
Acrobat – While not new, Adobe is building tons of features into Acrobat.  Our favorite is “Clips”, which is a blending of a Premier Pro (video editing program) movie integrated into an Acrobat document to be used for client review.  The PDF document with the embedded video clip is sent to a customer for review.  The customer views the video and can add comments tied to the video time code.  The commented document is returned to us and imported back into our Premiere timeline.  The comments then appear connected to markers on the timeline, making modifications extremely fast and easy to make.   This feature has already saved us time on our video training projects.
 
Additional Announcements:
 
Buzzword – A cool online word processor created with Flex (purchased from Virtual Ubiquity) that looks extremely easy to use.  Available for review now at http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/buzzword/.
 
Share – An on-line file sharing utility that gives users 1 GB of space.  We plan on using it to share photos we took in Chicago!  Share is currently in beta at Adobe Labs - http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/share/
 
AMP – “Adobe Media Player” for Windows and Macintosh platforms.  A prerelease version is available from Adobe Labs.   This application looks like it is taking aim at Windows Media Player and contains some features to make it attractive to large distributors of video.  I sat with a manager from Microsoft at lunch one day and asked him if they were concerned at the direction of some of Adobe’s new products.  He said no but I’m not so sure.  Decide for yourself by installing AMP - http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/mediaplayer/
 
As we begin development with some of Adobe’s new offerings we’ll be sure to keep you posted.  It looks like we are in for some very interesting development tools!

Flash CS3
by Jothan Sargent
Even before we traveled to the Adobe MAX Conference in Chicago last October, Adobe had released Creative Suite 3 (CS3), which included the new version of Flash. Some interesting new features of Flash CS3 include:

  • The ability to import Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator documents directly into Flash while retaining layers or merging layers into a single flattened bitmap. By retaining the layers, you could easily create a prototype of an interface and selectively show certain elements in the interface.
  • Common CS3 interface: Adobe has created a similar interface for all CS3 design products, so Flash CS3 will look like Dreamweaver CS3 and other familiar tools.
  • New drawing tools are similar to Illustrator, allowing the ability to create more complex vector-based art.
  • The option to export movies to QuickTime format.
  • Adobe Device Central allows you to simulate content delivery on mobile devices such as PDAs and cell phones. The limitations of current mobile technology are many, but quick reference material or just-in-time training procedures could work well in this delivery medium.
  • New video technology now supports an alpha channel and more sophisticated timing of video with cue points. This gives us more options on our video, which needs to be accessible (subtitles, etc.), by offering a few different ways of synchronizing video with text. The stand-alone video encoder allows us to choose between two powerful compression technologies while retaining high quality video, and supports batch processing of source video.
  • Flash CS3 comes with support for ActionScript 3, which should increase performance and flexibility.
  • There is a new advanced debugger, which will help programmers like myself ferret out and fix bugs quickly.
  • Finally, and perhaps the most powerful new capability of Flash CS3, is the ability to save Flash out as an Adobe AIR application (Adobe Integrated Runtime), which preserves the look and feel of an application regardless of the end user’s operating system.

Generally speaking, Adobe has worked hard to integrate Flash with other Adobe tools we use, making it easier for developers to import and work with all our content whether it is text, images, video, or audio.

Digital Learning Forum

The Digital Learning Forum meets monthly to exchange cutting edge information related to the development and implementation of interactive media for learning and communication. Meetings are open and free to attend.

Next meeting:
Monday, March 10, 2008 @ 6:00pm

Topic: Human/Computer Interfaces (HCI) and Importance in Learning - Panel Discussion

Visit http://www.rivertown-inc.com/dlf/ for more information.

About Rivertown

Since 1991 Rivertown Communications, Inc. has been designing and developing custom e-learning systems and websites. Our clients range in size from small, single office organizations to global corporations. Here are the services we offer:

  • E-learning systems - Custom design and development, including learning management systems
  • Compass Plus™ - Online survey tool to get the data you need
  • Video production - To integrate into e-learning or stream from the web
  • Websites Learning sites - accessible and Section 508 compliant
  • I-Card™ business-card CDs - To deliver training or educational marketing messages

If you are currently in the planning stages of a technology-based training or marketing program, call us. We would be glad to meet with you to explore how we might partner with you to help develop your program.

For more information please visit http://www.rivertown-inc.com.

Rivertown Communications - 651.430.0353 - Stillwater, Minnesota

Rivertown Communications
651.430.0353
Stillwater, Minnesota

Next Issue:
Next month, we'll explore how technology developed for video games can be applied to e-learning simulations and training exercises.