“Today’s educational and professional learning departments are under enormous pressure to deliver impactful content quickly and efficiently,” said Naresh Gupta, senior vice president, Print and Publishing at Adobe. “eLearning Suite 2 is a major leap forward in eLearning content creation. It addresses the challenge with its tightly integrated toolset that allows content creators to develop powerful media-rich eLearning experiences without the time and expense of programming.”

Adobe eLearning Suite 2 enhances productivity with smarter aggregation capabilities included in Adobe Captivate 5, eLearning extensions for Dreamweaver and Flash, and new application round tripping workflows between authoring and asset creation tools. For example, a course designer can now insert Adobe Photoshop CS5 (PSD) files as smart objects into an Adobe Captivate project and update the images with one click should the original files change without having to resave and reinsert images. Similar workflows exist between the other eLearning Suite components including Adobe Captivate, Soundbooth and Flash.

“Timely, effective training on the use of our products is critical for us and our customers to meet compliance requirements,” said Mary McGivern, Instructional Designer, Omnicell, a leading provider of comprehensive, technologically advanced automation that enables healthcare facilities to acquire, manage, dispense, and deliver medications and supplies more effectively. “The new user interface in Adobe Captivate 5 lets me work more efficiently and is now similar to other Adobe products. This will speed up my workflow and help me meet timelines more effectively.”

Introducing Captivate 5

Adobe Captivate is the industry-leading, rapid authoring solution for developing demonstrations, application simulations and branching scenarios – without requiring programming expertise while not compromising quality. Version 5, which introduces the software to Mac OS, offers exciting new features that allow users to do more complex tasks faster such as enhanced importing and round tripping for Microsoft PowerPoint.

The new user interface — similar to the Dreamweaver CS5, Flash CS5 and Photoshop CS5 interfaces — lets users create and revise content faster and more easily than ever before by supporting multiple document editing and personalized workspaces. The Properties Inspector tool also boosts time-savings, as course authors can edit object properties in fewer steps. Additionally, eLearning professionals can leverage an expanded asset library and use customizable widgets to quickly create tables and design graphical buttons. Other major enhancements include support for rich animation effects, the ability to import videos in popular formats (AVI, MOV, FLV, MPEG) and synchronize video across multiple slides.

For more effective collaboration, Adobe Captivate 5 customers can upload, exchange and review content, as well as track and report learner scores by signing up for Adobe’s online productivity software, Acrobat.com (available separately). Also, a new widget lets students and educators interact via Twitter, facilitating online Q&As and group discussion.

To ease the process of maintaining content, Adobe Captivate 5 introduces Object Style editing, which facilitates changes project-wide with just a few clicks, allowing content creators to easily define and modify the look and feel of buttons, text, images and other elements. eLearning designers can also create Master Slides with preset themes and styles for text, shapes and graphics. This accelerates authoring as contributors can focus on content rather than formatting details, and ensures that the look and feel of an organization’s presentations are preserved. Once eLearning content is published, training and learning professionals can track and report key performance metrics via Acrobat.com or their own Web server.

Pricing and Availability

Adobe eLearning Suite 2 and Adobe Captivate 5 are expected to be available via Adobe Authorized Resellers and the Adobe Store at www.adobe.com/store in June. Customers can pre-order Adobe eLearning Suite 2 and Captivate 5 today. Estimated street price for the suite is US$1799; upgrade pricing starts at US$599. Estimated street price for Adobe Captivate 5 is US$799; upgrade pricing starts at US$299. Educational pricing is available for both products.

Both products are compatible with Mac OS X v10.5.7 or v10.6, Microsoft® Windows® XP with Service Pack 2 (Service Pack 3 recommended), Windows Vista® Home Premium, Business, Ultimate, or Enterprise with Service Pack 1 or Windows 7 (certified for 32-bit Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7). The Mac OS version of eLearning Suite 2 does not contain Adobe Presenter.

AJAXWorld Adobe Systems’ technology chief has made a play for open-source hearts and minds with Flash Player and AIR.

Chief technology officer Kevin Lynch cited moves this year to make Flash Player more palatable to open source while pointing to the imminent release of AIR 1.5 and HTML 5 tags to run Flash video consistently in different browsers as evidence Adobe is playing its in improving support for rich-internet applications (RIAs) in tools, frameworks, and browsers.

He said there was a lot more to be done in the industry to further RIAs, in terms of make them cheaper to build and delivering “better user experiences.”

Lynch told AJAX developers Flash is “open” because it uses Tamarin, the ActionScript Virtual Machine that the company contributed to Mozilla in November 2006 and that came with Flash Player 9.

He also pointed to the lifting of licensing restrictions in May this year for Flash Player Shockwave Flash (SWF) and FLV/F4V that potential lets people build their own versions of Player.

Of course, Adobe’s own Flash Player has not been open sourced, which has limited Google’s use of the player outside of YouTube and has caused tensions.

“For a while there was a licensing agreement around the specification that said you could do what you wanted except build your own player,” Lynch said. “There are [now] no conditions around using SWF.” He said Adobe would try to differentiate by building a better Flash Player.

Adobe is continuing its focus on open source with AIR 1.5, expected in the next few weeks. Version 1.5, codenamed Cosmo, is expected to include updated support for WebKit, featuring the fast SquirrelFIsh JavaScript Engine compiler. “We will be the first to do a production-quality version of SquirrelFish,” Lynch said.

Adobe is also “just about ready” to release video tags from HTML 5, which’ll bring more consistently to the way video runs in different browsers. HTML 5 is not finished and Lynch said Adobe is working to advance the ability for browsers to support rich-web applications, pointing to its work on HTML 5 video tags as the “spirit of how we’ll be helping HTML 5″.

HTML 5 is still a work in progress and, for all Adobe’s good intentions, some might see this as a classic case of a vendor implementing the portions of a forthcoming specification that suits their technology.

The World-Wide Web Consortium (W3C) stewarding HTML has, in the past, noted Adobe – with others vendors – have implemented proprietary user-interface languages and pushed rich internet application technologies that are platform-specific and proprietary. The group has also acknowledged that its standards process cannot keep pace with vendors pushing their technologies into the market.
by   Gavin Clarke in San Jose

But things have been changing fast in that company and the dramatic changes they kicked off in the digital publishing world in the 1990’s are being duplicated in the collaboration, content management and application development worlds.  This post provides a few opinions on those areas.

Collaboration:

• I’m not sure what the largest single collaborative environment is, but a contender must be Defense Connect Online.  DCO has about 150,000 registered users and does about 20 million meetings per month.  This system scales well.  DCO is based on Adobe’s flagship collaboration tool, Adobe Connect.  Connect works via your web browser.   It is built to leverage the Adobe Flash player that is probably already in every browser you have.   It provides well thought out web conferencsing, eLearning, web seminars, document sharing, application sharing, video and of course audio.
• Adobe has built a collaborative tool that has been proven to meet the needs of the smallest and largest groups.

Content Management:

• Adobe continues to enhance Adobe Acrobat and many other capabilities related to content creation, development, dissemination and rights.  PDFs can now contain 3D renderings, videos and all sorts of other content.  The Army sends GeoPDF DVDs to troops in Iraq and Afghanistan already, and many advanced 3D modeling and mission rehearsal capabilities are provided right in PDFs now.  Flash and Flex can also be used in PDFs (see section below on Application Development).
• Adobe’s enterprise class content management and business process system is Adobe LiveCycle.  LiveCycle and PDF together have a comprehensive solution for solving many content deployment issues including security, accountability and need to share.  LiveCycle provides an end to end solution for creating, editing and sending info forward to others using defined policies where there can be confidence in the identity of senders, the authentication of the receiver, the authorization of their user, the logging/auditing of their activity, and the enablement of their offline use.
• LiveCycle enables workflow development and deployment that goes across boundaries in your organization, as well as to other organizations outside your firewall (customers, suppliers, clients, users, employees).   LiveCycle software is a server based solution that blends data capture, information assurance, document output, process management and content services to help create and deliver applications.
• Adobe also builds in enhanced document security for information sharing and content management. Imagine having information you provide to a customer and then when you want to remove that customers ability to read that info, for what ever reason, you do so. Or you give info to a customer or external partner and want to limit who else can see it. That can be done as well, which, although this sounds counter to information sharing guidance, actually will increase the amount of info that can be shared, since now there will be less fear of compromise.

Application Development:

• For years, Adobe has provided web developers with capabilities for rapidly developing and fielding applications to any user with a browser.  Flash has an incredibly low barrier to entry and low cost of deployment and low total cost of ownership.
• But Adobe now provides development solutions that are changing things in even more positive ways.  Adobe Air, for example, allows developers to use the same skills they learn in web development to field desktop applications.   It is a runtime environment that lets developers build rich Internet applications that run outside the browser in multiple operating systems. Adobe Flex is a free open source framework for enterprise applications that is based on the same application development and deployment principles as Air– Flex dramatically accelerates the ability to deploy applications in an enterprise (I have built Flex applications myself- it is really easy to work through examples and tutorials provided in the SDK).
• While on the topic of application development I should mention the fact that there is no such thing as perfect code. Even code you write might need to be updated or patched one day to deal with a new threat. So, even good code like those provided by Adobe needs a good management system in place to ensure it is well maintained and, when required, patched.
  

The “So-What” for CTOs:

• Adobe has adopted a philosophy of being able to work with every other capability in the IT stack. So if you are using Sharepoint or Oracle Fusion Middleware or Java or Endeca or whatever else, Adobe is likely going to work just fine.
• It is certainly ok to think of PDF when you think of Adobe.  It is a great, open format.  But think also of the other great enterprise-class capabilities they are providing.
• Stand by for change.  We IT folks are used to change.  But Adobe is helping kick off change that goes far beyond the IT department.  When users are empowered with capabilities like these they quickly learn that they can band together to serve the mission in ways that their bosses never predicted.  This can produce significant workflow changes.  User empowerment is coming, and once this revolution gets underway it will set off second order requirements we should be anticipating now:  like the need for always on five-nines comms to every device everywhere.  No one is going to want to be disconnected ever again.  Tolerance of IT department performance “issues” will become lower and lower and lower.
• Stand by for faster application development/deployment.  Imagine deploying applications in a third the time you used to.
• Get ready for new ways to empower decision-makers.  For example, consider using these content management systems to create dynamic dashboards for decision-makers.  A dashboard that auto-synchs with a server can provide decision-makers with always updated information.

Concluding Thoughts:

There are some big moves afoot in the enterprise IT world. Enterprises everywhere, including, the federal enterprise, are making pushes to be more open and transparent on items that should be open and more secure and protected on items that need to be kept private. These mega trends are important factors that will keep driving IT forward. Adobe seems well positioned to serve as these trends continue.
http://ctovision.com/2008/06/enter-my-office-using-adobe-acrobat-connect/

With Connect Pro, Adobe has combined its multimedia features to allow businesses and individuals the world over an opportunity to present, demonstrate, teach, train and collaborate in a secure, real-time virtual environment. Adobe Connect Pro has set the high-water mark for web conferencing programs. By building upon its Flash technology, which is installed on 98% of internet-connected computers, Adobe has managed to integrate audio, video, chat and advanced web demonstration and collaboration features that can be seen and heard by virtually everyone.

Conferencing Features:

The appeal of web conferencing has been that, unlike its peers and predecessors ,telephone and video conferencing, it allows its host to present, demonstrate, lead whiteboard sessions and interact with his audience using materials and methods that have, despite advances in information technologies, remained in offices and meeting rooms. Adobe Connect Pro delivers on this promise.

Adobe Connect Pro creates a conference room that audiences, co-hosts and participants can access through a unique URL. There, slideshows, demonstrations and presentations can be given, with hosts lending audio commentary, highlighting information or sections using various tools and even delegating different responsibilities and tasks to designated parties such as answering questions from attendees or cueing different materials.

Audio/Video Features:

With Adobe Connect Pro’s Turbo Screen Sharing feature, which boasts an exceptionally low bandwidth consumption rate, rapid multi-media and video are displayed at real-time proficiency. Adobe Connect Pro supports audio and video streaming, which are integral to any true web conference or interactive whiteboard session.

With integrated audio conferencing, hosts can control audio conference calls directly through the meeting room. There, a central point for scheduling meetings and web and phone services can be synchronized for maximum proficiency.

One of the few weak points of Connect Pro is in its outsourcing of integration to Premiere Global Services, Avaya and Cisco MeetingPlace. However, this also enables hosts to shop around for better rates between the 3 companies, potentially saving them a considerable amount of money in the long run. Moreover, with the development and refinement of VoIP technology, Connect Pro users can also use VoIP services in lieu of call-in/call-out or other telephone methods.

Security Features:

Though Adobe offers Connect Pro licenses to businesses that wish to run it using their own servers, one of Connect Pro’s greatest strengths comes in the form of Adobe’s Connect Pro server, which provides 128-bit, end-to-end encryption and is DCTS JTIC certified.

To protect meeting spaces from security threats, Connect Pro requires user authentication, taking additional steps to increase security by providing password strength optimizers for presenters and attendees alike.

With advanced controls, hosts and presenters can pick and choose all levels of attendee access, from media files and voice privileges to select controls. In addition to this feature, Adobe Connect Pro keeps full logs of meetings including date, time and source information and even audits them for potentially malicious use or data corruption.

Summary:

Adobe has set the web conferencing standard with Connect Pro, building on the strengths of its other ubiquitous multimedia software programs to provide a web conferencing suite that can be accessed and used by virtually anyone with an Internet-connected computer. In delivering a program that is seamless from beginning to end and is further reinforced by expansive resources and help/support materials and portals, Adobe Connect Pro has set the standard for web conferencing.

Top TenReviews

Formerly known as Macromedia Breeze, Adobe Connect is a software used to create information and general presentations, online training materials, web conferencing, learning modules, and user desktop sharing. The product is entirely Adobe Flash based. All meeting workspaces are organized into ‘pods’; with each pod performing a specific role (i.e. chat, whiteboard, note, etc.)

http://ahussam.wordpress.com/2009/05/28/the-beauty-of-adobe-connect/

It works by using the Low Level Virtual Machine (LLVM) compiler infrastructure. LLVM is a modular, flexible compiler system that is used widely in a variety of projects. The key reason to choose LLVM is its flexibility and applicability to iPhone development.
A new compiler front end that allowed LLVM to understand ActionScript 3 and used its existing ARM back end to output native ARM assembly code, names as Ahead of Time (AOT) compilation—in contrast to the way Adobe Flash Player and Adobe AIR function on the desktop using Just in Time (JIT) compilation. Ablility to compile ActionScript to ARM ahead of time, the application gets all the performance benefits that the JIT would offer and the license compliance of not requiring a runtime in the final application.
This allow developers to create applications using their Flash skills and their knowledge of ActionScript 3. In the process,  APIs are also exposed that developers are familiar with so they can not only use the ActionScript language but follow the customary app-building model. When you build your application for the iPhone, there is no interpreted code and no runtime in your final binary. Your application is truly a native iPhone app.

Acrobat Connect Pro 7.5 can now hold webinars or online lectures for as many as 80,000 participants, up from just 1,500 before. That ’s more people than most football stadiums in the U.S. can seat.It’s certainly bigger.

Acrobat Connect Pro’s expanded audience size could be useful for companies or governments holding public events, or universities hosting large freshmen lectures.

Acrobat Connect Pro can now also stream telephone-based audio to participants listening on a Voice-over-IP (VoIP) line. Connect Pro meetings is also more tightly integrated with teleconferencing services such as Premiere Global Services, Meeting One and a new partner, InterCall, Arun Anantharaman, vice president for Adobe’s Connect Pro group, said in an interview.

The latest version also lets users schedule meetings from inside IBM’s Lotus Notes, in addition to Microsoft Outlook.

And it now also lets hosts create white-lists of apps that participants can share during Web meetings.

One of the advantages Acrobat Connect Pro offers, according to Peter Ryce, a technical evangelist for Adobe, is the ubiquity of the needed Flash player, which Adobe said is deployed on nearly 99% of all PCs. Many corporate PC userss are blocked from installing additional apps or plug-ins that would be needed for competing webconferencing services, he said.

Adobe is getting Flash onto many other devices. For instance, Playstation 3 owners can use their Flash software to join a Connect Pro meeting. Adobe has also created an iPhone app for Connect Pro so users can attend Web meetings via their smartphone. The app is in the process of being approved by Apple’s App Store, Ryce said.

Now have high-speed fiber optic cables to enable voice and data to be transmitted across the same broadband network, which can in turn reduce infrastructure costs.Similarly,  suggested that virtual conferences using VoIP can replace the need for employees to attend face-to-face meetings with clients.