Who: MD Dundon of Flash 411
When: Wednesday, March 21
Time: Social hour from 6:00-7:00 PM; Program from 7:00-9:00 PM
Location: McInnis Atrium, Autodesk Corporate HQ, San Rafael (Directions)
Cost: Free to members; $15 for non-members; $10 for students with valid ID
RSVP: Highly recommended
Info Contact: Joe Zizzi at jziz@nbma.com

She's been a pioneer teacher of the software tools of today's multimedia. She's been a pioneer developer in interactivity and experiential interface design. She's been around Macromedia's Dreamweaver^TM since it was a baby, knows where it's been, where it's going.

Who better than MD Dundon to give Dreamweaver 4^TM the once-over?

Expect a crowd as MD Dundon brings her expertise to review the recently released Dreamweaver 4^TM at the NBMA General Meeting at Autodesk in San Rafael, Wednesday, March 21. (Note: this is a change-of-day from the normal third Thursday scheduling.)

Since it is a general meeting, MD will give a slight nod to accommodating those less familiar with Macromedia's Dreamweaver.^TM She'll ease into the software by starting out with a general overview and brief history of tools used for Web design/development: from old school HTML hard coding to the current WYSIWYG's (what you see is what you get).

MD comments that "the emergence of WYSIWIG Web development applications has sped up the process of developing code at a time when creating Web pages of any type is becoming increasingly complex. The somewhat insane number of demands of multiple browsers and the puzzle of conforming to multiple platforms are enough to make even the hardiest of developers kick the cat in frustration. Dreamweaver eases that conflict by allowing us to test and build quickly and cleanly."

And, since Dreamweaver^TM is currently the industry standard, she'll highlight those capabilities that give it an edge.

In MD's estimation, "Dreamweaver is unique in its ability to write excellent code source for HTML and to leave other code untouched. It has a great visual interface that allows designers to lay out the information and then test those elements they have laid out against the different browser issues. New tools and the ever growing community of the Dreamweaver Exchange, allow the designer to shape the Dreamweaver application into a customized experience to fit EXACTLY the daily work needs."

The bulk of the presentation will be spent getting down to specifics and showing off the upgrade.

All this from the perspective of someone who has quite a perspective to offer. MD was already awake, stirring the campfire embers and making coffee at the dawn of this current digital epoch (the Multimediaic/Webocene period).

She started out in command line computing — UNIX, the DOS world — so she's not phobic around techie talk. And she developed production skills with CD-ROM and very early Web development.

But primarily, MD has been both an explorer and teacher. She's done her exploring via different avenues: documentary photography, psychobiology (her undergraduate degree), film directing, techno installations and interface design. A basic theme of the exploration for the past decade is human interaction with the new technologies, i.e., "interactivity."

She has successfully translated her knowledge and experience into two companies: Paradox Production, which concentrates on film (MD has done graduate studies in film), and Flash411, which does prototyping and experience design.

MD works with all sizes, large corporations and small companies, and has an impressive partial list of clients — partial because some "think tank" and "pie-in-the-sky" explorations that have never met the public's eye are excluded. Certain things she's done in the past decade are still hush-hush — projects in prototyping and interactive development that she can only hint at. She has NDA's (non-disclosure agreements) dating back to 1992 that are still in effect. She says she occasionally gets correspondence reminding her to keep it zipped.

Wearing her Flash411 hat, in other words, designing experiential interfaces and creating prototypes, MD has implemented multimedia experiences for CASIO Research's unusual corporate sites Casio Research), Carla King's "Indian Sunset Dispatches," StoneCircle Design, Deluxe Digital Media's Flash site, pre-site production of Quokka.com's Great Trango Tower Web site, as well as Zing Network and Looksmart.

All said, it's probably in the area of teaching that Ms. Dundon's name is so recognized around the Bay Area. An ex-student of hers, now a new media exec, estimates that MD has taught over 10,000 students. That's an alumni party to look forward to.

She was one of the world's first teachers of Macromedia Flash.^TM She has created the curriculum for several Flash training programs (including the San Francisco State University Multimedia Studies Program) and for her new online course at www.sfsuonline.org. She has taught everyone from Macromedia employees to some of the most creative, cutting edge companies in the world and every age group from five-year-olds to octogenarians.

MD has written for the Flash 5 Bible on the Flash^TM production process and is authoring her own self-paced instructional book and video about Flash.^TM

She generously shares her knowledge and packed 'em in last time doing Flash. It should be the same for Dreamweaver. Reservations through Acteva.com are recommended. (Do it now at www.acteva.com/go/nbma.)

Come early to enjoy the wonderful food made possible by Polaris Interactive and meet some nice people.

Joe Zizzi is a writer, Web developer, and leader of NBMA's Web Developers' SIG.

Directions

Autodesk Corporate HQ
111 McInnis Pkwy
San Rafael, CA

Take Hwy. 101 to Freitas Parkway/Terra Linda exit;
go east, then turn right/south onto Civic Center Drive;
turn left onto McInnis Parkway (the 2nd signal light).
Autodesk is on the right, just beyond the Embassy Suites Hotel.
(View maps and public transport directions)