I've been writing about the jQuery JavaScript framework for some time and really trying to help the CF community understand the power of this very lightweight library. As the head of evangelism for the jQuery project, it's my job to ensure that the correct message gets out about jQuery and that I continuously find ways of helping jQuery developers get the information they need. Being very vested in ColdFusion, I want CF developers to know why I chose jQuery for my JS development and how they can benefit from its power. So when I see so many big names in the CF world getting tuned onto it, I know there's something special about jQuery.

A cool thing that's happened of late is that jQuery has started to find it's way into the toolboxes of CF developers with no prodding at all. Basically, they've heard how great jQuery is, took it for a test run and are now hooked, the most recent being Ray Camden & Dan Vega.

This is very exciting to me as it demonstrates jQuery's continued growth and acceptance in the development world. Everyday I find new sites that are leveraging jQuery to add amazing functionality for their users and seeing CF developers adding to that is truly awesome.

If you want to learn more about the jQuery project, here is a great list of resources that I've compiled:

jQuery Current Version: v1.2.6

jQuery Main Site:
http://jquery.com/

jQuery UI Effects & UI Library Main Site:
http://ui.jquery.com/

The compressed & uncompressed code:
http://code.google.com/p/jqueryjs/downloads/list

SVN Info:
http://code.google.com/p/jqueryjs/source

Plugins & UI Widgets/Controls:
http://plugins.jquery.com/

Documentation:
http://docs.jquery.com/Main_Page
http://remysharp.com/jquery-api/
http://jquery.bassistance.de/api-browser/

Mailing Lists- jQuery Support, community news:
http://groups.google.com/group/jquery-en

Project Blog:

http://jquery.com/blog/

Learning Resources:
http://docs.jquery.com/Tutorials
http://www.learningjquery.com/
http://15daysofjquery.com/

Sites Using jQuery:
http://docs.jquery.com/Sites_Using_jQuery

Twitter accounts for the latest jQuery and jQuery UI news:
http://twitter.com/jquery
http://twitter.com/jqueryui

The jQuery Team is pleased to announce the second annual jQuery Camp! jQuery Camp 2008 will be held on Sunday, Sept. 28, the day before The Ajax Experience, in Boston, MA (location TBA).

Last year, over 100 jQuery developers gathered for a full day of jQuery sessions, which included talks from such big names as jQuery creator John Resig and other core team members, as well as talks from expert users exploring new and exciting jQuery projects. It brought together the largest group of jQuery Core Team members ever assembled, and gave users the opportunity to pick their brains and pitch new ideas.

The event was a *clear* success, and this year's camp promises to be even better.

jQuery Camp 2008 will offer two tracks, providing both introductory and advanced sessions, covering a variety of topics. Ajax development, Ruby integration, mashups, security and the recently released jQuery UI component and effects library are just some of the topics already lined up.

jQuery Camp 2008 will charge a nominal fee of $50 per person, which will include lunch. Attendees need NOT be registered for The Ajax Experience to attend. Registration will open in July; keep an eye on jQuery.com for more details!

For those attending The Ajax Experience, show organizers have recently announced a half-day time slot for additional jQuery sessions, on September 29th at the conference center. The agenda is still up in the air, but we're thinking of offering a "Dream Team Code Review" session, where users can have code reviewed by members of the jQuery team. We're interested in your feedback; would you attend this session?

jQuery Camp 2008 is a truly fantastic opportunity to learn from the jQuery team and socialize with top jQuery developers; we're looking forward to meeting everyone!

See you all in September.

Alan,

I am responding to your recent post and attempt to introduce yourself to the CFML community. I think it's a good start but I think it's still lacking and you've not addressed the most pressing matters adequately.

I've been a long time advocate of New Atlanta and BlueDragon. In fact, I was one of the original Team BlueDragon members and had frequent chats w/ Vince about BD. I've even openly come down on Macromedia and Adobe for what I considered poor stewardship of the ColdFusion application server.

With that said, the issues that you and the OpenBD project are experiencing are directly correlated to recent comments that were posted by Sean Corfield outlining your supposed views of the ColdFusion community.

To quote from Sean's blog, he asserts that these are your feelings:

"He's "sick and tired of hearing about the 'CF community'". He feels the "so called 'rock stars' within the CF community are just a lot of empty vessels"."

Now in reading this, I look at it as either something you said was taken out of context or these are your true feelings about developers who have been using ColdFusion-based technology and have invested time and effort in promoting the technology. Just to be clear, Adobe ColdFusion developers are the predominant users of the CFML language and while BD & Railo developers developers also enjoy the language, Adobe ColdFusion developers make up the majority.

I am truly hoping that your comments were taken out of context because it would be hard for me to understand how someone who admittedly has such a massive disconnect from the CFML community would call the top talent in the ColdFusion community "empty vessels". After 10 years as a member of the CF community, I consider myself in this top tier and I wouldn't call myself an "empty vessel".

Your post has done nothing to address these assertions and while I can understand you've been disconnected from the CF/CFML community, I believe that until you've properly addressed those comments, the OpenBD project will continue to have a black eye.

So for the sake of the volunteers that are so committed to the OpenBD effort, please provide an adequate explanation of the comments posted by Sean. They were supposedly made in the OpenBD private mailing list so at the moment we're all going on hearsay, albeit hearsay from one of the top talents and most reputable people in the CFML community. Brushing it off as not fitting your personality or attitude isn't a sufficient answer.

To the OpenBD Steering Committee, I would urge you to once again press this issue with Alan and ensure proper transparency.