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Meeting Notice

 Chicago Area DotNetNuke User Group
September Meeting

Wednesday, September 15, 2010
7:00 - 8:30 PM
Microsoft Offices (map)

Future Meetings:
Each month on the 3rd Wednesday at 7:00 PM

Sorry if the page formatting is off today. We're changing skins, and this one seems to have a few challenges associated with it. We'll let you know all about it at our meeting tonight 8/18 @ 7:00pm at the Microsoft Offices in Downers Grove. Hope to see you.

Update: We seem to have most things worked out and the cool feature is that you can view this website on all sorts of devices, like iPhone, iPad, Android, BlackBerry and other Mobile Devices.

Be proud, members! We are a big part of the upcoming Day of DotNetNuke (DODNN), set for Saturday, October 2, at Northern Illinois University Naperville Campus.

This is the first of hopefully many DODNN Chicago conferences. There has been one in Tampa and one in Europe, plus there have been discussion tracks dedicated to DNN at Day of .Net conferences, but this is the first conference in the midwest solely dedicated to DotNetNuke, and CADUG is co-host.

Put October 2 on your calendar so you don't miss it. We'll need your help in running the event, and you won't want to miss the sessions.

Some of our members have given great talks before at our own meetings. Now share your knowledge with the whole midwest! Sign up to speak at the event.

For more info, visit the website dedicated to our upcoming conference, chicago.dayofdotnetnuke.com.

Chicago's Day of DotNetNuke is coming October 2 and speakers are currently being considered. Speakers are reccommended to submit at least two session proposals to provide more options for the organizers to review and prepare great tracks. A variety of sessions are welcome from novice to expert levels to accommodate existing DotNetNuke community enthusiasts as well as newcomers. See the Day of DotNetNuke Chicago 2010 website for more information.

If you missed Wednesday's meeting here's what we talked about:

• CADUG’s trip to the Zoo - Lincoln Park Zoo
• Thinking about a networking / meet-up event downtown Chicago - Maybe at the Archdiocese?
• A Day of DotNetNuke Chicago - Late September/Early October (Just getting this idea off the group, partnering with R2I and this is going to be huge, more details to come, looking for volunteers - stay tuned)
• The CADUG Booth at The 2010 Chicago Tech Expo (Looking for volunteers to help run the booth - weekday event, but was a great event last year.)
• PowerDNN - Official Hosting Sponsor for the Group (Thanks to them!!!)
• New CADUG Website in development (New look, new host, better everything! - Coming Soon)
• Oh, and you missed a great presentation on Web Services by our very own Phil Wegrzyn It was very informative and relevant information that you could be using today! - Thanks Phil - I for one can’t wait to see what is next...

All of this and more including pizza & beverages provided by PowerDNN that helped make for a great event last night.

Several of your fellow CADUG members did!

We had a behind-the-scenes tour at Lincoln Park Zoo which was arranged by fellow member Edward Wilkerson who is a software programmer at the Zoo. Wilkerson and a zookeeper took us into the Regenstein African Journey exhibit where Ricko, a young rhinoceros who moved here last year for mating purposes, good-naturedly came out of his outdoor pen and into his stall for us to see him up close. 

We also had a tour of the website Edward is working on for the Zoo that happens to be built using DotNetNuke. The Zoo Animal Health Network uses their website to monitor disease.

Because of Avian Flu, West Nile and other diseases that affect both animal and human populations, Lincoln Park, the Association of Zoos and Aquariums and the USDA developed a network to record data and monitor disease trends. The amount of information they collect is staggering and then they have to process that data and generate reports.

Edward and the Zoo chose to use DotNetNuke for a couple of very good reasons: They needed a lot of special functionality to do the job right and the budget couldn’t afford writing custom code. Edward is able to perform most of the functions needed with already-developed modules and has modified a few others to meet his specific needs, saving the Zoo tens of thousands of dollars.

If all of the nation’s zoos are using DotNetNuke to manage this important project, think of what it could do for you! What administrative processes, information sharing, or data collection can you put online to make running your business easier and more efficient?

Visit us at an upcoming meeting. Edward will be there, but don't worry, he won't be bringing Ricko!

CADUG hosted several visitors from a prominent advertising agency in a neighboring office building. They brought questions about using DNN in large-scale marketing campaigns that we discussed within the group.

Consensus was that DNN has run successfully on large server farms, supplying thousands of people at a time, which would certianly meet their needs.

Many thanks to PowerDNN who sponsored pizza for all members and guests at this month's meeting!

As is out pattern, we heard a report on the most recent changes and improvements to DNN. Since DotNetNuke releases their latest version of the software monthly on the the third Wednesday, it's timely for us to review the updates at our monthly meeting.

We also spent some more time looking at Artisteer which lets you manage and custmize the DNN skins you are using. For more information, see the Artisteer site.

Our numbers keep growing! Thanks to all who attended. For those who couldn't, here's what you missed:

Jim updated us on a few items:

• DotNetNuke.com released version 5.3.0 (on 3/16. Since then, on 3/24, 5.3.1 came out.) 5.3.0 had 5 new features, 27 major updates and a low-security fix.
• This site, chicagodnn.org, has just been updated to 5.2.4. We generally don't use ".0" versions for production.
• There's a Facebook fan page and LinkedIn page, along with the official user group membership page at DotNetNuke.com. Members, please register at each to make our numbers known.
• Our site colors have changed slightly to make them more legible. 
• BTW, the tallest building in the world has a DotNetNuke website! Visit http://www.burjkhalifa.ae/

Mike gave a demonstration of the program Artisteer. It's a webpage builder that outputs in DNN skin (among others) so if nothing catches your eye at Snowcovered.com, the marketplace for skins, then you can design your own. Very cool. Check out http://www.artisteer.com/?p=dnn_skins to learn more, download it and try it yourself.

Phil showed us jQuery, a great library of javascript functions, that is now a part of DotNetNuke (as of v5). If you code modules, or if you use javascript in some way on your DNN site, then learn about jQuery. It makes custom form validation and some very cool rotation effects easy to program.

We'll be meeting at Microsoft in Downers Grove in April, but are entertaining the idea of meeting in downtown Chicago in May. More on that as we finalize plans.

The meeting for February 17 is CANCELLED and rescheduled.

Please attend our rescheduled meeting on February 24, Wednesday, at 7pm.

Our host and sponsor at Microsoft has been called away. There of course needs to be a representative from their facility in attendance, and they could not arrange a substitute. We're sure you wouldn't open your home to guests, then leave and ask the guests to lock up afterward. ( If you would, when can we come over? :-)

We apologize for this late notice and change of plans, and hope you can arrange your schedule to meet with us next Wednesday, February 24, at 7pm, instead of tonight.

Rain turning to ice on Wednesday, January 20, kept many people indoors but a few brave souls battled the elements to attend the January meeting.

Here's a very brief run-down of the night's events:

CADUG Participation

Here's how to make yourself known:

Visit dotnetnuke.com and register, then visit the Community/UserGroups page to identify yourself as a CADUG member. (we're the ones with the ChicagoDNN.org website)

Visit the CADUG FACEBOOK fan page and join.

Visit the LINKEDIN group page and join.

DNN Industry Overview

Jim Nagy lead the presentation on what's happening at DNN corporate. The first item was the release of version 5.2.2 that same day. There were 18 major updates, no security updates, and no module updates. 

Jim showed us an advanced control panel that looked very good. If you'd like to see it, visit Oliver Hien's Website.

He also showed us a cool way of displaying page content using Live Tabs by Mandeeps. Check out their website to learn more about Live Tabs and several other innovative modules that have just been updated.

CADUG Website

Jim lead a discussion on the website. In a few spots, the font colors need to change, since they are have little contrast with the background. Jim will be changing them.

Beyond Basic Websites

Phil Wegrzyn gave a very informative presentation on the use of Open Web Studio for those of you who want your website to perform a certain function but can't find a core or third-party module that provides exactly what you want.

Phil has been using Open Web Studio for some time and has built numerous functions with it for his employer in a fraction of the time the other IT solution providers could deliver. 

OWS has a little learning curve but is very powerful, and Phil demonstrated a simple application of the technology live for us.

We'll need to bring Phil back to do a similar presentation on OWS since it represents the tool to use if you can't find an off-the-shelf module.

NEXT MEETING: February 17, 2010

Please mark your calendars.

Meeting Notice

We have a date, we have a time, and now we have a place for our next Chicago Area DotNetNuke Users Group Meeting!!!

The November Meeting will take place on November 17, 2009 @ 6:00pm - 8:30pm at the Microsoft Offices in Downers Grove. The address for Microsoft Offices is 3025 Highland Parkway, Suite 300, Downers Grove, IL 60515 and we will be in Meeting Room MPR I. Here's a Google Map to help you find us.

Our agenda is forthcoming and we will be having both parts of our meeting like normal. i.e. Business Issues first half and Technical Items second half. Please try to come out and attend our event, the better the turn out the more information we can exchange. If you know of someone who would like to attend the event send them an email and tell them about it or better yet bring them with you.

The event is free and we will be providing snacks and refreshments during the event.

Hope to see you there...

It may not look like but we have been busy building our network of users. We took the DotNetNuke Story on the road to the Illinois Counties Information Management Association annual meeting on October 9th, 2009 out at Starved Rock. We met with IT directors and managers from all over the state and we spread the word about the power of DotNetNuke.

Next we took our story to the first annual Website Magazine speed networking event in Des Plaines on October 29th, 2009. We setup the CADUG banners, had a table for the event cards and laptop and we talked to people about our group and the benefits of becoming a member. We had a couple of people sign up and we have reached out to a couple more from the event.

The next day we attend a Windows 7 Launch Event at the Naperville Area Chamber of Commerce where we handed out some literature on CADUG. We also picked up some Windows 7 T-Shirts and some Microsoft Small Business Software that we will be giving away at a future CADUG event.

October was a busy month, and November is shaping up to be another busy one as well. At least we have nice weather right now in a few weeks we will be shoveling snow from our driveways here in Chicago... ugh!

Check out the video about DotNetNuke that Nik Kalyani Co-Founder of DotNetNuke Corporation put together and Don Gingold Co-Founder of the Chicago Area DotNetNuke Users Group added Narration and Sound Effects to...

Update: 10/07/09 - Nice Posting by Nik Kalyani on the DotNetNuke Website  - Nice Job Don!

Hey everyone, the Chicago Area DotNetNuke Users Group Website has moved and while we were at it we went ahead and upgraded to the latest version of DotNetNuke.

We felt that user group should have a home worthy of our Users. We wanted to be able to provide access to the latest and greatest version of DotNetNuke and be able to keep things upgraded and running smoothly in the future without worrying about affecting other portals. So we built a new home just for the User’s Group Website and took the plunge and made the move.

Now you probably didn’t even notice the changes? You clicked on your bookmark or typed in the address into your browser or found us via of the search engines. Well, that’s good, there wasn’t supposed to be any perceived changes. However, behind the scenes is another story. We exported the portal from it’s original home by creating a template w/resources. We moved those files along with the entire file store, exported user list and a bit of magic to another server that was installed and configured with a fresh copy of DotNetNuke v5.1.4 hot off the press a couple of days ago. We then proceeded to jump through the rest of the move a portal hoops and voilà here we are in our new home.

We hope that you will find the new accommodations acceptable as we continue to grow and expand this Web site. – Thanks for reading…

We're getting closer to the Chicago Technology Expo and we have now enabled sign up on the CADUG Web site. Please take a minute and give us your name and email and we will be sure to tell you all about how you can use DotNetNuke in your business.

Click here to sign up for more information about the CADUG.

Already a power DotNetNuke user, looking to find like minded individuals? We have joined up with the Windy City DotNetNuke Users Group and we are merging! We are going to host a DNN technology forum right within the Chicago Area DotNetNuke User Group. That's right, you will now get the Best of Both Worlds - exceptional business expertise w/DotNetNuke and awesome technical expertise as well.

There are plenty of more details to Iron out before our first official users group meeting, but things are starting to come together nicely.

Welcome everyone, and if you haven't signed up yet please click here, so you won't miss out on any of the developments we have planed for the group.

The Chicago Area DotNetNuke Users Group will be making it's inaugural début on Thursday, October 1, 2009 at the Chicago Technology Expo. Be sure to stop by our booth, introduce yourself and let us tell you how DotNetNuke can help your business.

Hope to see you there...

We are under construction and are just beginning to put this group together. If you are a DotNetNuke user, developer, or an organization that supports DotNetNuke installations then you have found the right place. We are looking forward to meeting all of you at upcoming meetings. Be sure to check back here for more information on the where's and when's for the next meeting. If you have any comments or suggestions please feel free to fill out the form on the Contact Us page.

We would love to hear from you!