Meet Adobe Groups

There is a longstanding tradition of community around Adobe products. Across the Internet, our community powers countless forums, mailing lists, blogs, and wikis devoted to one or more Adobe products. For many members of the community, though, they find that nothing beats the human interaction of face-to-face user groups.

Some Adobe user groups are more than a decade old, or number their membership well into the hundreds. These community-driven user groups—meeting in schools, offices, and even living rooms around the world—form an important place for people to learn, share their expertise, discuss the industry, and most importantly network with other learners and professionals.

However, until today, this user group community has been fragmented. There has never been a centralized place where members of the Adobe community from all parts of the community—from Photoshop users to Flex developers—could all come together in one place and easily find one another or find groups of like-minded people.

Now, they can.

Introducing Adobe Groups

Adobe Groups gives the Adobe community a place to connect, find one another, and locate communities of people who share their interests—whether in their own back yard or worldwide. It is a common home for Adobe user groups, containing information about those groups, their areas of focus, and past and future meetings.

Adobe Groups provides a forum of support and technology to the community at all levels. Whether your professional focus is design or development or you're a hobbyist looking to gain experience, or you are just starting out, Adobe Groups can help you strengthen community ties, build your network, learn the latest technology innovations, and see the techniques that turn novices into experts—and experts into gurus.

Nearly all of the content on Adobe Groups is created or curated not by Adobe staff but by the user group managers themselves. Adobe user groups are run by community members like you. They are professionals who live and work all over the world, love Adobe products, and make time in their lives to share their passion and expertise with others in their area. They are a tremendous resource to the Adobe community, building connections and fostering learning face to face. We've built Adobe Groups in large part to help them do their work better and more easily.

Adobe Groups is currently organized by region, so no matter where you are in the world, you can quickly and easily find what's closest to your home, office, or school. And if there are no user groups listed in your local area, you can find out how to start a brand-new user group.

First steps and exploration

The first thing you should do is create your profile! Make sure you upload a photo or select an avatar. Your profile helps other members find you when they use the search function, and it's helpful to know who you are and why you joined Adobe Groups. (If you're concerned about privacy, please note that you can change each field's permission settings. A field can be visible to the world, restricted to logged-in members, or even restricted to just people you have added to your network.)

Next, start exploring the community. A good starting place is the User Groups page for your geographic region. International users will find that some content is localized into your native language. A range of product groups not tied to geography is also available, and Adobe MAX attendees will notice that there are also event groups for you to join.

Finally, check out the community calendar and job postings. The local Adobe user groups and their members generate all these listings. If you want to contribute content or make comments, you'll need to create an Adobe.com ID in order to log in to the site. And if you want to start a user group, there's a place on the site to let us know.

Where to go from here

So visit Adobe Groups, create a profile, and join a group or two! We expect Adobe Groups to grow and evolve over time. As you explore the site, please suggest things that we can add. Please participate in making it a rich resource for our community so that we can all make the impact we need to make.