A big part of success as a developer is the knowledge of how to sharpen your skills. If you are working with Adobe AIR, there are several resources of which you can take advantage.

User Groups

User groups can be helpful on many levels. Adobe puts a great deal of effort into enabling their user groups with the tools that are truly helpful to developers. Currently, Adobe is sponsoring the Flex 3 / Adobe AIR Pre-Release Tour which is bringing Adobe's experts to many of the local user groups. Another advantage of attending these user group meetings is that you can connect with other developers in your area. Take the time to find a local user group.

Forums and Mailing Lists

Forums provide not only a way for you to get development questions answered, but it also provides a way for you to assist others. Both of these enable you to develop your skills. There are several forums and mailing lists that deal with Adobe AIR, and here are a few of the most popular:

• Adobe AIR Forum
• ApolloCoders Mailing List

Blogs and Resource Sites

Finally, blogs and resource sites can greatly assist you in honing your skills. Several great resources exist, but Adobe has provided two specifically. First, Adobe has a great AIR Developer Center. The Developer Center covers topics for beginning, intermediate, and advanced developers. The Adobe blog aggregator, MXNA, also has a specific channel for blogs that deal with AIR (another AIR aggregator resource with an AIR channel is Fullasagoog).

Contests

Contests can also be another great method for sharpening your skills. They allow you to see how your skills match up to others in the developer community. If you haven't heard, EBay is currently holding a Widget Build Off. This competition allows developers to build a new EBay widget with Flash or Flex. There will be up to five winners with each winner receiving a $10,000 prize. Ribbit is also holding a contest for the best Flex or AIR phone application that is built with their API. You will have to become a Ribbit Platform Developer to be eligible for this contest. (Ribbit recently extended the submission date for this contest.)

Hopefully these references will prove helpful as you work with Adobe AIR.

Read more from David Tucker.