Archive of UserLand's first discussion group, started October 5, 1998.

Open-Source Books

Author:Giles Bateman
Posted:8/7/2000; 2:09:38 PM
Topic:Open-Source Books
Msg #:19530
Prev/Next:19529 / 19531

From DaveNet: Music with Woz.

"(If O'Reilly and Hughes were true to their cause, I'd be able to read Linux Journal fully on the Web for free, and every O'Reilly book would be on the Web, indexed by Google, etc.)"

Philip Greenspun has effectively done what you're suggesting by making his published book Philip and Alex's Guide to Web Publishing available in its entirety online. It's a great example your idea to Ask not what the Internet can do for you.

Apart from the usefulness of being able to read the entire text of the book online, the online version is more up-to-date than the printed version because the author updates it whenever he sees the need. Online visitors can also add comments on a chapter-by-chapter basis. For me, the multi-viewpoint feedback has added great depth that could not be duplicated in a printed version.

One of the conditions Greenspun demanded from his publisher was that he be able to publish the book fully online or else he would not publish through them at all. Wouldn't it be cool if more authors would do that?

To authors afraid of what putting their entire books online for free might mean to their bottom line, consider this:

Despite Philip and Alex's Guide to Web Publishing being available online, so far I have purchased three copies of the printed version (Greenspun refers to this as the 'dead-trees' version) at $45 each; one for myself, and two as gifts. I have also given the URL for the book to many friends, five of whom (that I know of) have also bought the 'dead-trees' version.

That's at least $360 worth of books that would not have been sold had I not come across it and been able to read it online. Also, Greenspun now has at least that many more people reading his web site and contributing to his online community discussions.

Disclaimer: I do not know Philip Greenspun personally, nor do I benefit in any way from the sales of his book. I work at a K-12 school district in Crawford, Texas. Whenever possible, I try to apply Greenspun's ideas about database-backed web sites while working in the 'powerful cross-platform web content management' environment made possible by Frontier.

Thanks for listening.

Giles



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