Books News & Articles

RocketSpace and Pearson Publishing put together a panel discussion in San Francisco this week on "The Future of Publishing". They assembled an esteemed group of progressive publishers attempting to tease-out the future of our dear publishing industry. The passion of the panelists was as evident as their exasperation as they discussed the present state of publishing, the near future, and the sort-of-not-too-distant future. Here's the concise version of the evening.

As Apple celebrates its part of 1.2 billion app downloads last week, those centuries-past, paper-based tomes are the focus of the company's first big news in 2012. While we're sure it is hard at work on a budget iPad and a new iOS, Apple is trying to boost its share of the ebook market that Amazon rules.

Amazon is adopting a new business model, and it might hurt longtime relationships with publishers in the process. But will this be the future of publishing?

Colleen Jones’ new book, Clout, could have been called “The Internet is Not Magic.” The book, which is actually about the art and science of influential web content, is straightforward and useful. Anyone wanting a book that tells them exactly what to write and how to market content to a target audience, should look elsewhere. Jones is very clear right from the beginning -- there is no magic bullet or one-size-fits-all solution. Instead, everyone from executives to designers to writers and small business owners are asked to do what’s right for them.

For some this may not be want you want to hear, but Jones assures you, it’s for your own good. And we agree. 

Kentico (news, site) offers a manual for its Web CMS to help beginners get the most from their sites.

Here's an all-new level of geekery: Now you can purchase O'Reilly and Microsoft Press Books from the Apple iBookstore. Download the iBooks app to your iPad, iPod touch or iPhone, and you've got a massive searchable reference pool on the go. 

It is probably appropriate that a little less than two months after Oracle (news, site) released its Enterprise Content Management Suite 11g, Dmitri Khanine, who publishes the Independent Oracle UCM Knowledge Center, has just released a new book that promises a whirlwind tour of the Oracle Universal Content Management (UCM) component of the suite.

While it’s rarely recommended that one build themselves their own content management system from scratch, there are times when it can be a good learning experience. It’s even better when what you build is actually worth building. Such is the case with Pro ASP.NET 4 CMS, a new platform developed by Alan Harris.

 As organizations build more web applications and bring more people to their website to engage in social activities, the need to keep their website running smoothly is critical. A new book from O'Reilly called Web Operations: Keeping the Data on Time should help you understand how to run these website effectively.

As we all drown in today's unparalleled access to mostly disorganized information, the holy grail for many has become to perfect search. O'Reilly Media (news, site) has released a new book to help those following this path.

Packt Publishing (news, site), one of our favorite providers of IT books for professionals, has just kicked out a book to help you boost Drupal 6 performance.

The book is aimed at users of all experience levels--that includes you, beginners!--as well as, designers, themers and webmasters.

Three cheers for Jeff Potts! The author of Alfresco Developer Guide took home Packt’s (news, site) Author of the Year award along with a cool US$ 1000 cash prize earlier this month. Not bad for a guy’s first published book, right?

“I am excited and honored to win the award,” said Potts, “especially because I know there were several popular and well-written books among the finalists.”

The finalists included 5 other nominated titles:

Drupal Multimedia by Aaron Winborn
Learning Drupal 6 Module Development by Matt Butcher
Learning Ext JS by Shea Fredrick, Colin Ramsay and Steve "Cutter" Blades
Object-Oriented JavaScript by Stoyan Stefanov
Service Oriented Architecture with Java by Vincenzo Caselli, Binildas A. Christudas and Malhar Barai

Judges praised Potts’ book in particular for “providing a strong balance of background, actionable items, and wisdom” and bringing a complex, challenging topic “down to earth”.

“Most of our authors write in their limited free time alongside demanding full time jobs and this award gives us another, more fun way to reward and thank our authors,” said David Barnes, Packt Acquisition Editor and organizer of the award.

Inspired? Check out Potts’ book here.

Ross Dawson has written a report on Enterprise 2.0 that should be a valuable tool for any organization implementing or thinking about implementing Web 2.0 tools in their enterprise.

Called Implementing Enterprise 2.0: A practical guide to creating business value inside organizations with web technologies, Dawson take a close look at the implications and considerations of incorporating web 2.0 tools like wikis, blogs, social networks, bookmarks and microblogging and RSS in the enterprise.

At roughly 190 pages, it doesn't take long to read this report and earmark some sound advice for your E2.0 strategy. The book includes chapters on developing an Enterprise 2.0 strategy, governance and policies, how different tools can create business value and practical and organizational implications. A number of sidebars provide real-world case studies and advice from those who have made the leap to Enterprise 2.0.

It concludes with a list of potential vendor solutions for the various web 2.0 technologies mentioned above.

The report provides a number of frameworks and checklists that can help you determine how best to go about implementing Enterprise 2.0 solutions in your organization. Included are topics such as:

• Identifying the barriers to adoption in your organization
• Identifying risks and benefits, including understanding how relevant the risks truly are
• Methods to get buy-in, including pilots and developing business cases
• How policies for Enterprise 2.0 aren't that different from some other IT polices, and also how they are

If you are interested in learning more, you can download and review some book chapters and follow the report discussion on Dawson's blog.

There is no one size fits all approach to implementing Enterprise 2.0 in an organization. A lot depends on how that organization is structured and how open executives and users are to change.

Read this report to get solid advice on how to start thinking about how you would approach it for your organization.

If you feel your writing talents are not being appreciated or if you’ve finally decided to stop hiding your literary light under a bushel, then Packt Publishing (news, site) is looking for you.

Yep! This is probably the first time since the invention of the Nuremberg printing press over 500 years ago that a book publisher is looking for authors -- and paid authors at that.

The snag -- if it is, in fact a snag -- is that you really have to know your subject, and those subjects should include Oracle, IBM and Microsoft amongst others before you go looking for your first contract. Additionally, you need to be able to explain in less than five million words, what your particular 'thing' is.

Best known for their open source books, Packt Publishing produces a range of publications from large developer’s guides like the guide to Oracle SOA Suite 10g R3, or shorter and task-specific books that show how to get specific jobs done, like SharePoint Designer Tutorial, for example.

Packt aims to share the experiences of IT professionals in adapting and customizing current systems, applications and frameworks.

And now they are looking to extend their stable of talent. They plan to advance their line up of enterprise focused titles this year with an expected publishing list of over 30 titles.

Packt is inviting developers, architects, consultants and administrators alike, to send in their title suggestions and area of expertise to author@packtpub.com.

Last year we noted that the mid-size open source CMS Plone (news, site) looked like it was gearing up for a bigger and better 2009. Many things since then have solidified that observation, including the launch of a user feedback system, a relicensing policy, and much talk about the upcoming Plone 4 and 5.

Before we get too ahead of ourselves though, let's slow down and take a look at Plone 3. Author Veda Williams has just announced the release of her new book Plone 3 Theming through Packt Publishing.

Williams' book reportedly teaches best practices of Plone theme development, focusing on Plone 3. The book covers topics such as configuring the development environment, creating a basic theme product, add-on tools and skinning tricks, integrating multimedia with Plone, and configuring a site's look and feel through the Zope Management Interface (ZMI). Finally, for you future fiends, there is a sneak peek into the future of Plone's theming system.

Williams has worked in software development for a whopping 18 years. Her experience includes a three-year stint as a Plone skinner, and she is currently the editor for the documentation section of plone.org. In other words? This lady knows what she's talking about.

If you're a professional Web designer working with Plone and would fancy some theming help, you can pick up your electronic version here.