Writing Books the Web 2.0 Way

"People in the workforce are using information for career development," says Kilian. "Adults are driven by an internal process, whether it's for personal growth or just to make more money. Sometimes they need to find new information on a whim, sometimes it's just-in-time learning, or sometimes, it's just-in case learning ... the e-learning community has changed dramatically." Although e-learning isn't a replacement for the traditional classroom, he says, it's another option. It's a way to stay current and keep a timely reference library at your fingertips, whether by online tutorials or finding a community of likeminded thinkers. People can also get a jump on new technology on the horizon, he says. They can find out what they need to know as it's being developed, especially in technology, which changes so rapidly.

Always Available

"The advantages of using a Safari-like tool is that information is available 24/7," says Kilian. "Safari Books Online has trusted content, it's vetted and users can delve as deeply as they want in any direction at any time." Safari now has more than 65,000 titles in its library about software development, Web design, leadership topics, and even books-in-progress with Rough Cuts.

"The most exciting thing is applying Web 2.0 in social settings for collaboration," says Kilian. "The conversation focuses on a central topic and develops a community of interest around it."

John Chodacki, director of product management for Safari Books Online's Rough Cuts, says that this collaborative concept of the online book-in-progress program emerged during a conversation he had with Tim O'Reilly about the Long Tail phenomenon.

Long Snout?

"Well, we figured out that if there's a Long Tail effect, there has to be a Long Snout effect too," says Chodacki. Getting a community wrapped around a book that is being written is like the Pragmatic Programmer's Beta Books program. It creates revenue for the author and the publisher before the book is actually published, he says. Rough Cuts is concentrating on technical and creative issues that focus on emerging technology and niche topics. At press time, the iPhone Open Applications Development Rough Cuts version by Jonathan A. Zdziarski and Programming .NET 3.5 Rough Cuts version by Jesse Liberty and Alex Horovitz were available at the O'Reilly Web site. Users could buy the book in advance or buy online rights, or the price could be bundled together.

This type of user-oriented online publishing service lets subscribers get the first access to prepublished manuscripts on cutting-edge technology topics. Users have access to the manuscript so they can send feedback to the author along with suggestions, fixes and comments to the editor and author, says Chodacki. It's a win-win situation: The users can learn about new technology, and the author can use feedback and insights to his or her advantage.

Collaborative Authoring

In fact, collaboration is working well and already paying off. He says that one interaction between a user and the author corrected a code problem in the text.

The author had written some code and the reader tried it, but the code didn't work. So he e-mailed the author, they discussed the problem, and then the author rewrote the text using the two lines of new code.

"The value is in the community," he says. "It's about building a better mousetrap."