250 Authors; Does Open Source Work in Publishing
Tuesday: November 27, 2007 6:40 AM
We have seen open source communities work in Software (Linux, Apache) and we have seen open communities work in online environments (Wikipedia). We have also seen how open communities work in the business environment (P&G) but, have we seen this type of environment work in authoring a book? With the release of “We are smarter than me”, we now have one of the first examples. Now, we already know that we are not smarter than a 5th grader, but the idea is intriguing. Over the Thanksgiving Holidays, we had a death in the family which provided some excellent reading time.
First, the book is well written and edited. You would never know that you had so many authors by trying to figure out the style of writing. Second, for those who are new to the social software and web 2.0 environment, this is an excellent book to start with. They provide plenty of examples and explain the concepts clearly and efficiently (It’s only 150 pages).
However, one of the ways I value a book is the amount of highlighting I do as I read. Some books like “Funky Business” and “Blue Ocean Strategy” are nothing but a string of yellow markings. Looking back, I did very little highlighting. The reason is that this book is more of a review backwards than looking forward or producing a new way of thinking. If you are well read in Web 2.0 then the reviews of Second Life, P&G, and Zopa will be nothing new. So the question is: Does the open source community concept work when watering down innovative thought. Is the reason this is a review only type of book due to the Wiki concept or was that the idea from the start? If one of those 250 authors produced an innovative or concept challenging entry then would it have been deleted? As Mark Twain said, “A person with a new idea is a crank until the idea succeeds”.
We have seen open source communities work in Software (Linux, Apache) and we have seen open communities work in online environments (Wikipedia). We have also seen how open communities work in the business environment (P&G) but, have we seen this type of environment work in authoring a book? With the release of “We are smarter than me”, we now have one of the first examples. Now, we already know that we are not smarter than a 5th grader, but the idea is intriguing. Over the Thanksgiving Holidays, we had a death in the family which provided some excellent reading time.
First, the book is well written and edited. You would never know that you had so many authors by trying to figure out the style of writing. Second, for those who are new to the social software and web 2.0 environment, this is an excellent book to start with. They provide plenty of examples and explain the concepts clearly and efficiently (It’s only 150 pages).
However, one of the ways I value a book is the amount of highlighting I do as I read. Some books like “Funky Business” and “Blue Ocean Strategy” are nothing but a string of yellow markings. Looking back, I did very little highlighting. The reason is that this book is more of a review backwards than looking forward or producing a new way of thinking. If you are well read in Web 2.0 then the reviews of Second Life, P&G, and Zopa will be nothing new. So the question is: Does the open source community concept work when watering down innovative thought. Is the reason this is a review only type of book due to the Wiki concept or was that the idea from the start? If one of those 250 authors produced an innovative or concept challenging entry then would it have been deleted? As Mark Twain said, “A person with a new idea is a crank until the idea succeeds”.
