New Options for Technical Books

I own hundreds of technical books. Well, not actually hundreds. Over one hundred for sure. Dozens let's say. I own several dozen technical books. Name a topic in computer science or software development and I probably own a title about or related to that topic. Some of these books are timeless classics. I put any book by Gerald Weinberg in this category. His The Secrets of Consulting, for example, is full of wisdom for all times such as

It may look like a crisis, but it's only the end of an illusion.

The trouble with most of these technical books, however, is that they do not age gracefully. In 2000 I spent good money on an 883 page tome about IBM's SanFrancisco Enterprise Java Frameworks. Not only did I not read it, it's woefully out-of-date by now if not completely irrelevant. But since a tree gave its life for the book, I can't bring myself to part with it. Does anyone want to buy it?

Fortunately, new options exist for technical books. One of these options is offered by Sourcebeat. The Sourcebeat model marries a complete technical book with a subscription service. As the technology about which a Sourcebeat book is written changes, Sourcebeat authors update the book to reflect those changes. Subscribers can download an up-to-date copy (in PDF) any time.

A similar option in technical book publishing is offered by the Pragmatic Programmers with their book about the increasingly popular Rails framework for Web applications. Their beta book concept allows purchasers to obtain a book before it's complete. Interested readers can get the best available technical information without having to wait for the time-consuming editing process to finish.

So far these new options for producing and purchasing technical documentation seem to work best with fast-moving open-source projects. I've taken advantage of both the Sourcebeat and the beta book options and have been very happy with the results. Who could argue with more and better information delivered affordably and in near real time? Buy a technical book, save a tree.

Is anyone interested in IBM's SanFrancisco project? Seriously. I've got a great book for you. Anyone?