Article:		The Emerging Art of Agile Publishing
Subject:		Invovators of "beta books"
Date:		2006-03-30 09:24:54
From:		newuser007
The idea that Dave Thomas pioneered "beta books" is a growing meme, but simply untrue. As Tim O'Reilly points out (in his comments here: http://www.loudthinking.com/arc/000580.html), O'Reilly), O'Reilly offered "JavaScript: The Definitive Guide" as a beta book (using that very name) back in the mid-90s. And Apress was offereing early-adopter PDF editions several years ago. This is not to knock Pragmatic Press, but to point out that the evolution of agile publishing has been happening for many years already, and its success is often a matter of chance, of having the right topic at the right time.

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• Invovators of "beta books"
  2006-03-31 10:44:15 Mike Fitzgerald
  
  Dave is "a notable pioneer," not the first or only. But his overall approach of offering his books early and as PDFs (unless I've missed an exception) is an excellent trend. I think O'Reilly and other publishers could learn some things from Dave and I hope they do. But it's not just Dave: it's the agile practice that I'm after. It's what customers are after, too. Fast. Timely. Abundant. On target technically. Available. Companies not getting in the way of themselves. This is what the market is looking for. It would be a mistake to say or think that Dave has not brought this to our attention, even if he isn't the first.