Book Blogging

Recently came across the notion of prepublication interaction that WEB 2.0 technologies encourage. More specifically, a few business technological writers have been utilizing the blog as a means of documenting research and findings (similar to what I am doing for my thesis) and allowing users and potential customers to view how they are approaching their research as well as receive feedback on what they are doing. Tools such as the blog are now allowing us to bring customers into the conversation before the finished product is released. This by all accounts makes sense and should lead to a more efficient marketplace. In this case, it includes the market for books. Matching what authors produce to the desires of the reader. This by all means is not perfect as it is only limited to the population of readers who in fact are aware of these tools and can use the internet. One can only assume that as generations advance than so will the adaptation of these tools and the better sampling of responses that authors' can consequently recieve.

Here is mcKinsey's take on the transparent office blog

"My personal favorite is the by-line on Chris Anderson's Long Tail Blog. Chris describes his blog as "a public diary on themes around a book". (If memory serves, it used to be called "a public diary on the way to becoming a book." I guess he had to change the by-line when the book came out.) What's cool about Chris's blog is that it's not exactly democratizing publishing. Chris is a veteran journalist, and he probably would have written the book with our without the blog. But the line between pre-publication and publication got blurred, and I'd wager that the book, and the public discourse around it, were far better as a result."