SP2010 Book Contributors

Updated: 24 Nov 2011 - The SharePoint 2010 Handbook

About this book:  This book consists of standalone chapters written by various authors with real world experience of SharePoint 2010.  The content is predominantly non-technical allowing people involved and managing SharePoint 2010 projects to deploy SharePoint successfully within their business.

This book is intended as a non-profit publication.  It is a compilation of chapters, each of which are to be voluntarily contributed by various IT professionals.  Any proceeds from the sale of the book will be used to recoup the expenses of publication and the balance will be reinvested into the printing of further copies and given away freely as prizes.

Abstract: SharePoint 2010 is a huge product and very few people understand the majority of it's functionality or how to apply it to their business.  Large organisations generally can afford big project teams with multiple experts that are attracted by high salaries, unfortunately medium size and companies new to SharePoint don't realise the full value of SharePoint as they don't necessarily get all the best people to ensure successful projects.  Even in large projects that are well resourced the communication between the subject matter experts/team members can be underwhelming.  So this book provides chapters on topics that SP2010 professionals feel need addressing to facilitate successful SharePoint projects that an individual may not necessarily fully comprehend.

Title: SharePoint Notes - Volume 1
I started my blog to record key findings to share with people learning SharePoint 2010 and as a repository so I can find info and be a better consultant.  The book has a similar aims in that it will covers a variety of diverse topics that the author understands. By writing the chapter I personally clarify my thoughts and provide information that helps people have successful projects.  I do want to write a complete book but I think writing a chapter to 2 that has value is achievable.  It's a lot less work and I do not have the knowledge and experience to write a book that covers such diverse areas by myself.  However, I know certain areas within SharePoint that it is my job to help readers to understand and thereby ask the right questions or at least know what they need to look at to deliver.  The combination of chapters will provide insight into the components that make our SharePoint projects successful.

For Authors:  Pick a chapter/topic it must be standalone.  The chapter should be easy to read and require no prior expertise in the topic.  I recommend between 2000 and 5000 words per chapter.  Pictures will be in black and white so you will need to provide them to the template in the correct size, colouring and dpi. 

The template is A3 (fold an A4 in half) and will be provided to all authors.  If you need more space or words that is fine but the content must get to the point and be understandable and not repeated if possible.

Each author is assigned a editor, and to edit some else's chapter.  Editing will take place after the chapter is written but asking qu and opinions during the chapter writing is encouraged.  Editing will obviously a lot less work.

I recently read this post http://geekswithblogs.net/SoYouKnow/archive/2011/06/14/is-the-sharepoint-community-past-its-prime.aspx and this book highlights helping others.  It gives authors to write a chapter that adds value for readers.  The book will be retailed on Amazon, I will provide a few copies to each author.  The idea is to give the books away at user groups and community evening so any money generated from sales on Amazon will go into providing more prizes/giveaways.

Time frame:
30 June 2011: Provide your chapter title and 200 word abstract.
31 August : Completed chapter that is passed over to the editor.
30 September : Editor and author agree chapter is finished and handover for inclusion in the full book.
15 October : Book is in it's final electronic state and will be submitted to the printer once graphics covers and book intros are completed.

My contact details:
twitter: @paulbeck1
email: paul.beck at sharepointsite.co.uk

We are looking for authors and editors, please let me know if you are interested.

More Information:
John Timney's blog