31 Mar
2006
31 Mar
'06
8:49 a.m.
Greetings:
First, thank you to everyone who responded to my original query. I now
have a much better idea how I want to do this project.
I definitely want to involve members of this group. Some of you have
offered to take on particular chapters, and that seems to me the best
approach. I believe we can complete the work in record time by spreading
the work around. I'll speak with my publisher about this plan. If he
approves this approach we'll start work immediately.
Some respondents wrote to me off-list and have offered to assist. I'll
be in touch with you all after talking with Bill Pollock. If Bill gives
us a green light I'll start organizing the distribution of work
immediately. I'll communicate directly with you regarding style
preferences, format requirements, deadlines, etc. I must emphasize that
this project is commercial work, i.e., we'll have editors at the
publishing house and there will be demands that certain dates be met.
Please, only take on the work if you're sure you can work under those
conditions.
If the community approach is accepted I'll post a list of topics and
areas that need attention. I have a large amount of unedited/incomplete
material that I'm willing to offer as starting points.
I've been thinking about the royalties issue. I'm far from a final plan,
but I think it might be possible to route some (all?) of the royalties
to the Linux Audio Consortium. The community can then decide how to use
it. I can't leave this issue vague, my publisher will need to know who
is in charge of accounts receivable, and I can't simply accept
contributions from the community and not reimburse those contributors.
How that reimbursement takes place can be left to the individual
contributors, or we may decide to simply throw everything in one
direction (e.g. linuxaudio.org).
Btw, I especially appreciate the community's response re: the 2.4 kernel
series. It is laid to rest, there will be coverage only from kernel 2.6
upwards. Thank goodness.
No Starch has already accepted my outline for the project. At some point
I'll post that outline on the Web for the community to consider.
However, please bear in mind that there will be limitations of space and
scope. I'm unlikely to be able to cover games, consumer devices, or
telephony. Alas, material for a programmer's guide will probably not be
accepted. IMO that really requires a separate book now. A developer's
guide to ALSA and JACK is certainly timely and needed, but I'm not the
one to write that book.
Again, if you're interested in writing for this project please contact
me off-list. Specifiy your area of interest and we'll go from there.
Best regards,
dp