Chris Webb

Forrester’s Josh Bernoff says the web is helping him write a better and faster book.

Based on the schedules that the publishing industry lives on, we need to complete a draft of Groundswell very soon. Even so, I believe we are delivering material with a high degree of quality. I thought I’d take a moment to talk about how writing a book is different now — better, faster, more global, more collaborative — and the technologies I use that make this all possible.

Perhaps its the type of publishing I do, but I have found the tools Josh describes to be pretty common for my Authors.  However, for other types of books I can imagine some of these online tools feel pretty revolutionary.

Regardless, Josh correctly points out the shift to online collaboration and research tools for writing.  In my program I try to keep things fairly flexible in allowing authors to use a variety of tools – from wikis, to subversion to writing entire books online.

(Photo Credit: Monceau)