The PowerShell Textbook Discussion

[ZanattaMichael]

Hello there!

So recently I have taken ownership as owner of the PowerShell Conference Book, however Steven Judd and I had a discussion on taking the book into a different direction.
Our Idea? Expand the intended audience of the book and target a new demographic.

The idea is to write a community lead textbook resource that:

1. Universities can teach.
2. That experts can reference to brush up on their skills.
3. A go-to resource for anyone that has finished the MOL content.

The goal is to level-up the community to a 200/300 level, provided the reader is willing to learn.

Some things will remain the same:

1. The price, will remain the same.
2. All profits go to scholarships for the DevOps Collective to continue to grow the community.
3. There will still be a call for editors/ authors.
4. It will have a similar chapter count.
5. Editors/ Authors will have their names added.

Things that will change:

1. The chapter selection process. Rather then submit a new idea you might need to pick from a pool of topics that you are a SME in.
2. The editorial process. We will be applying a new editorial process.

I had a discussion with leactures and heads of staff and found that Uni's/ Colleges are extreamly slow to develop and release course offereings (Approx 2 years).

In this discussion thread, I am wanting to get feedback from you the PowerShell community to see if:

1. Would you support this book by purchasing it or encouraging others to purchase it?
2. Did you support the PowerShell Conference books 1,2 & 3?
3. Would you be willing to write a chapter, for a selected topic?

[markroloff]

Love this idea!

1. Absolutely to both counts.
2. Got the first and second. Third will be joining them soon.
3. Can't write for shit but I'd happily volunteer as a second set of eyes for technical details.

[Graham-Beer]

I contributed to volumes 1 & 2. I feel the change of direction is a good move, keeps things fresh. Would be inclined to change the branding though. Leave the last three as a triology and change the name going forward.

[compwiz32]

I would be interested in this and I like the direction. However, a "textbook" needs to have the same style and voice throughout.

What would people be submitting?
Would I submit a cfp to say why I would be right person to do topics on pipeline and help commands for instance?
Because a textbook really needs to flow together and topics need to build on each other .. so the submissions sound less about topics and more about a writer's skillset for a given subject.

Again like the idea but having a hard time working through the minuate of the actual moving pieces.

Also I think that editors are critical to this process now because they are the ones to makes sure the chapters remain consisent....

[ZanattaMichael]

@compwiz32 So the idea will be to have a predefined set of chapters which people would put their names down for it. However we would require people who are a SME in that specific area.