One question that I think needs to be addressed before going any further is, does this book practice what it preaches? I believe it does. The book was written in a wiki that was initially shared between the author, the publisher, and the cartoonist so we could work in a collaborative environment. Every person involved in the production of the book could see progress, ask questions, copy edit, and add comments at any point. Once we were at the review stage we opened the wiki up to the review team for them to further copy edit and add comments. This also allowed Scott Abel to write his foreword directly in the production wiki.
The wiki we used supports output as HTML. The team at XML Press wrote scripts to extract content from the wiki, convert it to DocBook XML, and use the XML as a single source from which they generated formatted output for both print and electronic versions of the book.
Using a wiki in this manner meant that the traditional serial production workflow for a book – complete manuscript / review & edit / format / publish – became a parallel one where reviews, editing, formatting, and test production runs could all be done while the content was still being developed. The result is a much shorter production cycle and the ability to include the latest information very close to the publication date. See Case Study 5: A Wiki Workflow for Publishing for more about how this book was produced
We will also be putting the book’s ideas to the test by offering a public-facing wiki where readers of this, and other XML Press titles, can comment or add information that they believe the authors, publisher, and other readers may be interested in or find useful.
You can join in the online conversation about WIKI: Grow Your Own for Fun & Profit at http://readers.xmlpress.net.