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Where are the Lotus Domino/Notes books?

This may be considered a bit of a rant, but I'm due.

I'm excited about the features coming in Domino 8.5. I've especially excited about DAOS, and X-pages.

For those who don't know me, I'm a Domino admin for an ASP who hosts our own Domino based web applications. I don't have a lot of time at work to play with any new software, and my wife, daughter and house keep my personal life quite busy. Oh, and often work as well. Part of the function of my job is that of a one-stop IT shop. I manage about 70 devices ranging from Domino to Windows servers and desktops, firewalls and IPS devices.

I went to my local bookstore this afternoon and wandered through their computer book selection, but despite the fact I could buy 12 different books about how to use my iPhone (none of them mentioned Traveller), there was not even a single Lotus book. Was I surprised? No, not really.

So I wandered over to the computerized index/kiosk and did a search for 'Lotus Domino'. I received 126 results, but not a single one of them covered Domino 8, and only one of those covered Domino 7. The same search for 'Lotus Notes' found 153 books, again with no Domino 8 books, and the same Domino 7 one.

Perhaps, just perhaps that if we are trying to get people to accept Note and Domino 8.x, and especially Xpages, we should get to writing books and articles that will allow us to help and gather in those users, developers and admins who need to learn more about Domino/Notes, but don't have the ability to attend Lotusphere or the View or other direct training events.

I never complain about something without offering a solution. I'm going to use this space to point fingers at good, solid Domino 8.5 resources. Not a 'Notes 8.5 has been released sort of thing, but to good solid code examples, how-to articles and the like. If you have something to add, leave a comment, and I'll add you to the list.

Cheers!

Comments

  1. Roy Rumaner11 January 2009 at 10:27

    Back in the days of 4.5 there was an abundance of books. When 5.0 came out, the list was shortened by about half. It was again cut in half for 6.x and down to one for 7.x. It looks like the publishers are not asking for anyone to write new ones anymore. Even the magazines have been reduced to electronic delivery or discontinued altogether.

    ReplyDelete
  2. wildunknown11 January 2009 at 10:40

    That just leaves it to the Online Domino/Notes community to 'write our own books' through our posts, blogs and wikis.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Christian Zalto11 January 2009 at 10:56

    The same situation in Germany: There is just one publishing house (Herdt Verlag) offering Lotus Domino/Notes 8 books.
    http://www.herdt4you.de/commerceportal/content.asp?PageNo=CONT_PRODLIST&iNode;=3230000&rVersion;=3232500
    But you can't find any books about the new, exciting stuff like Quickr, Connections, XPages.
    Notes is dead - it died in the bookstore.

    ReplyDelete
  4. IdoNotes11 January 2009 at 11:28

    Shh, the "Consultant in Your Pocket" series will be adding some on very shortly. I wonder if some news around Lotusphere time

    ReplyDelete
  5. wildunknown11 January 2009 at 12:06

    Who is the publisher of "Consultant in your Pocket"? They really should get their books out there. Our largest bookseller in Canada doesn't even have a listing of them. As long as non-evagelists have trouble finding the titles, they'll assume that the language is dead. Kinda like Cobol.

    ReplyDelete
  6. wildunknown11 January 2009 at 15:00

    I do apologize Chris, I didn't realize that "Consultant in your Pocket" was self-published. But that's as much a sign of the issue as anything.

    Microsoft has it's own publishing wing which helps it pump the hype about their applications. Why is it that IBM doesn't push the same publishing hype? I know we have Redbooks, (and now Redwikis) but they aren't released until well past the application landing on the ground.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Anonymous27 January 2009 at 00:41

    For Domino 8, there is "Lotus Notes Domino 8: Upgrader's Guide: What's new in the latest Lotus Notes Domino Platform (Paperback)" ISBN 1847192742 (I'm currently reading it now).

    For 8.5, there will be Survival Guide for Lotus Notes/Domino Administrators (Paperback) ISBN 0137153317 coming out soon.

    ReplyDelete
  8. wildunknown30 May 2011 at 08:24

    I do apologize Chris, I didn't realize that "Consultant in your Pocket" was self-published. But that's as much a sign of the issue as anything.

    Microsoft has it's own publishing wing which helps it pump the hype about their applications. Why is it that IBM doesn't push the same publishing hype? I know we have Redbooks, (and now Redwikis) but they aren't released until well past the application landing on the ground.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Roy Rumaner30 May 2011 at 08:24

    Back in the days of 4.5 there was an abundance of books. When 5.0 came out, the list was shortened by about half. It was again cut in half for 6.x and down to one for 7.x. It looks like the publishers are not asking for anyone to write new ones anymore. Even the magazines have been reduced to electronic delivery or discontinued altogether.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Christian Zalto30 May 2011 at 08:24

    The same situation in Germany: There is just one publishing house (Herdt Verlag) offering Lotus Domino/Notes 8 books.
    http://www.herdt4you.de/commerceportal/content.asp?PageNo=CONT_PRODLIST&iNode;=3230000&rVersion;=3232500
    But you can't find any books about the new, exciting stuff like Quickr, Connections, XPages.
    Notes is dead - it died in the bookstore.

    ReplyDelete

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