Less out of date, more organic
In my opinion, books on the latest theories in information or management work better when they have a dynamic living web presence along side them. A great example would be Freakonomics. I read freakonomics a year or so ago, but it’s on the top of my mind because I read the blog and regularly visit the site. This gives the author a channel to update stories, facts and figures, because time doesn’t stand still, so why should information?
Cathy went to a conference and picked up a book produced from the OECD on the “Participative Web and User-Created Copy – web 2.0, wikis, and social networking”. Decent book some good stats. But unfortunately the book doesn’t have an accompanying interactive website, whether a blog or a twiki, which allows the authors and the readers of the book to stay up to date, with changes to the content in the book – or to just continue the conversation.
Sure some books on some theories are timeless, Adam Smith probably doesn’t necessarily need a blog or a wiki, but some, especially those written about technology and other industries that are really dynamic definitely need to have an online presence to support the paper/book.
It’s really up to authors whether they want their book to have a one off hit for a short period of time, or something that is organic and changes with the time.
