A (currently theoretical) question concerning a book about the Kolab Server

[Paul Douglas Franklin]

Gunnar Wrobel wrote:
> I'd be really interested in writing a handbook for administrators
> of the Kolab server.
>
> Ideally that book would be available in print but free in its
> electronic version as PDF. This is a model currently not supported by
> my publisher OpenSourcePress. They rely of course on the income made
> with the books in whatever format.
>
> So I could choose to tackle that project on my own. But that would
> have significant drawbacks. I'd probably only invest time when I have
> it which would mean it would be a project that takes ages. And I'd
> loose the very valuable influx of knowledge from the publisher. 
>
> I know very well from the experience with the Gentoo book that their
> input has a very high value. What I was capable of writing and
> submitting into their subversion system miraculously turned into
> readable text with the next revision I checked out. And I think I'm
> not yet lost deep enough in code that I would underestimate the value
> a well readable technical documentation has.
>
> I do see parallels with the free software provided by the Kolab
> Konsortium. It is actually a quite amazing success that the consortium
> manages to publish a free groupware server that is commercially
> viable. Companies are willing to pay for feature enhancements such as
> the port of Kontact to Windows or the start of the SyncML support to
> name some recent ones. In my eyes it is a fantastic achievement by the
> companies driving the Kolab project that such things are automatically
> contributed back to the community.
>
> So I'm wondering if there'd actually be enough financial interest in a
> book about Kolab. This is still a completely hypothetical question as
> I didn't consider the important parameters of such a project yet. I'd
> expect the costs to be somewhere in the range of twenty to thirty
> thousand Euros for convinving the publisher to agree to the model with
> a non-free print version and a free PDF.
>
> So right now I'm just looking for some comments to start getting some
> ideas and a better grasp of the potential problems that one would need
> to solve.
>
> Thanks!
>
> Gunnar
>
>   
That model seems to work for O'Reilly.
I for one would be interested in such a book.  One difficulty that I run 
across is an assumption that those who will install and maintain Kolab 
are already familiar with concepts that I am not familiar with.  I 
suspect that these concepts are known by people who have worked with an 
Exchange server, but I'm not sure.  Setting up a Kolab server is a snap, 
but I'm not using it to its full potential.
--Paul

-- 
Paul Douglas Franklin
Computer Manager, Union Gospel Mission of Yakima, Washington
Husband of Danette
Father of Laurene, Miriam, Tycko, Timothy, Sarabeth, Marie, Dawnita, Anna Leah, Alexander, and Caleb