Hi all, The latest news on the Apache Flex book with O'Reilly is that I'm currently in negotiations with them to have this book made, i.e. "Programming Apache Flex" as a continuance of that same series. It's taking some convincing to be honest, because the perception in the tech publishing industry right now is that Flash and Flex books are a lost leader, and more or less a dead ecosystem.
In response I mentioned to them that since Flex is now truly open source under Apache, that O'Reilly would be seen to be promoting open source software, which is very much within their mandate. And that, of course, Flex is not dead; in fact it has every indication of making somewhat of a comeback, according to the "word on the street," evidenced by a slow trickle of client work back to Flex, supported by AIR winning an award at the 2013 CES for "Best Consumer Application Development Platform for Mobile" (1,2) However, I may be able to convince O'Reilly to go ahead with a digital-only version which would minimize their costs. And if they agree to this, I have offered to waive any fees or royalties associated with the book on my part, to be considered "my donation" to the Apache Flex community. If O'Reilly breaks even or even makes a slight profit (and the profit margins on tech books are insanely low), then the project will stand a chance of going forward, and waiving my fees might just be what tips the balance. And of course I mentioned that, wouldn't it be embarrassing when Flex springs back in this next year and there are no Flex books with the O'Reilly name on it? ;) We'll see what happens, if O'Reilly accepts my proposal. I understand how perception is in part largely responsible for driving sales of tech books. But stakeholders and students are not the only ones who can drive book sales: a niche community of developers can also do so. And so I need your help, everyone in the Flex community. I'll need an experienced tech editor who is willing to help out with this, to donate their time to the project. And I will need everyone's help in promoting this book when it comes out, and to buy one, so that O'Reilly can justify the ROI to go ahead with the project. This book will be seen as a huge boon to Apache Flex, to prove to all the managers and stakeholders drinking the HTML5 koolaid, that Flex isn't dead, and it is very much alive and well. Thanks all in advance for your support, Joseph (1) http://www.beedigital.net/2014/01/09/air-wins-award-at-ces-for-the-best-mobile-application-product-in-2014/ (2) http://www.compassintelligence.com/?q=press/compass-intelligence-announces-winners-2014-mobility-awards-wireless-m2m-and-green-technology -- _______________________________________________________________________ Joseph Balderson, Flex & Flash Platform Developer :: http://joeflash.ca Author, Professional Flex 3 :: http://tinyurl.com/proflex3book
