Thanks very much for your post Jonathan! Very well said! Lucy Edmonds
From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Jonathan Mosen Sent: Tuesday, July 29, 2014 3:56 AM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: Pre-orders now open for iOS 8 Without the Eye Hi everyone, I'm conscious that both our moderators are probably sleeping right now, and having moderated email lists over many years, I know what an unpleasant feeling it is to wake up to a list that's gone off the rails. So in an attempt to prevent that from happening, I thought I would add a few comments. It's not my intension to respond to personal attacks, however there are some substantive issues that may be helpful. First, my book, "iOS 8 Without the Eye" is by no means the only game in town for getting information about iOS 8 when it comes out. An excellent free source of information will be Applevis, a site of which I am a huge fan. You can be sure that free resources from there will include blog posts and podcasts. There are sure to be other places as well. I wrote iOS 7 Without the Eye last year because I got feedback that there was a need for it. As some of you may know, I've produced literally hundreds of hours at least of audio tutorials on a wide range of subjects, a few of which are in fact on Applevis. I also continue to get very kind feedback about the FSCasts I have done over the years on iTunes. Many people like to be talked through an application or operating system, hearing what the speech is doing. People who learn best this way are big fans of podcasts, if they're produced well. Equally, I hear from people who say that they prefer to learn from a book. I've done a few audio presentations since starting Mosen Consulting, but books like Tweeting Blind and the iOS without the Eye series have been well received because they're in writing. So rather than do an audio version of iOS 8 Without the Eye, I decided that audio was well covered and that I'd focus on text. Yes, you'll be able to get textual help via a range of sources, and some people will be happy installing the OS and discovering things for themselves, sharing their discoveries on a range of forums. But last year, we sold thousands of copies of the book. What that showed me was that some people prefer to have a coherent, consistent, comprehensive guide, written by a technical writer who can explain the concepts. The book is a work in progress right now, but already we're hitting the 25,000 word mark, about 63 pages in Microsoft Word and growing. It has been peer reviewed by a number of fellow testers, to make sure that I'm explaining things clearly enough, and that I've not left things out. It has already had its first draft sent to a copy editor, who has gone through it meticulously for readability and other factors. Each chapter has been carefully crafted, tweaked, and tweaked some more. That will continue to happen right up until iOS 8 release day. So I don't claim to have a monopoly on this knowledge. What I can promise you is that I've put many hours into writing all this up, explaining it as clearly as possible, and making sure it all jells. That will be worth 20 bucks to some of you, and it won't to others of you. That's the market for you. If there's no longer a need for the book, no one will buy it, and that will tell me whether I should do it again for iOS 9. All I have to serve as a guide about the need is the thousands that were bought last year. This list is a microcosm of the entire blind iPhone using community. Some people are experts, some are still struggling with the iPhone and find the prospect of a bunch of new and changed features daunting. Many experts will want this book because they'd prefer to invest in a tool that gets them going quickly, others will think it's a waste of their money. Many novice users, I suspect, will be glad to have someone they may know from elsewhere helping them through some new things. So if it helps you, consider the book. If it doesn't, please enjoy and support the many great contributors to our community, for which I'm sure many of us are grateful. And in fact, there's really no reason not to do both of those things if both options will be helpful to you. Thanks everyone. Jonathan Mosen Mosen Consulting Blindness technology eBooks, tutorials and training http://Mosen.org -- The following information is important for all members of the viphone list. All new members to the this list are moderated by default. If you have any questions or concerns about the running of this list, or if you feel that a member's post is inappropriate, please contact the owners or moderators directly rather than posting on the list itself. 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