The Wikipedia Revolution: How a Bunch of Nobodies Created the World's Greatest Encyclopedia Review

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(More customer reviews)`The Wikipedia Revolution` (2009) is probably the first serious attempt at a book-length history of Wikipedia. Unfortunately Andrew Lih is not a trained historian, it is a journalistic account with more reporting and synthesis than original interpretation. However it is still a quick and interesting read, even if Lih is a devout Wikipedian. Certain sections stand out: the history of Ward Cunningham who invented the Wiki software; the history of Larry Sanger and his role as "co-founder" (or not, depending, but it is not resolved here). The role of Usenet, Hypercard, Slashdot and MeatballWiki in the formation of early Wikipedia. A glimpse into the vastly different cultures of Japanese, Chinese, German and other foreign language Wikipedias. An overview of some (in)famous incidents such as Seigenthaler and Essjay. Lih appears to have researched the book mostly using archival sources - I was disappointed not to find new interviews with Wales, Sanger or any number of others - it takes away from the books value in the long term as a primary source, a missed opportunity to add to the historical record.
There is a short Introduction by Jimmy Wales which is a standard stump speech heard many times before. The Afterword contains a crowd-sourced essay on the future of Wikipedia and it does contain a meaty examination of the difficult issues facing Wikipedia now and in the future. I found it to be surprisingly good. The Afterword is released under a Creative Commons BY license so it's freely available to copy - it's odd Lih did not point to where it can be found online. [UPDATE: see "Comments" below for a URL]
I would recommend this book for anyone who has been a long time member of Wikipedia and wants to learn more about 'a history experienced' over the past 8 years or so. There is so much that could be said about Wikipedia this book just grazes the surface but it's a good entry into what will certainly becoming a growing library of books about Wikipedia in the future.

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Scripting Your World: The Official Guide to Second Life Scripting Review

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(More customer reviews)Aesthetically, I personally found this book is very well laid out, colourful and easy on the eyes. It contains many screenshots and even explanatory diagrams. The structure allows the advanced LSL scripter to scan read to use the book as a decent reference and is complete with keyword indexes in the appendices. All levels of LSL scripters will enjoy the side notes on many pages that explain the aspects being discussed in more detail and gives build notes and useful tips.
The content of the book itself starts with a decent introduction to the LSL scripting language. It gives seasoned programmers the information they need to get started and yet at the same time provides detailed explanations of the syntax for beginners to begin to understand.
The book goes on to cover many various examples with detailed explanations, achieving what I feel is a nice balance with the amount of example code to theory. To take one chapter as an example, it explains the settings of vehicle parameters, handling input controls from the user and setting the position and rotation of the viewer's camera plus example code to get started with. It is enough to get going on scripting a vehicle in LSL. Advancements in this area would come from experimentation by the LSL scripter herself and by reading the book's tabulated explanations of all the vehicle parameters and functions. The side notes in this chapter include a useful time-saving warning when combining two of the mechanisms for moving objects and also a note on other scripts to look out for in world and even a link to a wiki that hosts complete sailboat scripts.
What I particularly enjoyed about the book was discovering how others have used LSL scripting. I'd fully expect this book to inspire the LSL scripter into creating something that they may not have tried without having had the book to explain the workflow to them.
Overall, a very respectable and professional book. I'm very pleased with the copy I have.


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Find complete information about Second Life scripting and gain access to more than 50 previously unpublished ready-to-use scripts in Scripting Your World: The Official Guide to Second Life Scripting. Learn how to script Second Life behaviors, grouped into categories like avatar movement, communications, prim and object control, automation, land control, combat, special effects, environment control and physics, and interacting with the world outside of Second Life. After you read this engaging book, you will possess a solid understanding Linden Scripting Language conventions.

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