Books — GigaOM

Books

I enjoy reading lots of different kinds of books, from fiction to travel to humor to, of course, tech-related books. Here are a couple of books that web workers may find enlightening: David Kirkpatrick’s”The Facebook Effect” and Karen Anderson’s “Take Control of iPhone Basics” Read More »

When Amazon made the claim a few months ago that it owned a 70 to 80 percent share of the e-book market, we wouldn’t have blamed you for rolling your eyes. After all, the company has been criticized for its outlandish claims around e-book sales. Read More »

 
 

There’s probably not much that’s new to you in this book. But it’s well-written, and at just over 50 pages, it can be read in a hour, and it provides a good introduction to some useful techniques for improving the visibility of web sites. Read More »

Inbound Marketing: A Social Media Primer

While we may not all agree on the “rules” when it comes to marketing, we can all agree that marketing has changed considerably in recent years, largely due to social media. “Inbound Marketing” is a primer for those looking to make the most of social media. Read More »

Chris Brogan's Crash Course in Social Media

No matter what you do, social media is probably impacting your industry — especially if you do most of your work online. Even though we can all agree on the importance of social media, figuring out how to use it is not so obvious. Read More »

"The New Rules of Marketing and PR" Gets an Update

Two and a half years ago, the first edition of “The New Rules of Marketing and PR” hit the shelves. David Meerman Scott’s guide to using other online tools for marketing was a game changer. Last month, the second edition of the book came out. Read More »

Open Government and the Web Discussed in New Book

“Open Government” is an interesting compilation of essays discussing the problems that governments and citizens face as they struggle to catch up with the openness that we’ve come to expect in the era of social media, crowdsourcing and user-generated content. Read More »

Improve Your Blogging Abilities With a New e-Book

Whether you’re developing software, working in marketing or even a full-time writer, the odds that you’ll be asked to contribute to a blog at some point just keep going up, because blogs have become a key method of communication for many organizations. However, contributing to … Read More »

New Book on Business Planning Helps Productivity

Every December, I sit down to write my business plan for the upcoming year. Invariably, however, the lure of pumpkin pie and the continuous playing of Christmas music take me off track. I find that I’m just too distracted to seriously focus on the business planning … Read More »

In his new book, “The Backchannel: How Audiences Are Using Twitter and Social Media and Changing Presentations Forever,” Cliff Atkinson provides an example that shows the power that a Twitter-enabled backchannel (an online conversation between audience members, occurring simultaneously with a presentation) can have on … Read More »

“What is Twitter, anyway?” I’ve been asked questions like that many times, as I’m sure most web workers have. “The Social Media Marketing Book” by tech writer Dan Zarrella, attempts to explain Twitter, blogs, Facebook, LinkedIn, Flickr, Second Life, Yelp, and even such … Read More »

Book Review: "Undress for Success"

If you’re dreaming of becoming a web worker, check out “Undress for Success: The Naked Truth About Making Money at Home,” by Kate Lister and Tom Harnish. While the book isn’t the first on the topic of working from home, it gives you a … Read More »

More Must Reads

I think project management books should be on every web worker’s reading list because — like it or not — even if your job title isn’t “project manager,” you still have to manage your own portion of the projects you participate in. Even some informal … Read More »

Earlier this year, the WebWorkerDaily team put together Web Work 101, a series of great posts for beginning web workers. I decided to collect the best of them in a free downloadable e-book: “Web Work 101: How to Escape the Cubicle.” While the prospect of … Read More »

Social media is becoming a must-use tool for marketing businesses of all types and sizes. Next month, well-known social media marketing consultants Darren Barefoot and Julie Szabo will be publishing their comprehensive guide to social media marketing, “Friends with Benefits.” The title, while sounding … Read More »

I first heard the buzz on Ann Gentle’s book “Conversation and Community: The Social Web for Documentation” last summer during the lead up to its publication, and followed it online until I was able to order it. While the target audience of the book … Read More »

All but the youngest of web workers grew up learning not about email but about paper correspondence, as dictated by the likes of Emily Post. I personally learned to type on an electric typewriter in high school, and can write a perfectly polite thank you … Read More »

Chris Brogan and Julien Smith walk the walk when it comes to connecting with people online and building trust. Long before I even heard of their new book, “Trust Agents,” I was well aware of them: they both go out of their way not just … Read More »

Using social media to promote yourself seems to be becoming more and more important for web worker, but figuring out the best was to do can be difficult. Chris Guillebeau and Gwen Bell have brought together a guide that demystifies the process: “The Unconventional Guide … Read More »

Community has been a big focus for me for a long time. I’ve helped companies build and manage online communities, and I even co-founded a non-profit in Portland that organizes free events for the technology community here. I also try to help people with their … Read More »

Twitter has revolutionized the world of marketing. In his new book “Twitterville,” which will be released September 3rd, social media journalist Shel Israel explains how Twitter evolved into the marketing force that it is, and shows companies how to take advantage of the powerful tool. Israel … Read More »

There’s no shortage of free learning materials available online for both new and experienced freelancers. While you can turn to hundreds of articles and blog posts, there’s nothing like reading a longer, more comprehensive book to really get some insight on a particular topic. Here’s a collection … Read More »

Personal branding, whether you like the term or not, is something every web worker should consider. Don’t look at it as marketing or packaging yourself, but more as being true to yourself. Book Yourself Solid by Michael Port makes that distinction very well, and the Food … Read More »

“Radically Transparent: Monitoring and Managing Reputations Online,” by Andy Beal and Dr. Judy Strauss, was recommended to me by several online friends who are involved in PR and marketing. It’s a practical and comprehensive book that’s designed to help individuals and businesses manage their reputations … Read More »

Having studied branding very briefly in another life, I was curious about “The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Branding Yourself”, by Sherry Beck Paprocki and Ray Paprocki. How would product and service brand theory would be translated to the branding of people? And could a book set … Read More »

In a surprising move, Apple has signed on with a handful of other major mobile device manufacturers to end the madness of proprietary charging interfaces and agreed to one standard for all, according to Reuters. That’s in Europe, anyway, although there’s hope that the … Read More »

Most business books on the market cover the gamut of how to make more money, gain fame, grow, get work done, and manage people. But few talk about business from the perspective of “family first” like Marc Warnke’s book “ONO, Options Not Obligations.” Many web … Read More »

Earlier this month, O’Reilly Media published its latest title in the “Missing Manuals” series, Josh Clark’s “iWork ’09: The Missing Manual.” It throws a spotlight on Apple’s office suite, with how-to guides for the Pages word processor, the Numbers spreadsheet and the Keynote presentation app. Even … Read More »

Only a little while ago, we published a story about Apple’s inconsistent review process for the App Store. In that case, the question was one of imagery, and focused on some icons that Apple seemed to be of two minds about. Well, inconsistency is … Read More »

Apple today released an update for iTunes, bringing the version number to 8.1.1. The new version (currently available from Software Update) supposedly fixes syncing issues with the iPhone and iPod touch (which I’ve been lucky enough not to encounter) and with VoiceOver, the we-don’t-need-no-stinkin’-display substitute for the … Read More »

If I know anything for certain, it’s that long after Battlestar Galactica comes to its conclusion tonight on the Sci-Fi Channel, we’ll still be talking about it. And whether or not you’re satisfied by the series finale or have lots more questions, there’s no denying … Read More »

After a flight delay and hour long wait to check-in at my hotel, I finally made it the CES Unveiled show. There really wasn’t a ton “unveiled”, but I did want to get my hands on two MSI products. Here’s our brief first look at them. The … Read More »

With three days to go, our Mobilize 08 conference is nearly sold out. It looks like we are going to have fun and interesting conversations around the topic of the Mobile Internet and its impact on the world of technology. Our two keynote speakers, Read More »

Thumbkey is designed to be a sophisticated thumb keyboard for Windows Mobile devices with touch screens.  The proliferation of touch screen devices has created a genuine need for a good … Read More »

Not everyone is going to have the chance to deliver their presentation in front of millions with a 50 foot screen behind them. As web workers, we’ve all suffered through those webinars where you have half an eye on the boring, dry PowerPoint in the WebEx … Read More »

I don’t know about you, but I vividly remember the day I learned HTML. I took my first HTML course in the fall of 1994 for $10 given by a guy who was building Web sites … Read More »

Past WWD contributor Leo Babauta has teamed up with LifeDev’s Glen Stansberry to launch Web Warrior Tools, a new ebook publishing house. Their plan is to present “ridiculously useful, powerful tools to change your life” at a reasonable … Read More »

There are very few books out there that address “Web 2.0″ issues from the perspective of coming up with sites that work well. Oh, sure, there are plenty that teach you the mechanics of building an application with HTML and Javascript … Read More »

I just hung up from a conference call with Kevin and one other person that was pretty cool.  Firstly, I was sitting outside the local coffee shop in the bright sun with … Read More »

There’s a new Web publishing tool on the block that seeks to deliver on the convergence promise between “blogging, social networking, and…American Idol!” So says Sue Heilbronner, president of WEbook that makes its debut today. … Read More »

We covered this last summer, but with the rise of social bookmarking, tweeting and everything else that used to be private, it’s probably worth another mention. Plus our good friends over at … Read More »

I’ve been out of touch for a while now, and for past few days, I have been in catch-up mode. Last week, I caught up with Ted Schlein, general partner with the Sand Hill Road VC firm of Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. We discussed, … Read More »

A few weeks ago Bob Walsh had the opportunity to interview Getting Things Done author David Allen on a variety of topics. Read the concluding part 3, where Bob asks him about his new book and the conversation focuses on the core of GTD. Read More »

Part 2 of WWD’s 3 part interview with GTD Author David Allen. In this conversation, WWD writer Bob Walsh and Allen talk about web working and GTD, and Allen’s plans for a web application. Read More »

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