From: Fabian Pascal

To: InformIT

Date: O7/02/2003

 

 

This is to introduce myself as the author of PRACTICAL ISSUES IN DATABASE MANAGEMENT for Adison Wesley. More than a year ago I tried to contact InformIT via my publisher (Ed. note: both are owned by Pearson) and proposed some cooperation, but they were unable to get a response.

 

I believe my work would be of interest to your registered users, including my web site, writings and educational work. For example, together with Chris Date, another Adison Wesley author, we have started a DATABASE FOUNDATIONS series of papers on database fundamentals that we would be glad to offer at a discount to your users. I would also be interested in producing educational material for InformIT--online, for home use, or in print form, or any combination thereof.

 

I would be glad to discuss all this, as well as contributions to your site/newsletters. If this is of interest, please let me know.

 

 

From: InformIT

To: Fabian Pascal

CC: Esther Schindler

 

It's wonderful to hear from you!  I'm sorry that you didn't get a response earlier.  We'd be very interested in working with you.  Our channels may be limited at the moment to posting free articles (which are of course related to selling your books) but we'd certainly love to discuss the various options. 

 

I'm putting you in touch with Esther Schindler.  Esther is our site manager for database topics.  At the moment we're focused primarily on SQL Server, but it sounds like your content is applicable to all database formats and would therefore be a welcome addition.  Your series on database fundamentals sound particularly promising.

 

I'll leave you in Esther's capable hands at this point, but please don't hesitate to contact either of use with suggestions, questions, or comments.

 

 

From: Esther Schindler

To: Fabian Pascal

 

Thanks for getting in touch, Fabian. I'm afraid we really are focusing only on articles specific to SQL Server at this point ... and we're rather booked with those.

 

 

From: Fabian Pascal

To: InformIT

 

If you recall, a while ago I contacted you with the proposition to contribute to InformIT. You referred me to Schindler, which I expected to lead nowhere, and it did. The claim was that the focus is on SQL Server specifically.

 

I do not recall if I asked you at the time, but I would like to offer a discount to InformIT members to our new DATABASE FOUNDATIONS series of papers. If this is of interest, please advise how we could proceed on this.

 

 

From: InformIT

 

We are indeed focusing on SQL Server in our database area. 

 

 

From: Fabian Pascal

 

Now, I did not want to argue with Schindler, because it would not have gotten me anywhere, but let me bring the following to your attention. Please ponder it and see the value:

 

The database industry is in technological regression due to ignorance of data fundamentals (see my web site for plenty of examples). Everybody goes by vendors and products and that causes nothing but disaster, yet nobody sees it because the industry neither knows nor cares about fundamentals. This also means than all publications and education is focused on products, so the competition is intense and no source of info has an edge or uniqueness.

 

It would be both valuable for the industry and profitable if properly promoted to dedicate some space to data management fundamentals. Given the number of your members, exposing them to this subject that every practitioner should know before they have anything to do with products, but practically nobody knows or is even aware that they must know, would be an important effort indeed, and it would distinguish InformIT from the rest of the crowd.

 

 

From: InformIT

 

As the risk of appearing narrow-minded, our scope must remain focused, and we therefore need to keep our attentions on SQL Server.  We may expand into other areas next year, but that is a matter of budgetary and editorial review.   At that point it will be Esther Schindler's call on where we go with future database topics.

 

 

From: Fabian Pascal

 

The issue is not narrow-mindedness, but that of people working with products not having the critical knowledge necessary to do that. That's because for commercial reasons emphasis is on the interest of vendors--because they sponsor and advertise--and not that of users, who are wrongly led to believe that products is all they need to know.

 

Essentially, the media and publishing industry is promoting commercial interests at the expense of knowledge and user interest.

 

 

Ed. Note: The trade media—broadly defined to include conferences, publishers and so on—are not in the business of selling content to readers/visitors, but in that of selling audiences to their customers: advertisers/sponsors. It should hardly be surprising that content reflects the interests of advertisers, not of readers.

 

 

Posted 11/21/03

 

 

 

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