Practical Internet Groupware

Foreword

At O’Reilly & Associates, we have a history of being ahead of the curve. In the mid-’80s, we started publishing books about many of the free software programs that had been incorporated into the Unix operating system. The books we wrote and published were an important element in the spread and use of Perl, sendmail, the X Window System, and many of the programs that have now been collected under the banner of Linux.

In 1992, we published The Whole Internet User’s Guide and Catalog, the book that first brought the Internet into the public consciousness. In 1993, we launched GNN, the first ever Internet portal, and were the first company to sell advertising on the Web.

In 1997, we convened the meeting of free software developers that led to the widespread adoption of the term Open Source software. All of a sudden, the world realized that some of the most important innovations in the computer industry hadn’t come from big companies, but rather from a loose confederation of independent developers sharing their code over the Internet.

In each case, we’ve managed to expose the discrepancy between what the industry press and pundits were telling us and what the real programmers, administrators, and power users who make up the leading edge of the industry were actually doing. And in each case, once we blew the whistle, the mainstream wasn’t far behind.

I like to think that O’Reilly & Associates has functioned as something like the Paul Revere of the Internet revolution.

I tell you these ...