Scott Hall Books

Linux System Security: The Administrator's Guide to Open Source Security Tools, Second Edition
by Scott Mann has advice on starting from scratch when you are setting up a machine to make it secure from attack from the outside.

It looks at everything from the filesystem upwards, and will give you a good starting point for looking at this.

Linux is better than Windows.

Actually all tools described are not Linux specific and can be used for any Unix including FreeBSD and Solaris.

The authors seems to know the subject and really used tools that they are writing about. For several popular tools the book provides some useful info that is difficult to find elsewhere. Pretty decent typography, although it's a little bit too academic and does not use icons on margins that IMHO simplify reading. 

As for the classic open security tools, the book covers PAM(36 pages), Sudo(20 pages), TCP Wrappers(24 pages), SSH(55 pages), Tripwire(24 pages), CFS and TCFS (30 pages), and ipchains.

From the first reading it looks like the chapters are *not* a rehash of existing online documentation. In addition to the chapters about classic open source security tools I like chapters about logs: a chapter on syslog (Ch.8) and a chapter on log file management (Ch.17). 

Now about weaknesses. The chapter on Tiger is rather weak. Moreover regrettably Tiger is a legacy tool, but actually information is not completely useless -- it's not difficult to switch to another tool after one understands how Tiger works. Actually Perl is superior for writing Unix vulnerability scanners in comparison with shell. May be hardening scripts like Bastille would be a better choice for this chapter in the second edition of the book.

Book is incomplete in a sense that neither Snort (or any similar intrusion detection tool), nor open source network scanners (Saint, Sara, etc.) are covered.

Of course there are some typos, but generally not that many. But what is really bad is that the Prentice Hall book page currently is pretty basic with no errata or additional links. The authors do not provide a WEB site for the book.

This book can probably be used for studying Unix security at universities along with somewhat outdated Practical Unix and Internet Security and this combination can somewhat compensate deficiencies of the latter (non tool oriented descriptive approach).

This book is well-written, thorough, and practical rather than academic. I particularly found the chapter on securing network services to be helpful, and was able to identify some potential security problems on the systems I support as a result of information provided in that chapter.

This book is incredibly thorough, and up to date. For example, Red Hat Linux 7 has just come out, and does now has xinetd as a replacement for inetd. Well, you guessed it, this book has about 27 pages on xinetd!

Want info on ipchains? This book has at least 50 pages on the subject!

I could go on and on about this book it is so good!

This book is written by experienced people, not just an author who was assigned another book to write.

You will not regret buying this book!

This book is very good, I have recomended Child of the Wolves (also by Elizabeth Hall) to my friend and she found out this other book in the libaray. She read it in a concert, (nauty nauty) but it was truely very good. It's the way Elizabeth Hall makes you think you are a part of the book or how she can express an animal's feelings.

GOOD, NO GREAT BOOK!

As a young child, I fell in love with the vivid images in this book, the bright colors of the undersea world between the pages. For children, 'Venus' offers a look at another world, with different values, morals, and priorities. Now, years later, I still have it, and still enjoy going back and reading it. I highly suggest this, especially for children who show even a slight interest in dolphins, or the ocean in general.

This book i found at a local book store and read it. It is my favorite book i have every read. It is so well written and a good plot. The resion I am on amazon.com and on this books page is to buy it hardcover and add it to me favorite book library. If you are thinking about buying this book buy it.

****
THE BEST BOOK REVIEW

Killer whales trap a herd of dolphins. They send two young dolphins to get help. They get trapped at a Sea World place and meet some friends.
I liked this book because it is exciting and you donýt know what will happen next. The characters were fun, protective, and brave. I liked all them. The setting was great. It was in an ocean where colorful reefs and fish live. It was easy to read and it was good. My rating for this book is four stars.

As a second grade teacher I am always looking for books to read to my class that can help them relate to the subject I am currently teaching. When looking for a book to read during our ocean unit I came across Venus Among the Fishes. My kids love it. When I stop reading for the day they beg me to continue. I warn the kids that several parts are sad and often I find my kids crying along with me. I have recommended this book to several co-workers and they have all thanked me.

If you are using the Rational Unified Process, or considering doing so, and worried about applying it to a whole IT department rather than separate projects then this book could well be useful. The book has four parts - From RUP to EUP, Beyond Development, Enterprise Management Disciplines and Putting it all Together. Each section has several chapters and the chapters all start with a nice reader ROI section (showing the payoff for reading that chapter). The writing is clear and there are plenty of diagrams, tables and helpful tips.

The book starts of with some background in the RUP. I particularly liked the description of RUP as serial in the large and iterative in the small. Within the RUP there are also nine disciplines (Business Modeling, Requirements, Analysis and Design, Implementation, Test, Deployment, Configuration and Change Management, Project Management, and Environment). The authors outline 10 best practices they see as core to the EUP (they extend the original 6 in RUP) - Develop iteratively, Manage requirements, Proven architecture, Modeling, Continuously verify quality, Manage change, Collaborative development, Look beyond deployment, Deliver working software regularly and Manage risk. Each is clearly described.

In addition to the change best practices, EUP adds a Production phase and a Retirement phase. They point out that the Production phase is not just maintenance or just operations and support but both and more. I think that any organization building systems should spend as much time and effort thinking about production and running their application in production (which includes maintaining it over time) as they do in building it and I was glad to see this so strongly proposed. They also added an operations and support discipline, mostly but not entirely in the production phase. This discipline includes running the system and making hot fixes. I think the Retirement phase is overkill for most organizations but some will find it useful.

They also added some "Enterprise Management" disciplines for use outside the context of a project and this too is a good idea. The disciplines are Enterprise business modeling, Enterprise Portfolio Management, Enterprise Architecture (I particularly liked the idea that "modifiability" should be considered as part of an enterprise architecture - far too few organizations do this well and fail to differentiate between stable services and much more changeable ones), Strategic Reuse (Again I liked the called-out focus on this - without a real plan no reuse is going to happen), People management , Enterprise Administration and Software Process Improvement (Another good one and a timely reminder to all that you should keep improving your software processes)

Overall I liked the book, though it was a somewhat dry subject (as methodologies often are). There was a lot of good advice, some nice tips and some clearly hard-won experience being shared!

Many IT organizations still pursue pet projects and develop duplicate applications in isolation, only to address later crises in corporate reporting, portfolio management, IT infrastructure, business objectives, and other areas.

EUP gives a coherent roadmap of how to architect smarter and for the long term. For organizations that don't have a strong enterprise aptitude, this book is a lifesaver. The EUP provides the business case for implementing EUP that will help cut through the politics by addressing the benefits to the bottom line for pursuing an Enterprise Unified Process.

I will be referencing the EUP regularly, and passing it around to others in my organization!

The Enterprise Unified Process (EUP) unites diverse disciplines, including development, enterprise architecture, operations, production and portfolio management, reuse and business process modeling, under an easy to follow framework. It was refreshing to find a book that recognizes the need to accommodate the installed base of existing software as part of the planning, development and deployment process. This is an excellent guide for any manager who wants to ensure that essential IT disciplines are addressed.

The focus of EUP is to enhance the commonly accepted Rational Unified Process (RUP). The authors have added new disciplines to RUP that include business modeling, portfolio management, enterprise administration, reuse, enterprise architecture and process improvement. The introduction of business modeling into the overall process is essential to weave IT processes and disciplines into the most essential driver of any systems initiative - the business. The enterprise architecture discussion was also refreshing given that many organizations have forgone this discipline and have created redundant, stovepipe applications and data structures that significantly stifle business agility.

The "Reuse" chapter raises the rarely deployed reuse strategy. It is critically important to not replicate business processes, models, systems, data structures, source code and interfaces. The costs and risks of trying to keep parallel assets synchronized have been written about extensively. This book promotes the idea that reuse is just another aspect of the enterprise unified process. It is also one of the few discussions about reuse that recognizes the value of harvesting existing assets.

Also of note is the portfolio management discussion that focuses attention on the need to incorporate project management with application management. It should be noted, however, that portfolio management has much less focus on applications than the traditional industry definition as promoted by Gartner, Inc.

Finally, this book makes great use of tips, tool references and citations to books or papers that readers can use to expand on their understanding of a given topic. The last chapter of the book takes a realistic and honest look at deploying the enterprise unified process, including its possible retirement.

This book is must readying for any organization using -- or attempting to use -- the RUP. The EUP's additional disciplines completes the RUP in a necessary and sufficient manner.
The book is written in a straight-forward manner, is easy to read and is well-organized. Each chapter reminds you to be practical (the antipatterns), explains how the additional discipline relates to the others and provides software tools and suggested reading.
Don't RUPture your software development efforts without having the more comprehensive approach of the EUP!

The book provides a very readable coverage of IBM's Rational Unified Process, as well as useful extensions that address important aspects of enterprise systems planning, development, and management. The systematic and disciplined treatment is greatly enhanced by the inclusion of much useful, pragmatic advice that draws from the practical experience of the authors in building real systems.
I quite liked this book. Although it doesn't give enough emphasis to conceptual data analysis (something RUP has always been weak on), it has loads of useful, practical content that make it a worthwhile addition to the literature.

A DIVISION OF THE SPOILS by Paul Scott is the last book in his series known as the Raj Quartet. The four books are classics, that have been read and will continue to be read centuries from now as readers attempt to understand what happened during the last days of the British Raj in India. I read history but I am also a great fan of well written historical fiction and these books are extremely well written historical fiction. Having read them, I am much more enlightened about the struggles which continue today betweem Hindu and Muslim.

Many of the characters from the earlier books converge in DIVISION, and the book introduces a new character, Guy Perron, who is a Chillingborough-Cambridge educated historian whose "period" and place are mid-19th Century India. Guy's character is used to tie up all the loose ends.

After arriving in India as a British army sergeant (he has elected not become an officer although his education and class clearly warrent it), Guy has the misfortune to be "chosen" by the recently-promoted-to-LtCol. and very wicked Ronald Merrick as his aide-de-camp. Merrick is still riddled with class envy, and sees in Guy an excellent opportunity to abuse someone he despises. Fortunately, Guy is able to escape from Merrick through the graces of his Aunt Charlotte who pulls strings to have him released from the army.

Fortunately for Guy, he doesn't escape Merrick before he meets Sarah Layton. Their story is told in this fourth volume and certain elements of the tale bring to mind the earlier story of Hari Kumar and Daphne Manners. In fact, it is through Guy's meeting of Merrick, Sarah, and another Chillingburrian, Nigel Rowan (who interviewed Hari Kumar in prison) that he becomes interested in the events at Mayapore in 1942 and the subsequent consequences for all involved.

As with other great classics, in DIVISION things do not always evolve as the reader would have wished. This book is very realistic -- sorrow and joy are mixed. In JEWEL IN THE CROWN, the first book in the series, Lady Chatterjee says she does not want to go to a heaven that excludes joy and sorrow because being human requires one to feel joy and sorrow.

Perhaps it is because humans can experience sorrow they are capable of experiencing joy. In the end, the reader discovers Hari Kumar's fate and the identity of Philoctetes as well as the difference between Dharma and Karma. This is a powerful series and a fabulous ending to the tale.

The Raj Quartet comes to its spectacular conclusion with "A Division of the Spoils." Of the four books, I perhaps enjoyed this one the most. The main character (Guy Perron) is observant, funny, and human, so he's easy to like. He is a complete opposite of the story's antagonist, Ronald Merrick. The scenes in which they must work together (Perron is a sergeant and Merrick his officer) are some of the best. I could hardly put this book down and finished it in just a few days.

Please do not let the length of this series dissuade you from reading it! The books are all very compelling and well-written. If you like historical fiction, they are very much worth your time. I would recommend you watch the mini-series (I rented it from Netflix), read the 4 books, and then watch the mini again. You'll get quite a bit out of it that way.

Enjoy!

Anyone reading the reviews for the previous 3 books, knows I have struggled to read these series. However, Scott absolutely redeemed himself with this final book.

The first book focused on the British occupation of India during WWII and introduced us to the "Manners" case - the only interesting bit in a book that had long waffly passages describing India. Who needs to read a history book? This book would have done it... The 2nd book focused more on the "Layton's" and was much more readable as it was the changing India as seen through the eyes of a few key characters. The 3rd book was a boring repetition of the 2nd book and this last book, about the end of the British occupation and WWII was just brilliant!

Like his much more enjoyable 2nd book, this one is told almost exclusively through the eyes of key characters we met in previous books - and it introduces us to the rakish charm of Guy Perron. I always remember Charles Dance's interpretation of Guy Perron in the BBC series making a strong impression on me, but I found the character in the book even more engaging.

This last book in the series was absolutely stunning and made persevering through the whole series somewhat worth it. I say somewhat, because it has been a real trial getting through the denser parts of Books I and III and I wouldn't push this series on anyone, even though the last book is a literary accomplishment.

I try to think if this book is readable without having read the previous books, and although I suspect it is (Scott continues to go back over vast chunks of history from someone else's point of view), it would be a shallow interpretation without the reader gaining all the knowledge from the first 3 books.

This book is just as impressive as the three others of the Raj Quartet. Once again, the cast of interesting characters is huge; the atmosphere of the time is brilliantly captured and the variety of scenes/plots is well mastered. The book is instructive and yet enormously entertaining. The Raj Quartet is one of the most rewarding pieces of literature I have ever read.

The four volumes of the Raj Quartet overlap and complement one another, while at the same time forwarding the main storyline of the slow twilight of the British ascendancy in India, always with the rape of a white girl by Indian men as the central lodestone everpresent in the background, the nightmare which is seldom mentioned but which none can drive from their minds. Events occur, are discussed, witnessed as newspaper reports, court documents, interviews, vague recollections from years later, or perceived directly by the main characters. Then the next volume will take two or three steps back into previous events, and these same events will be perceived from another angle, perhaps only as a vague report heard far away across the Indian plain, or witnessed directly by another character, or discussed in detail long after their occurrence over drinks on a verandah. This may at times seem like rehashing, indeed as one reads the four volumes one will be subjected to the account of the rape in the Bibighar Gardens many times over; but what will also become apparent is that additional details, sometimes minor variations in interpretation and sometimes crucial facts, are being added slowly to the events discussed, as though the window to the past were being progressively wiped cleaner and cleaner with successive strokes of Scott's pen. In this way he draws the picture of the last days of the Raj not in a conventional linear fashion, but recursively, and from multiple angles. One gets the clear impression of life in India during the first half of the 20th century as similar in nature: Fragmented, multifaceted, largely dependent upon perspective and experience and never perceived whole or all at once.

Book 4 is the tour-de-force of the series, the longest and the one that covers the greatest distance, emotionally and chronologically. Into the Laytons' social set come Nigel Rowan, an officer in the political branch whom we have met before in Book 2 interrogating Hari Kumar some years after his imprisonment, and Guy Perron, a sergeant in the intelligence service who is "chosen" against his will by Ronald Merrick to serve in his unit. Merrick seems deliberately to surround himself with people who dislike him: Guy Perron, Sarah Layton, and before them Daphne Manners and Hari Kumar. Rowan and Perron, incidentally, are former schoolmates of Kumar's at the posh Chillingborough Academy in England. And they're not the only ones: The British in India seem constantly reminded that Kumar symbolizes the insoluble problem of India's Britishness. He's too British for the Indians and too Indian for the British. Perron is an excellent guide through the final days of the Raj, stolid and proper yet inwardly seething with intellectual outrage. An explosive yet sombre climax in 1947 details the very end of the British presence in India, the beginnings of the Hindu-Muslim riots throughout the country, and gives an expansive sense of just how far one has come from the small town of Mayapore and the darkly deserted Bibighar Gardens.

Book arrived in the nick of time. Brand new! Although, I can't blame the C grade that I received on the book, I will say it helped me stay average. Thanks a bunch! Science is so not my thing!

My kids love this Science book. It is very interesting, there are lots of pictures.

I have been using "Earth Science" by Tarbuck and Lutgens both at the high school and college level for 15 years. I think that iotr one of the best available.

This book was a wonderful resource for my Earth Science class. It has many colorful pictures, and great explanations.

This book was worth buying, easy to read. If you would like to purchase this book you can contact me through email.

When you first lift, or attempt to lift this book, you know right off you got your money's worth!

This is now my prize Titanic book, the only one close to it is "Anatomy of the Titanic" by Tom McCluskie. But this book blows that one out of the water, and the sheer amount of construction pictures and diagrams are outright insanity. My favorite aspect of Titanic and her sisters is the construction of the ships, and this book caters to people like me in a grand way!

The most interesting Titanic book I've gotten in a LONG time. Lit up my facsination all over again. Get it. NOW!

as a titanic manic this book let's you really see the ship's of dreams was really look like inside.everything in this ship was the best.

Have you ever wondered what the "Titanic" may have looked like from within? Have you wondered what lay beyond the riveted steel plates of the "Ship of Dreams?" Perhaps you've wondered what it looked like as one dined in any of the three classes? If you've pondered any of these questions, then "Titanic: The Ship Magnificent" is most definitely the book for you!

This two volume series covering the ship goes into ornate detail about every aspect of the ship. Volume one covers the construction of the "Titanic" and includes chapters that cover everything from the double-bottom to the funnels, masts, and riggings. Volume two covers the fitting out of the behemoth liner. One learns what they would have seen, had they been on the "Titanic's" doomed maiden voyage. If one purchased this encyclopedic volume, they learn how different classes' cabins looked and what might have been available for purchase in the ship's barber shops.

If you are a "Titanic" buff, if you are interested in cruise ships, or if you would just like to learn more about the great "Titanic," then "Titanic: The Ship Magnificent" is definitely the book for you!

I have previously raved about Volume II in this series (which came out before Volume 1) and I will do so again here. This is meticulously researched and photo/illustration rich. This volume covers the building and hardware fitting out of the TItanic. Most of the illustrations come from her sister ship Olympic, but there are also many rare photos and illustrations here directly from the Titanic as well. From bulkheads to Marconi machinery, it is all here. Note that this does NOT include any of the "Titanic Story" -- this is pure, factual, blue-print type material about the ship itself, not it's sinking, its passengers, nor its crossing. I have been pouring over both of these volumes now for weeks, and just love them.

If, like me, you like to know every thing about the Titanic. If you are fascinated about this great ship, you have to own these two really magnificiant books. Many pictures, I hadn`t seen before.. Although I already have many books about that great ship, I have learned many new things about her. I do not regret that I add these two wonderful books to my Titanic books`collection and I recommand that you buy them if you are a truly fan of the Titanc ; More than ordinary books, these books are pieces of collection.

After reading it I've put it on a MRL (Must Read List). It was really Great !!!!! As I 've said in some of my other posts the Grass Ain't Greener It just the angle from which you see it !!!!

Author has written a book that deals with reality. The characters are so close to the reader's own family members, you can reach into the pages and touch each of them. Excellent host of characters and well developed story. Kudos to Ms. Gilmore! Looking forward to reading more books by this "best-kept-secret" author

Monique Gilmore you did an outstanding job using this story as an illustration to married couples who fall into the "burnout syndrome". To my reader commarades, if you are married with responsibilities of spouses, children, household chores and anything else that falls into the married life and at this moment, you feel the need to just run away from it all...This is an excellent book to read. Ms Gilmore uses her writing skills to demonstrate it defintely is not always greener on the other side. But it was necessary for both Ramona and Madrid to experience by on the job training and see it for themselves. Often times the words can not replace what you have to see, feel and experience for yourselves. In this story, Ramona finds out while visiting her family and old friends just how blessed she is to have a man like Madrid; also Madrid finds out first hand all the issues Ramona was telling him but just was not able to make him see it without him first experiencing it for himself. In the end it brought back understanding and romance back into this marriage also I feel it illustrated respect for each other. Thank you Monique for providing us with a story about the guts of marriage because mostly we get the stories that bring the couples together and it is refreshing that you gave us a story that gets to the heart of marriage and all the necessary tools to keep it together.

Not only is Monique Gilmore's The Grass Ain't Greener a must read for regular fans of romance novels, but the book will also prove to be valuable for those men and women who 'wouldn't be caught dead' reading 'those kinds of books.'

Ramona Shaw, the main character, is a married woman and former professional. After the birth of her son, Ramona elects to stay at home with her two children but after four years of working in the home, she is fed up with being taken for granted by the other family members. It is also not easy for Ramona to juggle graduate school coursework, household chores, raising two children, in addition to all the other stresses in her life, and Ramona realizes that she is TIRED!

Although she dearly loves her husband, handsome businessman Madrid Shaw, escalating tensions between the two prompt Ramona to take a week-long retreat from her New Jersey home for some "rest and relaxation" at her sister's house in Detroit. And in that week, Ramona goes through a series of profound and surprising experiences which lead to follow her heart back to where she belongs.

So, to sum up, Ms. Gilmore's story is definitely worth reading not once or twice but several times!

This book's strong points include a fast but evenly paced story line which brings up hard hitting issues pertinent to the Black/African-American community, and most importantly The Grass Ain't Greener shows the best of Black love and how important it is to keep working and communicating with one another-even after the honeymoon is over.

This book is back in print please get back to me on availibility.

Sorry for this obscure method but you make it hard to send email.

This is the latest edition of the authoritative text on Cheesemaking. Not an introductory or beginners book but if you already have some knowledge of Cheesemaking this will be a valuable reference to new Cheeses to make and improvements to your current Cheeses.

The book is in the catalog but with a mis-spelled title. Look for

Have you ever wondered what the "Titanic" may have looked like from within? Have you wondered what lay beyond the riveted steel plates of the "Ship of Dreams?" Perhaps you've wondered what it looked like as one dined in any of the three classes? If you've pondered any of these questions, then "Titanic: The Ship Magnificent" is most definitely the book for you!

This two volume series covering the ship goes into ornate detail about every aspect of the ship. Volume one covers the construction of the "Titanic" and includes chapters that cover everything from the double-bottom to the funnels, masts, and riggings. Volume two covers the fitting out of the behemoth liner. One learns what they would have seen, had they been on the "Titanic's" doomed maiden voyage. If one purchased this encyclopedic volume, they learn how different classes' cabins looked and what might have been available for purchase in the ship's barber shops.

If you are a "Titanic" buff, if you are interested in cruise ships, or if you would just like to learn more about the great "Titanic," then "Titanic: The Ship Magnificent" is definitely the book for you!

This is a meticulously detailed volume, and belongs in the library of any true Titanic collector. It is not a casual "reading" book -- it covers the fitting out and fixtures on the Titanic -- from ceiling and wall design, to toilet design. It is lavishly illustrated (although most of the photos are from the sister ship, Olympic). This is a finely detailed volume that no true Titanic collector can ignore. Highly recommended, but definately not for casual readers. You won't find any Titanic "story" here -- this is pure shipbuilding material, with rare and wonderful photos, drawings, and illustrations. Strangely, Volume 2 of this set was published in the US before Volume One (which is being released in July!)....so you sort of get a backwards release of this set that was published in the correct order in Britain.

Although, I am only in possession of volume 2, I am fortunate to have seen both 12 pound books. I am very grateful to the editor, Art Braunshweiger for allowing this. The books that have been written about the Titanic could fill a wing in a library, but only a small selection have new and thought-provoking information between their pages.

Titanic the Ship Magnificent is one of the few books in recent times that a Titanic enthusiast can be excited about. The care and research that went into these volumes is evident from the many new Olympic and Titanic pictures, the well-written text and the feeling that you are exploring the ship as you read along.

Everyone who has been involved in this large project has every right to be proud of these books that no doubt, will be used as reference tools for years to come.

R. Scott "Scooter" Hall has a grip on the jugernaut that is Citizen-Generated Media. He wraps himself around the enigma and straightens out the curve ball associated with daily static communication to make sense of the nutty, everyday e-comm that bombards us from the buzzer. R. Scott is the man. I eagerly await the brilliant light he eminates upon the shuck and jive of todays bloggers.

James M. "Jacksone" Watry Jr.

The Blog Ahead
I'm not a geek. I don't get the Internet. But I am a reader, a writer and teacher by trade, and a blogger. I have enjoyed the advantages of the easy, open communication of the Internet. It's not overstating the matter to say the Internet has helped people make and remake themselves.

R. Scott Hall's new book The Blog Ahead (Morgan-James 2006) places the Internet as I experience it--as my private public library and party-line phone system--in the context of a communications revolution that is almost on a par with the Gutenberg printing press.

Instead of top-down communications, we have horizontal communications. Formerly, if I had a story to tell or sell, I had to go through the old-fashioned system of pitching the story to an editor, waiting for consideration and feedback, writing it, submitting it to the editor, and waiting for publication. That could take days. Whether or not my story received air time depended completely on the editor.

Now I'm the boss. I create, publish on a blog or post to some public forum, and reach an audience and receive feedback. The reach and effect of my work depends on the whims of the entire world, which means there's a lot of competition. If my product is garbage, there's a highly literate online community of thinkers who won't hesitate to let me know. If it has appeal, that audience will tell me that too.

This community has integrity by nature, according to Hall, so it's self-correcting. People want solid information up front and presented well. If they bump into something that doesn't meet expectations, prepare to hear about it.

This really brings an end to anonymity. It's not true that we're anonymous when we're online. That's a myth. Stat counters, guestbooks, and other forms of data collection programming track our activity all over the place. Call it an invasion of privacy or call it marketing, but you are never alone when you're online. So, if you enter the online world, be prepared to have something to say, say it well, and sign your name. Hall has no time for anonymity. If you can't accept feedback and you won't sign your name, you jeopardize the integrity of the online community. You won't be tolerated, either.

There is a survival-of-the-fittest element to all of this. We self-sort the good stuff from the junk. We survive based on the quality of our material and our drive to be heard. This is a revolution.

The book reads like a blog in some ways with its links to web sites that are leading the way in this new form of communication. Hall's anecdotes about the effects of blogging on political campaigns and corporate public relations--read, accountability to the public--are fascinating. Better yet are the stories about the role of ordinary people in breaking news stories because, well, they know what's going on.

I recently used some YouTube videos in a college English literature class lesson. I was making the point that even these videos are texts that affect our understanding of the world and therefore how we read and write. Specifically, I used two interviews between a minister and a banker who formerly lived in Lebanon. One student asked, "If this guy knows so much, how come he's not on TV?"

Exactly.

It was a beautiful moment. What about the integrity of your own thoughts based on your own experiences? Why are the less important than the big thoughts of the guy who happened to be walking by the bigger camera? Money still talks in the mind of so many of us. What a big idea, though, that we can talk to each other directly and maybe learn something.

Hall's book is a good read, and it's fun. It's even out-of-date in some places, even if it is a new publication. Its greatest value is in documenting the paradigm shift in communications and predicting trends in future communication. It will be fun to stick around and see if he's right.

R. Scott Hall, a direct marketing strategist and online business expert, is the founder of Online Mavericks and the Citizen Generated Media blog, and is based in New York, NY. Online Mavericks helps entrepreneurs as well as established companies maximize their market presence, product/buyer focus and effectively blend both offline and online efforts.