Author: R. Scott Hall

ISBN: 1-60037-045-4 (Paperback): ISBN: 1-933596-77-5 (Hardback)

The Blog Ahead is a softbound, 8 chapter, 214 page book. Four appendices supplement this primer on the topic, and include axioms (appendix A), author-selected “best and worst” blogs (appendix B), a glossary (appendix C), and selected readings (appendix D). This last appendix includes an interview with Robert Scoble, an extremely well-written (reprinted) article by Richard A. Posner, and (reprinted) articles by Louise Story and Ethan Todras-Whitehill. The book is also available in hardbound, eBook, and audio CD formats.

Before reading this book, I did not truly understand what a blog was or the distinctions between a web site and a blog. During and after reading the book, not only did I feel very comfortable with the term blog, but spoke of the book to my wife and she and I established several blogs of our own. Perhaps that is the greatest compliment and testament to a book and its value. This is not to say that all will be affected similarly, but, in terms of the benefits that I, personally, experienced, the impact of this book was significant and my expectations were exceeded.

Since reading this book I have also spent more time reading blogs maintained by others. The book contains many illustrations and addresses in footnotes, and I visited a few and found them interesting, but it took very little time before I began visiting sites not listed in the book. In fact, a reader of this book may have to guard against excessive time consumption. Times passes very quickly when on the Internet, regardless of the topic being researched or the form of entertainment being sought.

Perhaps my favorite chapter was chapter 7 and the links to Wilkipedia. I love this site and was surprised to read of the blogs and complaints filed against them. This chapter educated me on matters I had not previously considered and, I suspect, made me a more critical consumer of information available through the Internet.

I recommend this book to any person interested in learning more about blogs and the Internet, and forming a more fully developed vision of the future of the Internet and this rapidly changing communications medium and the information available to al citizens of the world.

The above review was contributed by Anthony (A.J.) Cataldo II.    Dr. Cataldo holds a PhD from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University , MAc ( University of Arizona)  unofficial minor in Marketing , BSBA  (University of Arizona). He is a Certified Management Accountant and a Certified Public Accountant:  Click Here to view Anthony's Reviews