Finance-Software

The book is written by people who are clearly aware of the issues involved in commercial multimedia production. It is well laid out and covers most topics - surprisingly it does not suffer too much from its age. Many of the tips and checklists remain valid even though the technology has moved on considerably since 1996. The text has been used on the very successful multimedia programme at Griffith University, Queensland, Australia.

Any relevant subject about multimedia projects has been covered in a thorough way. It is a good combination of theory and practice. The checklists are very usefull as well.

I wouldn't recommend this book to anybody trying to set up a mailing list. This would be more appropriate in the hands of some manager who just wants a quick rundown on how e-mail works and then hire someone to set up a mailing list for him/her.

Through all the pages of the text, this book didn't provide any useful information on setting up mailing lists. The author is vague and never focuses on any mailing list manager program, instead he just gives little facts on all different ones. One cannot possibly set up a mailing list from the info in this book.

Often the book would raise questions and leave them unanswered. He would describe certain problems with mailing lists (i.e. malicious attacks, susceptibility to human errors), but it was up to you and a lot of web surfing to find out how to solve these problems.

Not the kind of text I would expect O'Reilly to print.

I don't know about the other MLMs described in this book, but if you must administer a Majordomo mailing list, this book is essential. You should also subscribe to the majordomo users list and the list moderator's list (if that applies to you) at GreatCircle.com too, but for having the information you need about how to set up the config files and the users etc for generating digests and so on, this book is quite useful. However, it has some shortcomings - not much information about setting up web archives, or dealing with MIME, etc. And there is nothing at all about Mailman, the other heavyweight mailing list manager. Perhaps an update is due that covers Mailman?

I bought this book because I needed to familiarize myself with ListProc, Listserve and Majordomo, all 3 of which are used at my University. I got just what I needed. This book covers everything you need to know about these, plus it has some extras which help round out the book. I became convinced that SmartList was useful for my home system, and have installed it, and I also enjoyed some of the articles posted in the book.

My only coplaint about this book was the lack of clarity regarding email headers (which came up pretty often throughout). I supposed I should have read the intro chapter more closely. Still, it really wasn't hard to follow along the book. I enjoyed this book much and can't wait to see the Second Edition. :)

This is a good book for the reader who already knows something about information management. It is a bit vague and doesn't have examples to clarify issues. There is supposed to be an instructor's manual called "Teaching and learning assistance" by the same authors to go with this book. Although I haven't seen the manual, I think this book definitely needs a help manual. I also find it physically difficult to read as the print is a bit faint. Otherwise it is a worthwhile read.

The key message of this book is that you must listen carefully to your customers and co-workers, hearing every word, but also the broad message. Many of the primary problems in the business-customer relationship are due to different definitions of commonly understood words, such as "regular", "extended", "timely" and even "month." Whole phrases are subject to different interpretations, and the author recites an instance from a trip to her physician. After examination, the physician pronounced her condition as "unremarkable." At first she was angry, and yet having the sense to think before making a fist, she realized that was the doctor's way of saying she was fine.
Which also points out what is the most critical condition for success dealing with anyone, whether they are in the group described by the book title or not. As e-mail use has shown us, it is almost impossible to avoid saying something that can be taken in an offensive manner. Business is about getting things done, and you don't complete complex tasks by making small talk about the weather. You do things by communicating the current situation as it is, even if it is not what the receiver wants to hear and it is necessary to take people to task. Therefore, your best policy is to avoid getting angry quickly, developing a thick skin and concentrating on completing the tasks at hand.
Naomi Karten puts forward advice that is simply not heard often enough. Forget about all of the sensitivity nonsense and concentrate on forms of communication that can be used to explain frustrations, demands, concerns, and all of the other things that go wrong between people trying to work together. Understand that ambiguity is the natural state of affairs, so look for the real meanings rather than the individual words. Whenever you hear something, put your feelings aside for a short time until you clearly understand what the message really was.
The phrase "People who want more, better, faster, sooner, NOW!" is just a long way of describing "customers", so anyone in business must be prepared to deal with such people. In this book, you will learn how to approach customers with your feelings placed in the background and all of your information receivers on high-band. With business growing more competitive every day, this may be the only way to remain a viable economic entity.

Managing Expectations is a book for everyone who deals with customers or other people with expectations. Using a customer service model, Ms. Karten describes the ways in which people successfully and unsuccessfully manage what people expect. She advises on how to create better working relationships by fostering clearer understandings of the circumstances and limitations which exist in any situation.

Failure to manage expectations often has catestrophic consequences to projects and relationships. Those who want to build long-term relationships and successful projects will consider the cautions and advice presented here.

Ms. Karten uses gentle humor and warmth to tell us the lessons that we need in order to better communicate what we know to our clients.

People who are clients can also use this book to better understand the process of working collaboratively.

It's a fine book for evoking new insights and inspiring better communication.