Hackoff.com - A Must Read
Last month, I suggested that my readers pay attention to Tom Evslin as he was about to launch a blog version of a book.
Well its out and its called Hackoff.com and I’d encourage everyone to go take a look and read the first chapter which is up. Here’s the intro:
"New York, NY — April 1, 2003 – (BUSINESS WIRE) hackoff.com
(NASDAQ:HOFC) announced today that the company’s Chairman and CEO,
Larry Lazard, was found dead in his corporate office of an apparently
self-inflicted gunshot wound. The Board of Directors has selected the
company’s CFO, Donna Langhorne, as his successor. Controller Lew
Marigold will serve as acting CFO replacing Ms. Langhorne."
Tom calls it a blook, a book published via the blog paradigm.
I’ve seen something like this before. About a year ago, Jason Chervokas, attempted to write a book online via the blog paradigm It was called Electricity and it was fun to watch Jason develop the book online. I don’t believe Jason finished that project and it is not available online anymore.
And we’ve seen Seth Godin and John Battelle deliver whole or partial portions of their books online with excellent results.
But Tom is up to something different. He’s making the blog an essential part of the experience of reading the blook. Since the blook is a murder mystery, the comments, the links, the discussions, will be an essential part of the blook reading experience.
Tom’s clearly thought a lot about leveraging the power of the audience to impact the overall experience. He’s got two versions of the "about the book" page, his and a wiki so the community can develop their own.
He’s got subscriptions via email and RSS so you can get the new chapters delivered to you when they come out.
He’s got a bunch of linkrolls (aka blogrolls); one for people who maintain a persistent link, one for people who mention Hackoff.com, one for people who review Hackoff.com, one for posts about blooks, and one for links to other blooks.
But let’s leave aside how interactive this is for a second. Go read the first chapter. It’s a great story too. And I cant’ wait to watch it and read it as it unfolds.
If you like the story, make sure to subscribe via RSS or email and get the new chapters delivered to you as the story unfolds.