User:StaceyHamilton/BlogEntry: 2009 June 19 16:36:58 EDT

From sasCommunity

Rock On!

by Julie Platt, SAS Press Editor in Chief

Our household has just welcomed another member—an electric guitar for our oldest teenager. Our teenager started taking guitar lessons this summer. We weren’t quite sure how the lessons would go, so we accepted a loaner acoustic guitar from a neighbor. All along, we knew our son was most interested in an electric guitar, but MAYBE he’d fall in love with the sound of the acoustic guitar and over time we’d listen to James Taylor instead of whatever it is that emanates from his mp3 player.

Well, fate intervened. The loaner was reclaimed much sooner than we had anticipated and before the love of the acoustic guitar could take hold. We had to go shopping for a replacement. I asked his guitar teacher what kind would be good for us to consider.

“Really, for what he wants to do, an electric guitar would serve him best.”

“Oh. OK . . . Do we HAVE to get an amp?”

“Yes.”

“Oh. Hmm . . . Could we have some sort of volume control governor installed, like they do to limit the speed of school buses? That would be REALLY great.”

Honestly, just between you and me, I held out as long as I could. This electric guitar has been on his bucket list for years. I guess I could take comfort in knowing that we successfully avoided the drum set that might have accompanied the guitar.

You know what? The worry was worse than the reality. So far, anyway. What I’ve discovered is that he could not be more excited about the guitar, and we could not be happier for him. To my surprise, I am delighted to hear "Smoke on the Water" over and over again. It’s been a wonderful change for our household!

So, I’m going to come clean about another worry that I’ve had. It’s about moving SAS Press content online. For years, our program printed books. Period. Slowly, but surely, we’ve come to recognize that online content is growing in popularity and, to some extent, is expected. Further, if the content isn’t online and readily available, SAS users who could benefit from it may not know it even exists. (If you do a Google search on a topic and don’t find the content, it must not be there, right?)

Well, and then the iPhone hit the market, and who doesn’t want to read SAS Press books on an iPhone? Or at least use “reading SAS Press books” as another reason that an iPhone must be purchased.

Although we still don’t know how the use and delivery of online content will continue to evolve, we do know that online content is:

• Accessible. Sometimes immediate access is exactly what users need, and we want SAS Press content to be one of their go-to sources for information. Sometimes online access may be the ONLY way that a user could get to the content.
• Easily searchable and scannable. OK. I love an index and thumbing through pages, too. But, I also like the “poof!” factor of searching for a topic and having it instantly appear.
• More portable. Books are heavy. We hear over and over that users want to be able to take their SAS Press books with them when they travel. By loading the books on a laptop, they can reduce the weight of their luggage.

The bottom line is that we want to be able to serve SAS users best. Providing options for accessing the content of SAS Press books serves them best and makes the books more available to them.

The worry comes in the “what if?” And, I believe that the what-ifs we’re most worried about are, well, maybe it’s just one: unfair or illegal use of the content. Piracy. Having the books show up on Web sites where they don’t belong.

We have seen this happen in a few cases, but so far, it’s been very isolated. So far, the worry has been much worse than the reality.

Are we going to relax and not worry about protecting SAS Press content? No. We are going to continue to be vigilant about protecting the use of the content from SAS Press books. And, we’re going to continue to push to find better and better ways to serve SAS users with that content.

We are confident that, although this picture will continue to evolve, our strong relationship with SAS users will ensure that it develops in good harmony and is a wonderful change for the SAS user community.