William Rice is a software training professional who lives, works, and plays in the New York City. His indoor hobbies include writing books and spending way too much time reading sites like slashdot and 43folders. His outdoor hobbies include orienteering, rock climbing, and edible wild plants (a book on that is coming someday).

William is fascinated by the relationship between technology and society; how we create our tools, and how our tools in turn shape us. He is married to an incredible woman who encourages his writing pursuits, and has two amazing sons.

He can be reached through his website at http://www.williamrice.com.

Gurudutt Talgery has wide-ranging industry experience in the areas of software development, software process, and product engineering with the Indian arms of reputed transnational technology companies. His current interests include content management, search applications, and information retrieval using open-source solution stacks.

Gurudutt finds a strong similarity between the spiritual freedom propounded by the ancient Indian Vedanta philosophy and the empowering freedom provided by the modern-day Open Source Software(OSS) movement. He single handedly manages a no-frills, multilingual India-centric search engine: www.bhramara.in. He can be reached via his blog at www.bhramara.in/blog.

Derrin Kent describes himself as a cross between a “teacher”, a “geek”, and an “HR/Project Manager”. He is a founder, director, trainer, consultant, and a general dogsbody for The Development Manager Ltd. http://tdm.info. Derrin understands how e-learning and open-source software solutions can help workplace organisations to simultaneously improve both staff performance/satisfaction as well as the corporate bottom line. Derrin has been delivering work-based learning since 1992 and has supported a wide variety of workplace organisations with e-learning and open source including UK government bodies, large national charities, large national accrediting bodies, multi-site vocational training provider organisations, and networks of small local businesses.

Mark Bailye is currently working in the field of Medical Education where he has worked for ten years and has developed a great interest in learning and teaching. He has a proven track record in both online and face-to-face education and training. He is passionate about education and technology and wherever possible, incorporates the latest information and communication technologies into his teaching in order to enhance, engage and enrich the learner’s experience.

I would also like thank PACKT Publishing and in particular Rashmi for giving me the opportunity to review this book.