So, I’ve had two good pieces of news for the ActivityPub book from O’Reilly Media. The first one is that I finished the 6th of 7 chapters this week (on using and creating ActivityPub extensions). It was a gruelling chapter that I had to reorganise a couple of times to clarify, but I’m so happy that it’s in the can.
The second big piece of news is that the first two chapters of the ActivityPub book are up for early access review on O’Reilly Media’s Learning Platform. This is a big deal for me — people have started reading and interacting with the book in the real world. Mind blown!
If you are interested in ActivityPub, and you have access to the O’Reilly Media Learning Platform, I would take it as a big favour if you would read what’s available now (Introduction, ActivityPub API) and give me your feedback.
Two more chapters should be available soon — Activity Stream 2.0, and the federation protocol — I’ll post here when I’ve got more news.
Thanks to everyone who’s been helpful or supportive in this process. I’m looking forward to the full availability of this book in the coming months.
Evan Prodromou's Blog 
I just announced this in the @fedidevs meeting, and wanted to get it out on my blog ASAP.
@evanprodromou I can't help but feel that the price point on that O’Reilly learning site is almost certainly going to be a barrier to people — $49 / month or $588 / year is a lot of money!
I believe it will be available in different formats after actual release.
@thisismissem @evanprodromou O’Reilly Learning has been a helpful resource for me, but indeed expensive. I got it cheaper via ACM for $174/year. If you DM me your email, I can refer you for a lower first-year rate.
@thisismissem I prefer and am happy to pay for the print books, but unfortunately that would mean waiting till the book is complete. I wonder if O’Reilly (or anyone else) has a scheme where I can preorder just this specific print book, and get access to the online version until that comes?
(O’Reilly does have an option to register the book you got from another publisher to get access to it online on their platform, but I’m not sure if there’s an equivalent for upcoming books)
@evanprodromou
If you send an email to O’Reilly letting them know that you’d like to buy the book standalone, it will help a lot!
@evanprodromou Why did I know it was gonna be a bird on the cover? 🐦
I don’t know if the baby bird is permanent or if it’s just a placeholder for books in early release.
@evanprodromou I’m so glad you’re writing this. It’s badly needed.
Thank you!
@evanprodromou Having written a book on RSS before, I’m excited to see this book shape up and how you fare in the process!
@evanprodromou
O’Reilly is quality in CS circles. Congrats
I know! That’s why I was so excited to get invited to make a proposal. The reputation is well-deserved — their editorial team is a well-oiled machine. It’s been a great experience.
@evanprodromou Always wondered does O'Reily publishers choose the animal or bird on the cover? @evanprodromou do you get to veto?
I do not get a veto! Apparently choosing the animal on the front cover is a closely-guarded prerogative of the O’Reilly Media design department. Authors can make suggestions or requests, but the final decision is up to design.
Do you have any suggestions for the animal choice? I don’t have anything that comes to mind.
@evanprodromou Reading now 🙂 How do you want feedback?
@mattl @evanprodromou I think there's a commenting system built into the platform?
@evanprodromou awesome news, congrats!
@evanprodromou CONGRATS!!
Thank you so much!
@evanprodromou I've been skimming it after the #FediDevs meeting, and I've already learned some things, thank you! Going to give it a proper in depth read over the weekend, and really looking forward to the ActivityStreams chapter!
@evanprodromou actually, the ActivityPub extensions chapter sounds like *exactly* what I need, looking forward to that one even more 😁
Oh, this is awesome!
@evanprodromou @MOULE this is super cool and I definitely want to read it! I've been wanting to try developing stuff that uses ActivityPub, and I find having everything in one big textbook makes the learning process much less daunting
@reillypascal @evanprodromou @MOULE
https://www.w3.org/TR/activitypub/ I guess this is enough, isn’t it? 🤔
@evanprodromou oh fantastic, this sounds like a great book to have for someone like me, who’s looking to add ActivityPub support to his blog, but there are no good libraries out there, so what I’ll end up doing is implementing it from scratch!
@evanprodromou Ah great! Do you have a publication date yet? I need a reference badly.
@evanprodromou first tech book i've been excited for in I don't know how long!
@evanprodromou Literally signing up for O’Reilly to read this.
@evanprodromou @molly0xfff Excited for your new adventure. Congratulations.
@evanprodromou 👀👀👀
@evanprodromou I started reading chapter 1 this morning and I love that you lead with calling it the social web instead of fediverse.
I use them interchangeably.
@evanprodromou according to certain fedi software devs there are drugs required to implement ActivityPub… is this book +18?
@evanprodromou amazing work. Finally a reference to implement ActivityPub into your own server software.
@evanprodromou amazing!! and thats a perfect excuse for me to finally build a bare-bones server..
(I am reading chapter two atm)
@evan
Great work, Evan! Very excited to see this. Making good progress.. 🚀
Really like the hatchling bird on the cover too, leaving empty space to grow. Very appropriate, and crisp design.