I am very pleased to announce the publication of my second book, The Next Wave of Technologies: Opportunities in Chaos.

To say the least, it’s been an interesting journey to get to this point.

A little background on The Next Wave

Back in May of 2009, a review of my first book on my friend Vinnie Mirchandani’s Deal Architect blog got my brain going. As I write in the introduction of The Next Wave of Technologies (available here), Vinnie asked a number of valid questions about Why New Systems Fail in the context of emerging technologies. Given all that’s going on right now (cloud computing, mobile technologies, open source software, etc.), how can people and organizations navigate these largely uncharted waters?

Well, at a fundamental level, that’s the underlying question throughout The Next Wave of Technologies.

The book came together quickly. From May to September of 2009, I found experts to contribute chapters on a wide variety of subjects all under the umbrella of Enterprise 2.0. It was challenging at times juggling so many different schedules and time zones. Life happens, as they say. In the end, though, I am very pleased with the final result. While the book’s topics run the gamut, I believe that there’s a great deal of consistency throughout the book–both in terms of writing styles and overall themes.

While writing my own chapters, putting together the manuscript, occasionally replacing contributors, and managing the day-to-day, I was concurrently searching for a proper publisher. Ultimately, I had four offers for the book but chose John Wiley & Sons primarily due to two reasons:

• the rapport that I immediately developed with my editor, Tim Burgard
• my believe that Wiley was best suited to help the book reach its intended audiences: CIOs, professors and the academic community, industry leaders and pundits, consultants, and IT scribes

What’s the book about?

Many, many exciting technologies. For the quick answer to that question, check out my book trailer that (I hope) will finally be on the main page on Amazon.com soon.

What does this have to do with Harry Potter?

Funny story. In May of 2009, I was talking to a few literary agents, one of whom was David Fugate of Launch Books. He gave me great advice in formulating the book’s proposal but ultimately passed on representing it and me. He didn’t think that the book would have any commercial viability. “Of course,” he said, “I was wrong about Harry Potter as well.”

Well, David, and I write this with great affection, let’s hope that you’re also wrong about the number of copies sold.

Thanks to all of the contributors, everyone at John Wiley & Sons, those who endorsed the book for the back, my family and friends, and others who helped make this happen. I am very proud of The Next Wave of Technologies and hope that readers find it a valuable and informative read.