Next Generation Work

A book in progress about business, work, and life in a world with the Internet.

Read the preface to find out more about this project, and take part in shaping it through the comments and the forums.

This book is published under a license which allows you to share this work in part or in whole as long as you attribute it to its original author and as long as you do not do so commercially. Attribution should include my name (Lisha Sterling) and the URL of this page or a link to it. (At this time, no derivative works are allowed without specific, written permission, but this may change in the future.) All other rights are reserved.

All comments and forum posts are copyright their authors. If you wish to quote them, do so within the boundaries of "fair use" or ask their permission. However, by posting comments or forum posts on this site, it is assumed that the ideas herein may be used as part of the book. Comment and forum post authors give me permission to quote their words in this work. Any such use will be given proper attribution which will consist of a footnote or endnote with bibliographical information linked to the comment or post.

Preface to the Online, In-Progress edition

This is one book of a two-book project which I will be creating online. First, I will start by creating outlines for the two books. Then I will fill those outlines with chapters. Some of the chapters, like this preface, will take shape even as the outlines are being completed.

As time goes on, the book will go through revisions and changes. The page type that I am using for this project automatically creates a new revision every time I edit a page. That means that logged in users will be able to go back and see earlier versions of chapters and not just whatever is the current "published" version.

Readers are a vital part of this project, not only because they are the audience, but because they are helping to shape the books along with me. By reading early versions of the chapters, and discussing them in comments or in the forums, every reader has the opportunity to help me improve these two books. Even more importantly, readers will be able to help each other to envision more ways of living and thriving in the modern networked society.

There are two focal points in this project: Education and Work. Education is about cradle to grave learning in all of its institutional and ad hoc settings. Work is about how we make a living, support ourselves and our families, and fulfill our needs to do good and useful things.

My hope is that eventually these books will be available for purchase in a paper format. However, the project has no publisher lined up and there is no company or organization supporting the production of these books. If you are helped or inspired by this work, I ask you to consider donating some amount to keep it going. The more money that flows in for this project in the form of donations, the more time I will be able to give to the project, and the more you will be able to benefit from it.

You can also support this project by having me come to speak to your organization or group. For more information, use the contact page on this site to reach me.