Building a social web application that attracts and retains regular visitors, and gets them to interact, isn't easy to do. This book walks you through the tough questions you'll face if you're to create a truly effective community site - one that makes visitors feel like they've found a new home on the Web. Whether you're creating a new site from scratch or embracing an existing audience "Building Social Web Applications" helps you and your fellow web developers, designers, and project managers make difficult decisions, such as choosing the appropriate interaction tools for your audience, and building an infrastructure to help the community gel.With this book, you'll learn to: understand who will be drawn to your site, why they'll stay, and who they'll interact with; build the software you need versus plugging in off-the-shelf apps; create visual design that clearly communicates what your site will do; manage the identities of your visitors and determine how to manage their interaction; watch for demand from the community to guide your choice of new functions; and, plan the launch of your site and get the message out. "Building Social Web Applications" includes examples of different application types - member-driven, customer service-driven, contributor-driven, and more - and discusses different business models. If your company's ready to move into the world of social web applications, this book will help you make it a reality.

Near the southern tip of Africa, there is a mountain that does a conjuring trick with the biggest tablecloth on earth. In a sacred forest near the Limpopo river, there is a bird that flies on wings of thunder, flashing lightning from its eyes and bearing rain in its beak. In between, there is a hauntingly beautiful land and millions of confused people. When Archbishop Desmond Tutu dubbed his native South Africa the 'Rainbow Nation', he conjured a vision of ethnic diversity and harmony in a country with eleven official languages, two national anthems, and a parliament that shuttled between two cities. As a foreign correspondent reporting on the last days of apartheid, Gavin Bell thought it was a brave image and wondered how long it would endure. A few years later, he returned to find out what had happened to Tutu's rainbow. In his travels he found a country at odds with itself, swinging between hope and despair, buoyed by a sense of freedom and haunted by a fear of violent crime. SOMEWHERE OVER THE RAINBOW is not only a fine travel book by an award-winning writer, it is a compelling portrait of a country in search of an identity. The leopard stories are good too.
 

Because it's Saturday is a compelling portrait of life in the professional grass roots of football, far from the glitz and glamour of Premier League superstars. Why does anyone travel from Grimsby to Accrington on a wet Tuesday night in November to watch players battling on a muddy pitch with more gusto than grace? How do teams survive in half-empty stadia, and how does a Cotswolds village side owned by an ex-hippy challenge the likes of Luton for promotion? Award-winning writer Gavin Bell spoke to the owners, managers, players and supporters of eight lower-league sides, over the course of a season, to discover the fierce passions and loyalties that sustain clubs unlikely to win anything other than the devotion of their fans. Going beyond the fields of dreams, Bell explores the communities for whom these clubs are more than football teams. From gritty northern towns blighted by post-industrial decline, to ivory towers of academia and a seaside resort riven by a fans' civil war - it's a rollercoaster ride of a season.