I know O'Reilly has a couple of books covering the MCSE certification. Are there any future plans to publish books on other certifications, like the MCSD?

Thanks,
Neil

Dear Neil:

O'Reilly entered into the certification publishing business reluctantly. We were concerned that certification was a kind of scam: make a system that's difficult to use, and then make people pay to learn to use it the way you want them to. We also thought that the goal of certification might turn out to be to memorize the manufacturer's suggested answers to a question, rather than to learn the discipline to master the system yourself.

Nevertheless, we had to admit that certification was causing our readers pain, and we try to put an end to information pain when we can. That's why we decided that we ought to publish certification books.

We started with two MCSE books, MCSE: the Core Exams in a Nutshell, and MCSE: the Electives in a Nutshell, both by Michael Moncur. These books attempt to go beyond the typical MCSE study guide by giving you a fuller picture than just the simple answers to the questions. When a topic requires more information, or when the answer the MCSE test is looking for is too simplistic, these books give you a better understanding of the overall problem and solution. Furthermore, the books assume you have a basic understanding of the area. Nobody wants a systems engineer who is certified but knows nothing beyond the answers to certification questions. So these two guides have proven to be very useful to the experienced system engineer who knows the job and wants to be sure also to be able to pass the test.

We are doing more certification books. We have one underway for MCSD and another just beginning. Expect these books to resemble the MCSE books in their scope and presentation. They, too, will be part of the O'Reilly "in a Nutshell" line. We expect to publish certification books for other products and environments, too. We know these tests are important to our readers.

Keep an eye out for another O'Reilly certification study aid: flashcards. The first two sets, on Networking Essentials and TCP/IP for NT 4.0, should be out in early Spring. Again, these will be most useful for the experienced systems engineer who has the knowledge and is brushing up on the questions and answers.

Frank Willison
Editor-in-Chief, Technical Publishing

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