This is an excellent book. When I first encountered it I wasn't really impressed by the title since I doubted someone could say anything new or interesting the ancient Usenet. Sometime later, though, I read Tim O'Reilly's review in his "Ask Tim" column (see http://www.oreilly.com/ask_tim/pracintgr_preface.html for the article). Tim recommended it so highly that I picked it up the next time I hit the bookstore. I'm very glad I did because Jon Udell has done a great job of looking at modern groupware concepts and applications, while also giving intelligent treatment to the historical roots of groupware in systems like Usenet.

This isn't a book about Usenet, or Lotus Notes, or any specific groupware product. It is about building and maintining modern groupware systems, and it examines this topic from a variety of conceptual and practical angles. As Kevin said, the book provides a lot of ideas--good ones. Many of the ideas are so wonderful because Jon always keeps an eye on the future, and provides advice toware ensuring that groupware systems use the best of current technology (e.g., XML) but still remain flexible for future developments. If you manage discussion forums of any kind, or are considering doing so, I recommend that you pick this book up.