Like other books we’ve published, the What You Need To Know series started with a need that we had for a certain kind of information. Tim (O’Reilly) noticed that we had nothing to give our new, nontechnical employees about subjects they needed to understand in order to work here productively. The kind of information our users need is not “Push this button,” it’s more “Here’s how to think about this.”

So we developed a series of books to tackle the issues encountered by people like many of us at ORA — people who use technology as a tool for their “real” job. The books digest and present the kinds of information you’d come across if you worked with the technology for a while, in a supportive and knowledgeable environment. These are books we will be handing to our own employees.