I just wanted to deliver on the book update I promised last week.Mobile Web App Cookbook is rolling now, with actual words being written. That’s pretty exciting for me.

What’s even more exciting is that we’re finally set with co-authors to do the technical chapters. I wanted to take a minute to introduce them, since they’re going to be the real stars of the show, providing the hands-on expertise the book is going to deliver. Me? I’m just a table-setter.

Anyway, here they are, the rest of the team (in order of appearance in the book):

Mike Morley

Mike is going to be doing chapters on the core technologies (HTML5, CSS3 and JavaScript.)

MIKE MORLEY is a freelance mobile user interface developer at 9eggs.com and has spent many years building web applications for financial institutions and digital media agencies. For the past few years he has specialized in developing mobile web applications for a range of clients from UK high street retailer New Look, the car manufacturer Ford and the UK lottery. When not building mobile web apps he may be spotted on the golf course or walking along the coast near Colchester (UK), where he lives with his wife Rachel, his young son and Chocky the dog.

Rich Freedman

Rich is going to be working on the jQuery Mobile section.

RICH FREEDMAN is a consultant at Chariot Solutions, where he works with a wide variety of technologies for clients ranging from startups to members of the Fortune 500. Rich has over 20 years of application development experience. He has been blogging about software development for several years, is a DZone MVP blogger, and has reviewed several books for Manning, including JQuery in Action and Roo in Action. When he’s not programming or reading or writing about programming, he’s probably in the kitchen, whipping up a gourmet vegan meal, while thinking about programming. Rich lives in Lambertville, New Jersey, a small and architecturally wonderful 18th century city.

Lee Boonstra

Lee is going to be working on the Sencha Touch chapters.

Lee Boonstra lives together with her partner in Amsterdam the Netherlands. While doing her study (Art & Technology) in 2004 she started her own web development company to continue to grow and learn new technologies. Right now her focus is more on mobile (web) apps. Her most successful app is available at the Apple Appstore and Google Chrome webstore: Spotlib.

In the last year of her study she worked for Accenture as a senior back-end (Java) developer for clients such as UPC and KLM/Air France.
After 3 years she decided to make the move to the front-end. “I think it’s advantageous to understand back-end technologies while working on the front-end. I’m a creative person and I like to have a nice workflow and see my changes directly on the screen.” In 2009 she started working as a front-end team lead for eFocus, one of the top 3 fullservice internet agencies in The Netherlands. “I’m working with a lot of (front-end) technologies & frameworks, and that is why I love my work so much: jQuery (Mobile), Mootools, Dojo, CSS3, HTML5, XML, SQL and recently Sencha Touch”. As a team lead she works on both mobile and web for middle to large scale clients, such as Deloitte, Heineken and Philips.

Beside technologies, Lee’s other passions are alternative music, attending concerts and festivals and (what she is famous in Amsterdam for) being a drag king performer and model. And let’s not get started about how extensive her videogame (console) collection is…

As the title says, I’m working on a book. I signed the agreement yesterday so I’m finally be able to share the news with all of you. It’s been in the works for a while, so getting it to the point where it’s something I can talk about is a pleasure.

The book is with Manning Publications and the title is Mobile Web App Cookbook. As of right now, it looks like it’ll be out in the first half of 2012.

It’s going to be multi-author book dealing with, you guessed it, mobile web app development. I’m the lead author, setting the tone for the book and providing the framing chapters. As of now, I’m planning on introducing the factors driving mobile web app development; providing an in-depth examination of the full range of technologies in play and then wrapping up the subject in a closing chapter. In addition to my contribution, several other authors will provide detailed examples using technologies like Sencha Touch, jQuery Mobile and pure HTML5, CSS3 and JavaScript.

It’s going to be a serious, technical introduction to an increasingly important branch of web development.

I’ll be sharing more details as I get them.

Why Mobile?

While I’m happy to be writing a book at all, I’m especially excited by the mobile focus of this project. To me, getting people and organizations excited about mobile web development and the continued evolution of the web platform is vital. I believe that a free and open web is a force for positive change in the world. For the web platform to remain viable and win out over app stores and other proprietary, closed ecosystems, people need to have the knowledge and tools to develop world class, cross-device applications for mobile devices. This book will help people do just that.

That’s pretty cool.