The ZaidLearn blogsite is giving away a free PDF directory for free e-learning ebooks, directed at the Net Generation (as against the Next Generation) of online learners.

Zaid Ali Alsagoff has published this ebook via the Open Source Books section of the Internet Archive, where you can view the PDF online, or download it. This is a 46MB ebook, full of graphics, so pay attention to your timing on this one, as I struck peak hours on the internet and had a very slow download.

The eBook has also been published via a Slideshare version, and SlideBoom version. The Boom version is available to view onsite at Zaidlearn.

The 60 Page "Amazing Free e-Learning eBooks Collection" features one page per book, with a brief description of the contents of the ebook, a link and covershot". Zaid has amalgamated an absolutely awesome collection of ebooks which are free to download, and provide a lot of information about e-learning, appropriate to not only educators but anyone interested in providing e-courses and e-content to a virtual audience.

The last twenty pages of this directory does not provide more links to actual ebook downloads, but helpful tips on methods to find our own resources (the first being the expected google search) and links to searchable sites. Zaid also advertises his free ebook inside, which features 69 Learning Adventures in 6 Galaxies. He also have two other learning ebooks coming out soon.

Zaid also provides all of the ebooks and links as a quick link list on his blog, giving readers permission to replicate this list here. As a wonderful marketing device, I would suggest that you do go and get this ebook from Zaid’s site itself (the links are below) to share in the fun cartoons and graphics, and details towards what each ebook contains before you select from the many available. Go and get it (or watch it onsite) at ZaidLearn now.

Links :

• Zaidlearn - Amazing Free e-Learning eBooks
• Ebook Download

Zaid’s Quick Links List:

1. LEARNING 2.0
   
2. Educating the Net Generation
3. Learning Spaces
4. Theory and Practice of Online Learning
5. Open Educational Resources Handbooks: One, Two, Three
6. The Insider’s Guide To Becoming a Rapid E-Learning Pro
7. Top 100 Tools for Learning
8. MASIE’s Free eContent!
9. FREE eBooks from The eLearning Guild
10. e-LearningGuru’s 5-Minute Summaries
11. ICT in Schools: A Handbook for Teachers
12. E-Learning Concepts and Techniques
13. Coming of Age: An Introduction to the New WWW
14. Knowing Knowledge
15. Moodle E-Learning Course Development
16. Using Moodle
17. FREE Guide to Online Education
18. Informal Learning
19. Engaging Interactions For eLearning
20. The Cluetrain Manifesto
21. Stephen Downes Papers, Presentations and Books
22. KINEO Magic!
23. Learning Technologies (250+ Articles!)
24. Horizon Reports
25. Clive’s 33 Columns
26. Creating Learning Communities
27. Digital Education
28. Web-Teaching
29. Brandon Hall Free Resources
30. elearningeuropa Papers
31. Learning Circuits Field Guides
32. eLearn Magazine Articles Archive
33. EDUCAUSE Books
34. Google Book Search
35. Project Gutenberg
36. Scribd
37. LearnOutLoud.com
38. LibriVox
39. Great Books Index
40. CIA World Factbook
41. FreeBookSpot
42. FreeTechBooks.com
43. OnlineComputerBooks
44. Free-eBooks
45. ManyBooks
46. Globusz
47. BookYards
48. The Online Books Page
49. Wikibooks
50. Free eBooks

Many people may have heard about or read Hugh MacCleod’s free report / manifesto, How to Be Creative. But it’s worth passing on again, if you happen to have missed it. Hugh’s blog, Gaping Void, is one of those uber-blogs which has a lot of power out there on the web, and it makes for a good read also. The subtitle for this blog is “cartoons drawn on the back of business cards” and the blog itself does have a lot of pencil drawing images in it - as does the Creative manifesto.

But it’s the How to Be Creative report which initially intrigued me, relevant as it is to both my interests in creativity and writing, and in writing eBooks also. The report, written as a free giveaway from an initial blog article on the Gaping Void blog (you can still find this full article in the archives for the blog), is now available (still free) from the wonderful Change This website, where you can find many other manifestos with some quality content, all free, and on a large range of topics.

Here’s my two perspectives on the manifesto :

1. On a creativity / inspiration front - read it.
2. On an eBook perspective, it’s a good example of using a free info product built from a popular blog article to market your blog and work further afield. Read it.

Read : How to Be Creative (Manifesto at Change This)

Technorati Tags: change this, creativity, Hugh MacCleod

Many on the net may be aware of the force that is John Cow. He’s been blogging for many years, and offering a lot of expertise. One of my favourite free Ebooks out there is John Cow’s Building a Business NOT a Blog eBook.

Did I mention it’s free? Oh yeah, it is. And at 134 pages of on-the-spot information, there’s no excuses for you not going and getting it. The book is the outcome of a blogging competition between John Cow and Gary Conn. The competition attempts were documented on the blogs, and have since become this eBook, available through JohnCow.com.

From goal setting, to making a commitment to working a blog as a business, the Building a Business NOT a Blog book must go down as a blogger’s bible out there. The book is huge in content, including everything from planning for why you want a business blog, to setting up the correct affiliations, using systems like clickbank, aweber, feedburner, wordpress; and techniques for on-page optimisation, promotion, and of course - the ever-present task of keyword identifications, research and usage on the page. Much is applicable to an eBook writing business also, of course.

As a newbie into all of this from a business sense, this eBook is a fundamental arsenel to my own knowledge and what I need to do here, and it’s also a very good example of the kind of eBook which I would like to be involved in writing in the future myself. The book style is fun, with the expected cartoonish graphics which make the John Cow site itself such a fun visit, and it has a good contents page, and resource links at the back.

And, did I mention - it’s Free!

To get your copy of Building a Business NOT a Blog eBook, go here.

Technorati Tags: blog, business, john cow, recommended

Without one doubt, I would suggest that currently Zen to Done is my favourite eBook. It’s about productivity, not eBooks, but the format and simple teachings inside make it a must-read for me.

Written by Leo Babauta, this book is a compilation of his blog series, Zen To Done: The Ultimate Simple Productivity System which featured on his popular blog, Zen Habits. It was my discovery of Leo’s first eBook, Zen to Done which first set me off on wanting to write my own also. Since then he has also produced another eBook compilation from his site, called The Zen Habits Handbook for Life, which is another good read, and bargain at the price.

The ebook’s style, with a simple table of contents image at the bottom is what initially drew me to the book itself - very Zen-like in appearance. The eBook itself contains copious information, requiring perhaps more than one read to take it in. There are grammatical errors I noticed also at the start - but I found Leo’s writing style as skillful as the principles and methods he has developed. The eBook is pure information however - I would have liked perhaps some more graphics to break up the sheer weight of the information, perhaps. However, the text in Zen to Done is broken up with sidebars and quotes rendered in a very appealing style. And despite those minor niggles, I must re-iterate that it was the actual style of the whole eBook which actually drew me to it in the first place.

Then I delved into the contents, which can be summarised as -

1. 1. The key habits needed to be productive, organized, and simplified (10 habits)
   2. How to implement these key habits with tips on forming a habit.
   3. How to organize these habits into a simple system that will keep everything in your life in its place.
   4. How to simplify what you need to do.
   5. Minimal ZTD. Also includes an even simpler version called Minimal ZTD.

The 73 page eBook contains 17 sections plus some checklists and exercises which extend David Allen’s Getting Things Done principles (fundamentally task management for business users) with Stephen Covey’s goal setting and prioritization methods.

That, initially, sounds quite complicated, but Zen to Done provides ten very do-able habits, and even provides a “4-Point” Simple ZTD system called “Minimal ZTD” (located on Page 17) for those who want it. The final product actually simplifies the GTD system for anyone like me who found the GTD system quite overwhelming at first, and gives it structure. For those who don’t know what I’m talking about regarding GTD, then Zen to Done may also be a very good book to get hold of, simply because it makes no prior-knowledge expectations on your own productivity skills.

If you do a search over the web for Zen to Done reviews you will find several sites where the ten habits are listed along with some discussion over these. I won’t be doing that here, because I believe to get the most from the principles, you can at least pay out the small charge for this information, and purchase a Zen to Done copy for yourself. Here are the 10 habits however, to allow you to see the layers of information found within this economical and highly recommended eBook:-

1. 1. Collect.
   2. Process.
   3. Plan.
   4. Do.
   5. Simple trusted system.
   6. Organize.
   7. Review.
   8. Simplify.
   9. Routine.
   10. Find your passion.

Looked at this way, it makes sense. And Leo Babauta’s eBook gives you the processes and habits to be successful in that passion.

Leo Babauta’s Zen to Done system makes a workable solution to our busy personal lives. For the principles and depth of content inside, Leo only charges $9.50 through his site. That’s incredibly reasonable pricing for a system which will easily prompt us all into organising our lives into more productive ways. I actually consult this eBook consistently.

Recommended reading : Zen to Done (5 out of 5)

Technorati Tags: productivity, Recommended Ebooks, review, ztd

This list was originally compiled by Chris Brogan who has allowed it to be reposted across blogs (like this one!)The first link is to a PDF file, the second link is to the site where it’s hosted. Links were working as at August 7th, 2008.

20 Free eBooks About Social Media

1. The New Rules of Viral Marketing - David Meerman Scott
2. Marketing Apple - MarketingApple.com
3. Masters of Marketing - Startup Internet Marketing
4. Podcast Marketing eBook - Christopher S. Penn
5. Google Adwords Secrets - SEOBook
6. Get Viral Get Visitors - Stacie Mahoe
7. Marketing With Case Studies - Dynamic Copywriting
8. How to Write a Marketing Plan - Geisheker Group
9. SEO for WordPress blogs - Blizzard Internet
10. Social Web Analytics - Social Web Analytics
11. Geeks Guide to Promoting Yourself With Twitter - Geekpreneur
12. The Zen of Blogging - Hunter Nutall
13. What is Social Media - iCrossing
14. A Primer in Social Media - SmashLab
15. Effective Internet Presence - Effective Internet Presence
16. Introduction to Good Usability - Peter Pixel
17. Increasing the Response to Your Email Marketing Program - CRM Transformation
18. We Have a Website. Now What? - Craig Rentmeester
19. Blogs & Social Media - PRSA
20. The Podcast Customer Revealed - Edison Media Research

Technorati Tags: free ebooks, recommended, social media