Omnitopia Update

City Ubiquitous is already starting to generate buzz.

I'm delighted to report that folks are visiting the book's website: http://www.cityubiquitous.com (where I recently added a page explaining just what the heck "omnitopia" means to me).

And public interest has followed the appearance of City Ubiquitous in the Santa Cruz Sentinel and the San Jose Mercury News.

One result? I've already lined up three public presentations about the book: One at Cal State East Bay, one in Mountain View, and one in Phoenix, Arizona.

Happily, I've been invited to give three on-campus lectures as well, allowing me chances to revise and practice my multimedia presentation based on City Ubiquitous.

Sales? Promising, so far. I'm fascinated to observe how the book flirts with popularity on Amazon's rankings, occasionally appearing for brief periods in the site's list of top 100 books dealing with urban sociology.

My next step is to secure reviews of the book, both in scholarly journals and broader sites.

John Coleman already posted one review that expressed a road warrior-consultant's take on omnitopia.

And I'm hoping you'll share your thoughts as well.

So, if you haven't had a chance to pick one up, I encourage you to visit Amazon and grab a copy of City Ubiquitous for yourself.

Coincidentally, I just happen to have a handy tiny-fied link:

http://www.tinyurl.com/getacopy

Like the book? Please consider posting a review on Amazon. Positive word of mouth is a big deal for an academic book like mine, so your help would mean a lot.

Sales, of course, are nice. But my real goal is for people to read the book, think about it, cite it, and respond to it. Even to argue with it.

That's why I've created a Facebook group and a Twitter feed for the book.

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=44865831148 (136 members so far!)

Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/omnitopia

What if you hate City Ubiquitous? Let me know and I'll buy us some decent coffee (presuming you don't mind dropping by a diner somewhere near San José, California). You can even give me advice for doing better next time. Heck, I'll spring for scones.

Either way, things are moving along for the omnitopia project!

(Photograph by Andrew Wood)