Corporate Overview Corporate OverviewSince January, 2003, LANWrights has been a division of iLearning, Inc. iLearning is an e-learning platform and solutions company, for which the LANWrights division is a content creator, primarily a purveyor of online certification training, career advice, and related services and information. LANWrights currently employs four people, in a variety of technical and editorial roles, and is ready to serve customer needs for custom and certification-related content development, online tests and surveys, classroom and online training, and more. Please visit the various links below to learn about
Ed Tittel founded LANWrights in 1990 as a "dba" under which to house his freelance writing activities. Since that time, Ed has written over 130 books (of which about 70 remain in print), and hundreds of magazine articles. In addition, LANWrights has consulted with high-tech companies, such as Novell, Key3Media, Microsoft, GTE, Symantec, and others, performing a variety of writing, training, and research services for these organizations. By the middle of 1996, LANWrights had written over 25 books, and was using a team of over a dozen contractors, some quite regularly. In 1997, LANWrights wrote 28 books; in 1998, 36 books; in 1999, over 40 books (all figures include new titles plus revisions). Since 2000, our activity we've produced between 40 and 50 books or book-length projects yearly.
In July, 1996, Ed incorporated LANWrights, and hired his busiest contractors, Michael Stewart and Dawn Rader (and himself), as full-time employees. In September, the company added its fourth employee, Natanya Pitts, who had been working for the group as its part-time Webmaster. Today, Michael is a named co-author on more than thirty books, Dawn on two books, and Natanya on over a dozen titles. In early 1999, Natanya left LANWrights; in September, 2002, Michael also left to start his own business (he's now teaching for several boot camp operators, and continues to write books, plus magazine and Web articles).
In January, 1997, LANWrights hired Mary Burmeister as a full time administrator and Jill of all trades. She's since proved herself an able writer and editor, and has contributed to numerous books, articles, training materials, and appendices. In June, 1997, we added Bill Brogden, PhD (Chemical Oceanography) to our crew as a full-time programmer and writer (he's contributed to a dozen Java-related books), in addition to his service as a Systems Operator on the JAVAUSER forum on CompuServe. In September, Bill resigned to pursue independent programming and consulting work. In May, 1999, LANWrights hired Chelsea Valentine as a full-time employee. She managed our Web site, handled our online training for Austin Community College, and contributed to numerous HTML- and XML-related books during her tenure. Chelsea left LANWrights to attend graduate school in October, 2001.
From 1997 to 1999, LANWrights helped launch two major series of books: The MCSE Exam Cram series, and a related series of Exam Prep study guides on similar topics, both for the Coriolis Group (some of these titles also appear under the Course Technology imprint, retitled as A Guide to Networking Essentials, for example). Today, Exam Cram lives on as Exam Cram 2 at Que Certification, with Ed Tittel at the helm as series editor (he also fills that same role for their Training Guide series of full-length study guides).
LANWrights has also delivered Windows-related training at a number of conferences, most notably NetWorld + Interop and The Internet Security Conference (TISC). Also, LANWrights not only helped Austin Community College define a "Certified WebMaster" curriculum and certificate program, but we also developed four of the nine required core courses for that curriculum—for both classroom and online delivery. Finally, LANWrights offers a development toolkit that allows organizations to deliver XML-driven interactive tests or surveys online.
In January, 2000, LANWrights was acquired by a privately-held company named LeapIt.com (now known as iLearning, Inc.) to develop Web- and certification-related content. (In mid-2003, iLearning was acquired by Capstar, LLC a global e-learning and e-technology company.) Ed Tittel fills dual roles as manager of the LANWrights division, and as iLearning's Vice President of IT Certifications.
In April, 2000, Kim Lindros joined LANWrights as a full-time employee. She worked with us for over a year as a part-time consultant, providing editing, document design, and layout services. Kim brings her ten-plus years of industry and editing experience to her job as a project manager/editor. She's been involved in over 60 books, including the Exam Cram Certification Success title, iLearning's Certification Essentials, and numerous Course Technology books.
In early 2002, LANWrights took on the enormous task of writing, editing, and doing production on five books for Gateway computers. Upon completion of these projects in mid 2002, LANWrights celebrated its accomplishments with some much needed vacation time for its employees.
The beginning of 2003 brought a wonderful change to LANWrights: We merged with
our parent company, iLearning, Inc. We look forward to many positive changes
and exciting new opportunities as we continue to serve our customers in the
IT publishing industry.
LANWrights can provide the following types of services:
We have written over 180 books, hundreds of magazine articles, numerous white papers, marketing materials, product analyses, and other acts of wordsmithing. We have also developed numerous online classes on HTML, XML, and various Windows topics (Windows NT, XP, 2000, etc.), along with similar classroom training materials. Any kind of written content in the following subject areas falls within our purview:
Ed Tittel teaches regularly for NetWorld + Interop on Windows security and performance related topics (he's been a member of that faculty since 1996). LANWrights has offered classroom and online training for introductory, intermediate, and advanced HTML and XML topics at Austin Community College, along with classes on networking, TCP/IP, and Windows NT network administration.
Ed also appears at various TechTarget conferences as an invited speaker. In 2002, he attended the SearchWin2000 and SearchNetworking conferences. In his role as Series Editor for Exam Cram 2 (Que Certification/Pearson Technology Group), he also appears at various Microsoft conferences, such as TechEd and TechMentor.
LANWrights has also developed a set of JavaScript, Java, and Perl programs that allow us to deliver training materials via the Web, with built-in mastery tests, automatic scoring, and student test review. Furthermore, necessary ID and password-handling code has been built, along with e-mail notifications of test results, student problems (test failures or requests for instructor contact), and software usage statistics. This development environment permits existing electronic training materials to be repurposed for Web delivery, and uses an XML-based scripting languages to permit easy development of topical exams and content surveys. LANWrights will license this environment for a fixed fee, plus modest royalties, or will repurpose training materials into Web-based equivalents for a fee, plus modest royalties, for use.
Ed Tittel has also provided custom sales, marketing, and technical training for companies such as Novell, GTE, and Symantec Corporation. He is also frequently called on as a technical speaker for hire at trade shows, industry days, user groups, and other technical assemblies. Various staff members have taught at Austin Community College for its Certified Webmaster program, and appear by invitation at local user groups, plus business and academic conferences.
LANWrights has built numerous Web sites for commercial customers, including AP Professional, Wiley, and Key3Media (Interop). We also maintain our own Web site, plus sites for several of our print publications. We can provide turnkey sites, including text, graphics, navigation, style sheets, and programming services, or simply deliver one or more of the aforementioned site elements.
LANWrights' programming services generally fall under the heading of Web site development, or online course or exam delivery, but we have also provided more conventional programming services for customers that include the Cox newspapers, Litidex (National Law Library), and The Psychological Corporation. We distinguish between programming (Java, Perl, C, C++, Forth) and scripting (Perl, JavaScript, VBScript) only because more of our staff has expertise in the latter.
LANWrights employs three full-time editor/project managers: Dawn Rader, Mary Burmeister, and Kim Lindros. They provide a thorough review of all written materials prior to client delivery. They also track project progress and completion, manage LANWrights' employees and other contractors who we may use on projects, and coordinate delivery of materials and incorporation of client feedback for author review, multiple drafts, rewrites, and so on. In addition, our chief administrator, Mary Burmeister, handles tracking of all employee and contractor timesheets, job costing, billing, and payment issues. Finally, both Dawn and Kim are adept at working with various page layout programs such as Quark Express and PageMaker, and we have produced camera-ready copy for nearly 30 books for various customers over the years. Turnkey publications may also be arranged with LANWrights.
LANWrights' usual terms for development and consulting projects are as follows:
We often work with special payments tied to delivery of materials, typically either bonuses for on-time delivery or penalties for late delivery.
Except for projects that are negotiated by contract for books, courses, or works for hire, LANWrights typically offers services by the hour. The LANWrights rate structure comes in two-flavors: short- and long-term. Short-term is defined as 40 hours or less in any given billing month; long-term is defined as more than 40 hours in any given billing month. Bios for all employees are available in the Staff section.
| Employees | Short-term (hourly) | Long-term (hourly) | Service types |
| Ed Tittel | $200 | $150 | Writing, training, Web sites, scripting |
| Dawn Rader | $70 | $60 | Writing, editing, project management |
| Mary Burmeister | $55 | $45 | Editing, project management, writing |
| Kim Lindros | $55 | $45 | Editing, project mangement, layout, typesetting |
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URL: http://www.lanw.com/corporat.htm
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Revised -- February, 2003 [MCB]