Many people have asked me for the status of a CSLA .NET for Silverlight ebook. I may yet write such an ebook, but I am trying something new and different first – a 7 part video series covering CSLA .NET for Silverlight.

Each video will be roughly 40 minutes in length, and the topics include:

1. Introduction to CSLA .NET for Silverlight
2. Creating a basic Silverlight and CSLA .NET for Silverlight application
3. Implementing client-only architectures (calling remote services)
4. Implementing n-tier archtiectures (using a remote data portal)
5. Implementation of all CSLA .NET business object stereotypes
6. Data Access in n-tier applications
7. Authentication and authorization in CSLA .NET for Silverlight

This totals to nearly 5 hours of content, with a mix of lecture and demo (though heavy on the demo).

My current plan is to sell the videos through my online store, allowing purchasers to download the videos so they can be watched offline. The files will be quite large, but once downloaded, you’ll be able to watch them offline and I think that’s preferable to a streaming approach (though I’m open to feedback – would streaming be better?).

While allowing downloads of the files may invite piracy, I’ll take that risk. I’m sure my ebooks have suffered from some piracy (some people are simply immoral), but I strongly believe that most counter-measures are easily defeated by the criminals and they absolutely complicate the lives of honest customers. The videos will cost more than the ebooks, as I’m basing my pricing on comparable video training, but I am hopeful that this won’t make the piracy issue worse. Unlike stealing from a “big publisher”, a lot of piracy and lack of actual sales just means I won’t be able to afford to create more videos or other content – the linkage between the criminal and me is direct – so I’m hopeful that the “casual pirate” will at least think twice before stealing from the guy who created the framework they are trying to learn :)

As always though, I believe that most people are basically decent, and that this video series will have very real, tangible value to users of CSLA .NET for Silverlight (and CSLA .NET in general to some degree).

To create the video series, I’ve hired a video producer and they’ll be doing the editing and production work. They also did all the lighting and camera work to film the live lecture parts of each segment, and what I’ve seen so far looks and sounds very nice! I’m using Camtasia to record the demo parts of each segment, and they’ll merge the lecture and demo content together to create each final segment. The live lecture parts were filmed in one of Magenic’s conference rooms, and I’m pretty pleased with the visual layout (it is somewhat like being in a classroom or at a conference).

My current train of thought is to offer early adopters a discount, allowing you to download the segments as they become available. I think a discount is warranted, as the segments will be completed over a period of a few weeks, so there’s an element of "paying for future content” involved for any early adopters.

Watch for the announcement of availability in the next very few short weeks!