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How long did it take to write the Internet Peering Playbook?

From beginning to end it took nine months of writing, re-writing, editing, and publishing in print and eBook formats.

But the base research took over a decade of finding Internet operations research topics, working with the community to identify the key aspects of the topic, and document what I learned. Then there was the stepwise refinement process where I walked people through the white paper to see if it made sense, if it matched their understanding, and to add refinements. This took many months of attending and participating in conferences around the world. Finally, the white papers were e-mailed out for free to anyone who was interested. Many times these people were also interested in peering and maybe being a customers.

When I retired from Equinix I decided that I wanted to make sure that the information remained freely available. After all, each white paper was being hosted by different universities and research centers around the globe, but they all had different versions. I wanted to make sure that everyone could get the last one I put out.

But then, some in academia said that an actual published book would be easier to site than a white paper hosted on a web site. So I started with the re-writes. The re-writes were necessary because over ten years, my writing has changed, and the material was also a mish mash of solid timeless material and time-bound dated material like the price of transport, transit, and OC-3 MAE-East ATM peering ports in 1999. The re-write updated the price points, removed unnecessary citations, and cleaned up the language. I hired Bonnie Hupton, a professional editor to go through and polish the book. What a difference that made.

For the second edition my wife Theresa Norton did a great job with edits, further improving the readability and ensuring that it was understandable by the layman.

I printed the book on high quality paper in full color so it is an easy read. It is also a heavy book at 1.8 pounds. And as it turns out, I don't make money on the books. Part of this is because I have given away about 400 books to people who contributed information to the white papers in the past, to people who might have difficulty getting the book, and to people who I owe money to. It distracts them just enough that I can slip away.