MidnightDBA and Red Gate have joined together to produce a new book on SQL Server, written by 15 first-time authors. The resulting book, TribalSQL, includes everything you should know about SQL Server that isn’t taught in traditional training, they call it Tribal knowledge. The book is very much a group effort where all the participants have donated their time and royalties to charity. TribalSQL is expected to launch at this year’s PASS, hitting stores in October.

History

In 2011, Jen and Sean McCown (MidnightDBA) were talking to their audience (Whoa, what was that? Here’s some background.) about how great it would be if a bunch of first-time authors got together to write a SQL book. The idea stuck with them, and the word spread. Jen started collecting abstracts and volunteers to help with peer and technical editing.

Eventually Jen ran into Red Gate’s Tony Davis, a man with many years of editing technical books under his belt. Tony signed up to join Jen’s small horde of volunteers, taking on the responsibility of final editing.

MidnightDBA wanted this book to be a fully community driven project, so not only was the book written and edited by volunteers, all royalties will be paid to the charity Computers 4 Africa.

Computers 4 Africa collects redundant IT, which is refurbished and data-wiped before being sent out to African schools, colleges, and community projects. Their mission is to help lift the continent of Africa out of the poverty trap by equipping the next generation to work in a global environment.

What’s really in the book?

The topics in TribalSQL cover what each of the authors considers vital database knowledge – in other words, there’s a wide range. Here’s a selection of the chapter titles:

Verifying Backups Using Statistical Sampling by Shaun J Stuart

Guerrilla Project Management Techniques by David Tate

Agile Database Development by Dev Nambi

What’s new in SQL Server 2012 – Database development by Dave Ballantyne

Performance Tuning with SQL Trace and Extended Events by Tara Kizer

SQL Injection: How it Works and How to Thwart it by Kevin Feasel

Contributors

Volunteer Peer Editors:

Joseph D Antoni

Justin Dearing

Shannon Lowder

John Morehouse

Craig Purnell

Ben Seaman

Jason Thomas

Robert Volk

Ed Watson

Jason Yousef

James Zimmerman

Volunteer Technical Editors:

Neil Hambly

Sean McCown

Frank Moore

Brent Ozar

Meredith Ryan

Thomas Stringer

Chapter Authors (pictures and bios)

Dave Ballantyne

John Barnett

Diana Dee

Kevin Feasel

Tara Kizer

Chuck Lathrope

Stephanie Locke

Colleen Morrow

Dev Nambi

Bob Pusateri

Mark S. Rasmussen

Wil Sisney

Shaun J. Stuart

David Tate

Matt Velic