Why do I renew my O’Reilly subscription every year? No, it is not my local gym!
One of the things that is most exciting to me is when we can make a real difference in the arc of someone’s career.
Tim O’Reilly, Founder and CEO of O’Reilly Media
If you have been in the tech industry for a long time, then you’ve seen those technical books on Python programming, Data Science, Design, and many other titles. Still, the common theme is the featured animals on the cover pages of the O’Reilly books (formerly Safari Books).
What is the O’Reilly Learning Platform?
I was surprised that so many people I met and chatted with over the last year from the tech industry were unfamiliar with the O’Reilly platform. I can say almost 60% didn’t hear about them before.
So, to answer the question, what is O’Reilly? It is an online learning platform that has a unique network of experts and innovators who share their knowledge through books, videos, live training, interactive sessions, certification preparation, and many other features that I will share through this article.
When I say experts and innovators, it is not limited to the IT topics only. Their library has thousands of topics from AI, programming, Data Analytics, UX/UI design, finance, Career Development, project?management, leadership, and many others. Also, the media is not limited to O’Reilly, but you can find content from many other publishers, like Pearson, Packt, SAS, Apress, and Harvard Business Review.
In recent years the tech industry has attracted people from many other industries, and with the exponential growth of the tech industry in the upcoming years, it will attract more. However, unlike other industries where you learn the job and do it for years, working in tech requires being open for continuous learning. Otherwise, your expertise will be outdated.
Continuous learning and self-development
Another critical point when it comes to the learning materials in the tech industry is that they change constantly. If you buy a book today to learn a programming language, this book will be obsolete in a couple of years, and a new edition will be released. Then, you need to purchase the new one to stay updated.
Occasionally, I buy physical books, especially when unavailable on the O'Reilly platform. But for technical books, Python Data Science Handbook was the last technical book I purchased before switching entirely to O'Reilly online for technical books and more.?
Smooky, our cat, was curious to learn about the CATegorical data!?
Who are the users?
O’Reilly media offers the subscription to individuals, government agencies, higher education staff, and students whose access is limited to certain features. Finally, enterprises, where they have additional features, are not available for other users. One of those features is the customized services. O’Reilly collaborates with companies to solve their challenges and support them. For example, when those companies need to prepare their teams for a change in their technology or when they need to level up their skills. Then, O’Reilly creates customized learning solutions
Suppose your team is stuck at any point while they are chatting on Slack. In that case, they can type their question directly in any Slack channel, and Answers from O’Reilly populate instantly within the chat.
I’ve seen many comments on the internet by employees who claim that they have O’Reilly membership through their employer, but they never use it. What a waste of resources! But, when upskilling is critical for the enterprise, team leaders can use the Assignment feature. This feature will allow leaders to ensure that their team is on top of the technology and follow their progress. Additionally, a team leader can learn how their team is learning and the key user engagement details with the Insights dashboard. Lastly, O’Reilly allows Integrations and APIs that bring the entire O’Reilly content into the existing Learning Experience Platform. ?
Ok, here is my personal experience with O’Reilly.
The first time I was introduced to this platform was probably between 2012-2013 through two friends who had free access through their employers. It was Safaribooksonline.com at that time. Since that time, I have been on and off the platform. Although I am not sure if it was me or the pace of change in the tech industry wasn’t as fast as today, I preferred to have the physical book on specific topics to build the foundation without digging deeper to be technical. But then, with more engagement with the industry, I realized that I was wrong. It would be best to keep learning and evolving to stay ahead of the everchanging technical challenges.
So, my use of O’Reilly became more frequent when I was in positions where Data Analytics, Big Data, and Machine Learning became terms I hear very often, and I wanted to have more knowledge about them.
The challenges I had and I believe I was able to manage with O’Reilly were the source of information I can trust, the cost of the technical books, and the size of each technical book. So, with only one subscription, I have access to thousands of resources curated by experts, and I don’t have to buy books on every topic. The latter saved me a lot when it came to just read a chapter or two from certain books to know the fundamentals of the technology without the need to read the whole 500+ pages.
Why do I love using O’Reilly?
Before using it, I had to reach out to friends and colleagues to ask about resources on some topics or explain something to me. It was hard most of the time. So, by just typing the question in the search, I get the results in a blink. Also, the recommendation feature is impressive. Every time I look at a specific topic, the platform recommends other resources based on my search history. The feature that I love the most is connecting with experts directly. Some of the authors participate in the live events. So, in those events, you have the opportunity to ask them now and get the answer on the spot.?
Sometimes I prefer to learn something by seeing how others did it. This is why I like checking the Case Studies section from time to time. You get to know how others were successful or failed in implementing the technology, and you learn from it.
One common feature in any digital library is highlighting a section and adding notes for more enhanced learning. However, I haven’t seen anywhere or didn’t try exporting those notes and highlights into a spreadsheet separate from the platform. This option is available on O’Reilly media and is very useful when you need to collect notes from different resources in one place.
For the rest of this article, I will show a quick overview of different features that I can use as an individual subscriber. Remember, each of the below categories has additional customer-centric, ML-driven, or an expert pick.
Let’s dive deeper and explore more about the O’Reilly platform.
Learning Path & Resource Center
When you search for any topic, you can look at different formats. One of them is the Learning path, as shown in the image below.
The term Learning Path here is quite misleading, at least for me. They tend to be from online learning courses. They are practical, and most of the topics I searched were videos and a little with text included. The other thing about the name “Learning Path” that is not relevant to most of the contents is that they are not divided into beginner, intermediate, and advanced. They are not structured as steps or a roadmap to master the topic.?
On the other side, I would prefer calling the Resource Center is the Learning Path. First, I thought it was a repository for codes or data, but it ended up with something I was looking for. For me, it is one of the unique features the platform has. O’Reilly editors guide you in the topic you want to learn.
At the time of writing this article, there are 26 topics listed. As they say on the Features page, “Learn from experts. Become one yourself”. I liked how they applied this vision to the Resources Center. You won’t be swamped by dozens of books or videos, and you must finish them. Each one of the topics is divided into three levels. “Start your learning” (Big-picture understanding), “Dig a little deeper” (If you already know the basics, now move to the how and why, and the last level is “Become an expert” (Develop the practical skills to put your knowledge to work). Each level is a mix of videos and books. But have you noticed that you don’t need to read the whole book? Sometimes, the experts will recommend a chapter only to cover a specific idea.
Here is an example from the Artificial Intelligence playlist in the Resource Center. Still, I don’t like the name “Resource Center.”
Expert Playlist
Another fantastic feature of O’Reilly learning. Imagine you have access to a playlist on a topic that industry leaders created. They will pick what matters for you instead of taking a long time to read many books. Of course, the format of the content will vary. You will find books, videos, audiobooks, and most of the time, just chapters. Once you find a playlist you like, you can copy it to your playlists in your account.
You can also create your playlist to save your reference materials. For example, if you want to see my Product Management playlist, check out this link: O'Reilly - My PM playlist. It will give you an idea of how a playlist looks and the titles.?
Interactive Tools and Learning by Doing
In some fields, you can start your career immediately after graduation from a university, technical school, or maybe just by attending an onsite training, and you will spend the rest of your career repeating the same thing. This is not the case for technical or non-technical roles in the tech industry. You always need to stay ahead with any new technology with reading and, most importantly, the hands-on experience
Here is one of the great tools that are offered on this platform. You get access to practice new and hot technologies in the market, guided interactivity, and the best part is that it is all on your browser. You don’t need to set up a dev environment, install software or even worry about the datasets.
Currently, there are 28 sandboxes and 734 scenarios where you can build technical skills like Kubernetes, OpenShift, Docker, Ruby, and more. It is the most innovative way to close the technological gaps in such a fast-paced industry.
What about a mix between reading and a sandbox?
Still in beta version, but O’Reilly introduced the Interactive Books in July 2021. The list is still small, but it provides an integrated sandbox environment inside the book. So, you will quickly start coding as you read without installing anything on your local machine.
领英推荐
The example below is from Kubernetes Cookbook By?Sébastien Goasguen?and?Michael Hausenblas. Release Date: March 2018
Surely, I can't finish this Interactive Learning section without mentioning the availability of "Head First" books. If you prefer to have hands-on and learn by doing the task, you should check these books. You will learn by following fun and interactive learnings as you go through an activity book.
Case Studies
If you are in DevOps, you may be wondered how Microsoft does DevOps? If machine learning is your field, you may know How Spotify uses machine learning to personalize the user experience. If you are building your engineering team, what about learning from Julia Grace about Building engineering teams under pressure at Slack. How does Comcast use AI to reinvent the customer experience? Or How does IBM apply design thinking? All of those topics and more than 150 case studies where professionals from many companies share their stories, the success, and the failure. So, you avoid mistakes in your future projects.
Live Events and Live Online training
When O’Reilly says its mission is to change the world by sharing the knowledge of experts, here is how they do it more clearly. You get to meet highly respected authors, coders, coaches, and they are all industry leaders. This comes in one of the following forms:
Each even has a page with all the information about it. Some of those events are a couple of hours long, and some are three days of online training. The signup for the event is straightforward, and you can add it directly to your preferred calendar. Then, you have a short description of the event/training with details on WHAT YOU WILL LEARN, A section describing “THIS LIVE EVENT IS FOR YOU BECAUSE” in case you are not sure about the event's target audience. If you are missing fundamental concepts, don’t worry; the instructors will have a Recommended Preparation and a Recommended Follow-Up for you in the PREREQUISITES section. Lastly, the instructors share the agenda of the training session in advance with timeframes.
What is the best part about this section? First, you can ask the question directly at any of those sessions, and you get the answer straight from the instructors. Also, don’t worry if you miss the event, as you will have access to the recording later.?
Early Release
Who doesn’t like to stay ahead and see the trending topics while they are in the making? With this feature, you have access to books before they go public. In addition, it is another way of interacting with the experts; sometimes, authors will ask for suggestions for edits. So, you can share your opinion with the author directly and add value to their work.
Personalized recommendations
The ML-driven personalized recommendations come in two different forms. The first recommendation is based on the content I’ve read, listened to, or watched. So, as a user, the more I engage, the better suggestions I receive. The other form is by following a topic. You will be recommended with content based on topics you follow.
The good thing about the recommendation is that you control the content. If you don’t like an item, you can remove it from the list. Then, you see this message; “Ok, we won't show you this title again.”
Certifications
As an individual or team, you have access to the official preparation materials directly from the vendors. Of course, you may prefer other platforms like Udemy that offer courses tailored to each exam and updated frequently. Still, the difference here is that you have access to all of the certifications you may think about with one subscription.
The other differentiator you will find is that you have access to practice tests from Pearson. Each exam offers three modes:
Answers
In a fast-paced environment, every minute counts in searching for an answer to a challenging question or something not in our area of expertise. Imagine you know someone with more than 40 years of experience in everything and memorizes thousands and thousands of books. You would run to them when you are stuck on any topic, right?
This feature is one of my favorites on the platform because O’Reilly Answers is an advanced natural language processing (NLP) engine that scans those thousands of books and videos and gets you the answers in a matter of seconds. That’s correct; you read that right. So you get answers from courses, case studies, and tech conferences, even if they are in a video format.
If you are a developer and you need to find out if you can run a specific line of code you test, or just a general question about an acronym you just heard in a meeting, you can use the Answers to find answers collected from thousands of contents.
Custom services for Enterprises
In addition to all the features available for every member, accounts through enterprises have many unique features.
Not only because employees are not paying for the subscription out of their pocket, but for many reasons tailored to team development, personalized support, customized training, and integrations.
With integration, enterprises can bring the entire O’Reilly content to their existing Learning platform. Employees can type the question in any Slack channel and get snippets of content right on the Slack channel from O’Reilly content.
Team leaders can track the progress and learning behavior of their team. Last but not least, enterprises can also partner with O’Reilly to sponsor content to generate leads, open a new market, and grow.
My final thoughts
O’Reilly by far is my favorite platform that accompanied my journey in self-learning. It has thousands of resources available when I need them. In self-learning, you are more in non-linear learning. Therefore, you need to have access to the right tool that best suits your need and gives you hands-on experience in some cases.
Although the platform is very useful for everyone, I think it could be pricy for some people who are just new to self-learning or don’t have a target to achieve. They may not be able to afford the cost of the subscription. My assumptions on what is best for me at this stage of my career was through the annual subscription. However, if you feel that you may not be on the platform frequently, I suggest the following:
What are the areas of improvement for the platform?
According to O’Reilly’s website, they’ve been around for 40 years already, and they have approximately 2.5 million users worldwide. But, I think they still have many opportunities to grow in the space of online learning, leveraging their network of experts and the knowledge of future technologies.
Maybe it needs a separate article to teardown the product and looks for many areas of improvement to enhance the user experience, engagement, and retention. However, below are just high-level strategic points to attract more professionals to subscribe and use the platform.
? From revenue concerns, as an individual, if I won’t find a discount code and I have to pay almost 1000 USD a year, that is equivalent to 25 books if I assume the price per book is 40 dollars, but I will have the book forever. Or fewer books and purchase an online course from Udacity, Udemy, or others. For Udemy, once you buy the course, you have lifetime access. So, I think they may need to consider repricing the plan for individuals. Doing the math, I prefer 1 million users with 300 USD / year over 400K with $900 /year. By doing this, I am sharing the knowledge with more people, which is the company mission.
? The other improvement area is building a community around a professional skillset
? Sometimes badges or certifications are rewarding and encourage people to achieve more. Something like sharing your achievement on your social media profile or your resume. Here I think O’Reilly could create skill-based badges. I think many users would love to have a way of sharing their achievements, learnings, and skills on their professional profiles.
? One of the comments I read in some of the book’s reviews is the outdated content. Although the platform keeps updating the content, they also need to retire those materials with old techniques that are not in use anymore. To be more fair with this point, I prefer a way or a technology to highlight outdated sections because other sections in those books are valuable and sometimes unique. So, instead of retiring the entire content, what about adding a disclaimer or a shadow on those sections.
? In Live Events, you only receive the recording for those events you registered to attend. Many events overlap with each other, or they are delivered simultaneously. Unfortunately, you can only register for one event at a specific time window. The problem here is that you receive the recording of the event you registered for only. Then, you have to register for the other event on another date that may come after a few months, which may overlap with another interesting event. In the case of overlapping events, members can register for more than one event to receive the recording for all the events that overlapped with each other. ?
? Another area I hope O’Reilly considers for improvement is focusing more on the Resources Center as the official Learning Path and renaming the Learning Path tab with something else.
? With the focus on increasing the number of subscribers through the channels of individual subscribers, it will attract other companies to partner with O’Reilly to serve their customers, leading to more content to be shared with people, which is the company's mission.
Overall, this is my experience with my favorite learning platform that helps me stay updated with new technologies and trends and learn from experts.
Student at Zagazig University
6 个月that was a really informative review about the site I didn't find elsewhere, thank you for sharing
Software Developer | Web Developer
2 年I love O'Reilly and have used the platform for quite sometime now. An alternative to O'Reilly is SitePoint, they have also got a great collection. And actually there is a lifetime deal running for three days: https://www.mightydeals.com/deal/lifetime-access-to-sitepoint-premium.html
Technology professional from the foothills of Himalayas | Servant Leader | Lifelong Learner
3 年What a detailed and thoughtful write up. Thank you.
I have subscribed for many years. Thankfully they maintained my older price - at near US$1000 I'd probably wouldn't get it. ACM members also have access to O'Reilly (I believe it is limited, though). I'd like to see badges, too - look at Pluralsight (but maybe not so many - they have been overdoing it lately) for examples. They also have tests for technologies, which give you ratings you can post in LinkedIn. Please don't retire older material altogether, when it refers to older tech. Some people may need to maintain older software! Again, I really like how Pluralsight does this - they point out that the course is outdated, and when appropriate point to a newer course.
I wish we had more sandboxes - it is very nicely done... Couldn't agree more on the points wrt recordings... The recordings should be available to all (I shouldn't need to register for it...