I have a passion for knowledge and I realise that part of the responsibility of gathering knowledge is being able to advance the state of the human condition in some way. My aims in writing books are to play with software, achieve personal goals and try something new for fun. It also helps that I think Open Source, technology, the visual representation of data and information rock in serious ways. The books that I write are a mechanism to support my own learning, so the way I explain things is focused on trying to impart understanding in a simple but functional way. By extension this makes the process directly translatable to providing content for others learning. I'm totally in awe of the Open Source community that has made this type of work possible.