First it was an idea… then it became a company-wide research mission… now it’s a book.

Today we start talking publicly about something we have been working on at Yankee Group for much of this past year: our first mass-market book. If you have worked with us recently — or even if you have just visited our web site or talked with us about what we do –  it should come as no surprise that the name of the book is ANYWHERE.

The book is nearing publication with McGraw-Hill, for release in stores on January 8, 2010 (although the major online bookstores are taking orders now; hint, hint). You can get a taste of what it’s all about by downloading Chapter 9, “How ANYWHERE Do You Need to Be?” at our book website, which is anywhere.yankeegroup.com.

Since we’re now preparing to support media interest in the book, I thought I’d use this post as an opportunity to practice my book Q&A.  So I’ll interview myself!

Intriguing title! What’s it about? ANYWHERE is Yankee Group’s vision for the emergence of ubiquitous connectivity: when a seamless, capacious, and intelligent network connects all of us and the things we care about. The book explains why this is happening — but more importantly, it exposes the tremendous changes still ahead in all our lives as it happens. We set out the vision, how and when it happens around the world, and what it’s doing for us as consumers, workers, and business leaders. That’s why the subtitle of the book is How Global Connectivity is Revolutionizing the Way We Do Business.

But Yankee Group’s research is all about Anywhere already. Why did you write a book? By any measure you could choose — the number of people touched, the geographical scope of the technologies, the total economic value added — this revolution in the expansion of the global network will be the largest technology change of our lifetimes, even bigger by far than the commercialization of the Internet.  Yet frankly most managers in the business world today don’t yet see the magnitude of those changes: how the network’s expanded reach will continue to ‘flatten’ the planet, how the growing richness of network experiences will create new appetites in us as consumers, how the network’s intelligence will shrink costs in companies and change the fundamental nature of our activities as businesses.

So we wrote this book to educate businesses on how best to steer their initiatives, partnerships, product development, customer service and virtually every other aspect of a business in order to succeed in the Anywhere environment.

What does the reader get? We focused on describing the business impact of the network changes ahead — in non-technical terms — and prescribing specific things that managers can do to profit from those.  For instance, we paint some pictures of how the lives of typical people will change in ten years’ time, in both developed and emerging markets. We show some companies living the Anywhere vision now, and share how that’s transforming their businesses. We explain how to decide when to move, and what to tackle when you do.

Big scope. How did you pull this picture together? Yankee Group’s extensive resources in the communications world gave us the chance to interview over 50 thought leaders in connectivity–from pioneers to CEOs, from small firms to mega-corporations.  Bob Metcalfe, co-inventor of Ethernet… Nicholas Negroponte, founder of the One Laptop Per Child initiative… Dan Hesse, CEO of Sprint… Reed Hundt, former chairman of the U.S. FCC, and many more big thinkers lent us their support. Check out the complete list here. Besides our data assets and terrific contributions from our own analysts, the ideas, advice, and examples from these participants provide very rich context for the Anywhere vision.

You sound excited — why? The reason why all of us at Yankee Group are excited is that we are evangelists for the huge benefits the world will enjoy from the continued expansion of the network — to more people, more devices, and more services. As analysts, we are independent but not neutral: we unequivocally want the Anywhere Network to emerge. The sooner that happens, and the more business people ‘get’ that message and commit themselves to planning how to benefit, the better. With this book, we feel like we’re doing our part to help that all come about.

I’m excited about everyone’s feedback, too. You can talk about it here, follow me on Twitter, join the book’s Facebook fan page, add your reviews and comments on the online book store pages, and of course email me directly as always.

PS: Yes, it’s going to be available in e-book formats as well! You should expect no less for a company working to become an Anywhere Enterprise. Amazon will be promoting it in Kindle form in January — more on that shortly.  Meanwhile — see you Anywhere!