The concept of the “Living Textbook of Hand Surgery” is based on an idea to present science and knowledge for hand surgeons all over the world without any restrictions using innovative media via internet. Starting 2011 a small team elaborated the draft, which was further discussed and enhanced in several meetings with hand surgeons, librarians, scientific publishers, social scientists and media theorists. Step by step the idea grew to the release of the beta version with a first scientific subchapter in October 2014. It will be updated as new insight is gained and grow continuously to finally cover the whole field of hand surgery.