Flexbooks -- a Non-Braindead way to produce textbooks

[ Thanks to Brendan Scott for this link. ]

"Downloading and distributing for free is not even half the story. As the licence is SA, everyone is free to make changes to them – say farewell to the days of textbooks with US-specific references or out of date pricing. Does the example in the text book refer to buying a penny white loaf at Banbury Cross? Why, then change it to $2:00 wholemeal loaf in Sydney, a $3.80 milkshake at Ettalong Beach (for school children in that area) or even something from the tuckshop of the specific school it’s used in. If there is something wrong with a chapter, take it out and replace it with a better chapter. Over time such books will reach optimal quality – perhaps even in the absence of structured review (in that bad variants will be less used by teachers)."

Complete Story

Related Stories:

• Open Source Textbook Project Launching(Aug 17, 2009)
• California open source digital textbook plan faces barriers(May 11, 2009)
• Writing a Linux shell book the community way(Mar 19, 2009)
• Ubuntu Enrolls at Cornell College(Dec 23, 2008)
• Good Non-Computer Books, October 2008(Oct 16, 2008)
• Free Digital Texts Begin to Challenge Costly College Textbooks in California(Aug 19, 2008)
• Open Source Gets an "A" Grade at UniversityReaders(May 27, 2008)