[Flat World Knowledge], the open source textbook publishing company, has come out of private beta! ...
As a quick recap, FWK textbooks are much like traditional textbooks in that they are:
beautiful looking printed books,
written by world-class authors,
supported with all the supplementals and teaching aids (like an instructor manual, slides, and assessments) teachers expect, and
available as review copies (for teachers),
FWK textbooks are UNLIKE traditional textbooks in that they are:
licensed CC BY-NC-SA,
always available in full-text online for free,
offered in a variety of additional, affordable formats (paperback black-and-white ($30), full-color ($60), audio book ($30), individual book chapters as audio ($3), etc.),
supported by a variety of study aids available at the student’s option (NOT forcibly bundled with the book)
I’m SO excited about FWK because we’re going to show the world that extremely high quality open educational resources can be produced and disseminated in a way that is sustainable over the long term. Jump over to the Catalog page, choose a book with a Feb 2009 publication date, and click “Start Reading” to see what I’m talking about.
Posted by
Gavin Baker at 1/31/2009 08:31:00 PM.
The open access movement:
Putting peer-reviewed scientific and scholarly literature
on the internet. Making it available free of charge and
free of most copyright and licensing restrictions.
Removing the barriers to serious research.
I recommend the OA tracking project (OATP) as the best way to stay on top of new OA developments. You can read the OATP feed on a blog-like web page or subscribe to it by RSS, email, or Twitter. You can also help build the feed by tagging new developments you encounter.
