Abstract: With the cost of college textbooks up 62% over the last decade, pressure is building for an alternative model of publishing: the free book. Five years ago, an author had to be very persistent --- maybe even a little crazy --- to try the new approach. But now a whole new infrastructure is springing up to make it easier.
From the body of the article:
Five years ago, people looked at me funny when I expressed my enthusiasm for free books. You mean like Project Gutenberg? Downloading Hamlet for free? No no, I explained, I was talking about books intentionally set free by their authors. Huh? You know, like Linux. Open-source books. You mean like that party game where you sit in a circle, and everybody takes turns making up the next part of the story? No no no, I'd explain, serious tomes on weighty subjects: calculus, Proust, cell biology.
Posted by
Peter Suber at 12/16/2005 09:58:00 AM.
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.
