The Specter of Open Source Textbooks
September 9, 2010
Have publishers found a new revenue handhold with electronic books? Can publishers create rich media books that are part content, part design and user experience, and part software? Can publishers fend off the push for open source content from “the community”? These are tough questions which I considered after reading the Silicon Valley.com news article “Cassidy: Former Sun Chief Scott McNealy’s Better Idea for School Textbooks.” I thought the write up shed light on how Scott McNealy, the co-founder of Sun Microsystems, plans to turn elementary and high school education inside out.
He has created ‘Curriki’, a Web site described as: “a combination of Facebook, Wikipedia, YouTube, MySpace, Twitter for anybody involved in K-12.” It is, he explains, “a free and open source digital compendium of just about everything teachers use to teach – textbooks, worksheets, tests, video presentations, podcasts, you name it.” This project aims to eliminate bulky textbooks, and help schools save money from getting them printed. With the open source digital textbooks, he advocates, “teachers could add, subtract, and change curriculum… comment on each other’s lesson plans. Students would receive instant feedback.” This is a fresh challenge to traditional publishers, educational bureaucracy, and a source of inspiration to save our schools and our future.
Oracle is enlisting a flock of legal eagles to deal with the open source pests heading towards the firm’s database business. Is there an Oracle among publishers? I am thinking. I am thinking. What I envision is Freddy Kruger in Nightmare on Sixth Avenue.
Stephen E Arnold, September 9, 2010
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