Commercial Textbook Publishers Faces Pressure from the Open Source Crowd
August 20, 2009
Open source once meant software that most humans could not locate, convert to an executable, and use if and when the human was able to get the software on a computing device. No more. Open source continues to push its snout into the bedrooms and under the covers of the enterprise. Nothing makes a commercial vendor more uncomfortable than the wet snout of open source sniffing in some very private regions.
To get a feel for how open source may push traditional publishers over the cliff, you will want to read “Advice On Creating an Open Source Textbook?” Let us assume that the author Occamboy is spot on. When I take this approach, the following comment strikes me as important:
Poking around on the Net, I’ve found several intriguing options for distributing open source texts, such as Flatworld Knowledge, Lulu, and Connexions.
When I add Google’s creative commons publishing effort to Occamboy’s three links, I see a way for subject matter experts to create textbooks. Taking this a step further, combining online video with open source textbooks, I see a way for some instructors to cover a subject without requiring students to pony up big money for textbooks and course materials. If I am correct, the screams and splashes one hears will be traditional textbook publishers being pushed off a financial cliff to the river ???? (Styx) below. Some will find opportunity in open source textbooks. Good for them. The publishers who fail? I think the Wal*Mart in J’town is hiring greeters. More along this line appears in Google: The Digital Gutenberg. Click the ad at the top of any Beyond Search Web page. How is that for subtle marketing, dear journalists? I am selling my new Google study! Right here! Now!
Stephen Arnold, August 20, 2009
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