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Curriki
CK-12
Open Text Book

(These are all links from old Slashdot articles.)

I'd like to be a bazillionaire and dump a ton of money into a nonprofit of this sort.

There's a few projects like that. As far as I know, they aren't really in widespread use.

A professor of mine once said that if you really want to know the material you should try writing a textbook on it. He was in the middle of writing various textbooks on Group Theory and Abstract Algebra. I think that's good advice for any expert in any field.

Here are some links I found after a quick google search:

California Open Source Textbook Project

Textbook Revolution

Open Textbook Repository

An open source Linear Algebra Textbook

A list of open source Math textbooks

Hope this helps!

So, the core problem is not the Kindle or eReaders themselves, but the use of proprietary DRM'd eBooks on eReaders. So, if we just limit the schools that recommend eReaders to using Open Textbook content in an open format, and fix the audio navigation issue on the Kindle or use something like the Alex, then everything would be fine and there would be more of an incentive to fund Open Textbook initiatives.

Of course, Amazon prefers to sell DRM'd versions of books even when non-DRM'd versions are available from the publisher, but they'd be cut out of this whole process, so it becomes a non-issue.

There... problem solved... next ;)

As an educated person of culture and refinement I prefer using my eBook reader for everything, from physics text books to philosophy to fiction. It is difficult to travel with a few heavy books (and I'm always reading a few different books), but a 285 gram eBook reader can fit in my pocket wherever I go and carry an entire library with me. In a pinch, I'll use a phone.

While I can understand a preference for paper (it is what most of us grew up with, after all), the conveniences of eBooks are already outweighing the advantages of paper. This is especially true of dedicated eBook readers with e-ink displays. The one downside is the requirement of electricity (to recharge the batteries), but there aresolar powered chargers to make remote use possible.

If the insidious DRM and vendor lock-in of the Kindle is a problem, I suggest getting one of the BeBook from Endless Ideas and loading openInkpot firmware on it. Even the Sony PRS-505 and PRS-600 are more open than the Kindle and the PRS-600 offers a touch screen to boot.

lulu has been mentioned but if you want to send your book to a "vanity press", amazon only accepts http://www.createspace.com/ books. You might also want to look into asking your old publisher if they would allow you to post the pdf of your new book on a website such as http://www.opentextbook.org/ with an appropriate Creative Common license, allowing them to publish the hard copy. (I did, and they were okay with a pdf but not okay with the LaTeX source - so good luck!) I've used createspace.com myself several times. It is, I understand, slightly more complicated than lulu, but they seem to do a good job. For example, you have to provide a non-standard sized 8''x10'' formatted pdf. (This is fairly easy if your text is in LaTeX). The only option I have used is their free option (you can pay to get an upgraded account with certain benefits ...). The only thing you need to pay for is the proof copy, whcih you must order and approve before publication. Then it is goes on sale on createspace.com and amazon.com.

Quick answer:

Introduction to Information & Communication Technology - Using Free Software and Open Technologies
Edited By: Will Brady
http://openbookproject.net/courses/intro2ict/index.xhtml

The Non-nerds Guide to Computers
http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Non-nerds_Guide_to_Computers

But seriously spend half an hour going through results of Google search on these terms: open textbooks computing

You will have to go through the texts yourself but there are many out there at many different levels.

Here are the main resources.

Wikibooks
http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Subject:Computing
http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Non-nerds_Guide_to_Computers
http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Computers_for_Beginners

Flat World Knowledge
http://www.flatworldknowledge.com/

MIT Open Courseware
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MIT_OpenCourseWare
http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Electrical-Engineering-and-Computer-Science/index.htm

Make Textbooks Affordable open textbooks
http://www.maketextbooksaffordable.org/statement.asp?id2=37833

Student PIRGs
http://www.studentpirgs.org/open-textbooks-catalog#computersci

List at Walla Walla Community College
http://www.wwcc.edu/CMS/index.php?id=2835

The Assayer free books list
http://theassayer.org/
http://www.theassayer.org/cgi-bin/asbrowsesubject.cgi?class=Q#freeclassQAc

California Learning Resource Network (only math and science)
http://clrn.org/FDTI/index.cfm

OER Consortium
http://oerconsortium.org/discipline-specific/#Computer

Open Book Project
http://openbookproject.net/
http://www.openbookproject.net/courses/

Introduction to Information & Communication Technology - Using Free Software and Open Technologies
Edited By: Will Brady
http://openbookproject.net/courses/intro2ict/index.xhtml

O'Reilly Open Books
http://oreilly.com/openbook/

Textbook Revolution
http://www.textbookrevolution.org/index.php/Book:Lists/Subjects/Computer_Science

http://www.opentextbook.org/
http://freelearning.bccampus.ca/openTextbook.php?page_id=221&bookmark=Computing

Are there any good, free resources for learning Algebra and up?

I haven't used any of them, but there are quite a few free (gratis and/or libre) mathematics texts available online. Some are here, and you can probably find more by Googling.

... for a university course? This is not a minor expenditure for most people. The internet has made it cost 50% of what it did in my day and it's still outrageous. Frankly, this is a step in the right direction for one reason: they can begin to advocate open coursebooks that have been written for free (there are high quality examples out there already, see http://www.opentextbook.org/ among others). These universities can then apportion a bit of the funds that they bilk out of students yearly to sponsor updates to the books that they need and the cost of a Kindle once or twice during college, even at current prices, is dirt compared to textbooks, which can run close to a grand if you're really unlucky, and at minimum 200 bucks if you get the leisure to shop around.

Indeed. They should take advantage of the open-source textbooks that already exist... either by simply selecting one for their purposes, or putting together the best pieces from various sources into a coherent textbook that serves their purposes. Here are the open-source textbook (or related information) sites I'm aware of:

Pointers to Textbooks and Content:
http://textbookrevolution.org/
http://www.opentextbook.org/
http://www.theassayer.org/
http://spiff.rit.edu/classes/
http://globaltext.terry.uga.edu/
http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Main_Page
http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Books

Some available lecture notes:
http://ocw.mit.edu/index.html
http://www.phys.uu.nl/~thooft/theorist.html#languages
http://spiff.rit.edu/classes/

Indeed, there are a lot of similar efforts out there. Hopefully they will use some of the existing sources. Take a at The Assayer and other site like Open Textbook to get an idea of some of the great things already being done in this area.

• The Assayer
• Open Text Book
• Ink Textbooks
• Free Curricula Center
• Free Textbook Project
• Flat World Knowledge
• Textbook Revolution
• Wikibooks

We know about the http://www.opentextbook.org/ initiative. I can't see anything on their site about how they validate the textbooks. It's easy enough with books that are published by existing publishers, but what if you want to write an open textbook?

One of the things that makes a textbook an acceptable reference in research is that it is peer-reviewed. That peer-review has the benefit of checking for errors as well as giving some assurance that the content is correct. I'd hate to buy a maths book that messed up how to do a derivative.

We need the peer-review if these books are ever going to be taken seriously. This is a not a radical idea. It is, in many ways, a return to the past when academic ideas where exchanged freely.

What I would suggest is that those of us with Ph.D.'s in our fields set up some sort of agreement to review each other's "open source" texts under a few conditions (negotiable, of course).

One of those should be that if I'm going to review the textbook for free that the textbook itself should be available in a usable form for free or nearly free Download the pdf for free or for some very small amount to help offset hosting costs. There is no reason an electronic copy of a textbook should cost $90.

A second condition, courtesy, would be to mention the reviewers.

A third would be to include some blurb in the text about the whole open textbook thing and why the textbook was published at so little cost, etc. In other words, spread the word.

Printing costs money, and that is understandable. Lulu, and other services, offer on-demand printing. The OWASP project offer their materials via Lulu at cost, and free for electronic download.

I know there are many Slashdot readers who have Ph.D.'s in their fields. I also know that there are many who will be offended by my mentioning the Ph.D. or other doctoral degree as a qualification, but if we want these texts to be taken seriously in universities, then they need to follow the criteria that universities use when assessing textbooks. Sorry. If it is going to be taken seriously, then at least the "lead" author needs to have the degree or be someone very, very famous in the field (such as Bruce Schneier).

I'm going to contact the Open Textbook people, but I'd like to see who here in the Slashdot community would be willing to put in some time to see something like this work. Here's a chance to fight back in a way that is legal, ethical, and just may work.

There are plenty of people on Slashdot who are more than adequately qualified to write university-grade textbooks on various subjects.

I'm sure some people are going to flame me for this. It was not my intent to offend anyone. I am an adjunct professor, so I am somewhat familiar with how textbooks are evaluated and selected.

I think we can make a difference here, just like the OSS community have made a difference in software.

I find it amusing that the CAPTCHA for this post is "computes".

Often it's the professors writing the new edition!