Have you seen this breakdown of the textbook dollar?
http://www.nacs.org/common/research/textbook$.pdf
No one imho is a villain in this scene.... Publishers, bookstores are not like Enron. It's capitalism. It's inflation. Yes there should be alternatives to getting information for free to further the original intent of the Gutenberg press! But, this raises more questions than answers them for me.
There is no such thing as a free lunch, so what cost does this "self-publishing" have? What kind of accuracy and quality can lulu.com ensure? What does it actually cost the student/reader if this material is not accurate and they go to get certified and have been possibly mislead by one man's material? What does it cost the student (or their school lab resources) to print out this "free" book of 500 to 800 pages to gain the full benefit of a textbook ? (i.e. having the ability to read offline, highlight, etc. is still a tangible benefit of printed books) What real costs do ambitious people like Mr. Basham incur to get their material published--read the fine print on lulu.com services and/or just track what it takes in personal time & $$ to write, edit, review, format, proofread, and dissemninate this material)? What more does a commercial publisher provide than lulu.com? Is lulu.com truly a better alternative or just an alternative?
Mr. Basham's book is meant to work with a curriculum that is already free and online through the Academy program. All instructors in this program are encouraged to provide each other with free material to share. Cisco has a website set up for this.
Does anyone question the costs mentioned in the articles for the school tuition & fees (Ranging from $2k to $7k) for the same program?
The Cisco texts he is "competing" with have an associated retail price, yes, but certainly not as much as a lot of textbooks are these days ("only" $67 for a companion guide, $22 for a lab manual, $30 for a workbook), and it must be noted they can be had for a discounted price off the publisher's site. (See ciscopress.com, register and get 25% off all ciscopress books). Is this disintermediating? or is it just another alternative?
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Have you seen this breakdown of the textbook dollar? http://www.nacs.org/common/research/textbook$.pdf
No one imho is a villain in this scene.... Publishers, bookstores are not like Enron. It's capitalism. It's inflation. Yes there should be alternatives to getting information for free to further the original intent of the Gutenberg press! But, this raises more questions than answers them for me.
There is no such thing as a free lunch, so what cost does this "self-publishing" have? What kind of accuracy and quality can lulu.com ensure? What does it actually cost the student/reader if this material is not accurate and they go to get certified and have been possibly mislead by one man's material? What does it cost the student (or their school lab resources) to print out this "free" book of 500 to 800 pages to gain the full benefit of a textbook ? (i.e. having the ability to read offline, highlight, etc. is still a tangible benefit of printed books) What real costs do ambitious people like Mr. Basham incur to get their material published--read the fine print on lulu.com services and/or just track what it takes in personal time & $$ to write, edit, review, format, proofread, and dissemninate this material)? What more does a commercial publisher provide than lulu.com? Is lulu.com truly a better alternative or just an alternative?
Mr. Basham's book is meant to work with a curriculum that is already free and online through the Academy program. All instructors in this program are encouraged to provide each other with free material to share. Cisco has a website set up for this.
Does anyone question the costs mentioned in the articles for the school tuition & fees (Ranging from $2k to $7k) for the same program?
The Cisco texts he is "competing" with have an associated retail price, yes, but certainly not as much as a lot of textbooks are these days ("only" $67 for a companion guide, $22 for a lab manual, $30 for a workbook), and it must be noted they can be had for a discounted price off the publisher's site. (See ciscopress.com, register and get 25% off all ciscopress books). Is this disintermediating? or is it just another alternative?