Open Source Textbooks Challenge a Paradigm - Flat World Knowledge
| September 2, 2008 |  View for printing |
A small, digital book startup thinks it has a solution to the age-old student lament: overpriced textbooks that have little value when the course is over. The answer? Make them open source -- and give them away.
Flat World Knowledge is the brainchild of two former textbook industry executives who learned from the inside about the wacky economy of textbooks.
In a nutshell, there is a huge, inelastic demand for college texts, even though textbook prices are high. Because of this there is a lot of piracy and a robust secondary market for textbooks -- but not for long, because they are updated every couple of years, rendering old editions virtually worthless.
Flat World Knowledge http://www.flatworldknowledge.com/
By Chris Snyder
Full Story: http://blog.wired.com/business/2008/ ... ce-tex.html 
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