Open Source Meets Textbook Publishing - Much Cash Freed Up

What do you get when you take the open source approach and apply it to textbook publishing? Answer: a whole lot of happy students, thrilled at the chance to save a whole lot of cash. "There's over $1 trillion in student debt here, and textbooks cost $200 to $300 a pop," said David Harris, editor-in-chief of OpenStax College. "There's a great need to help students."

...There's no denying the growing impact of open source software in today's business landscape, but for those who want additional proof of the open approach's viability, there's OpenStax College. Since 2012, the initiative has been producing peer-reviewed open source textbooks under a Creative Commons license.

This year, the organization expects to save some 40,000 students at 300 educational institutions about US$3.7 million on textbooks, it announced on Tuesday. Since June 2012, OpenStax College's free books have been accessed online by more than 1.7 million people and downloaded more than 170,000 times.

..."If you're locked into the past, you might see us as a threat," Harris said. "If you're looking at the future, you might see us as an opportunity."