[TOS] Another few steps along the textbook path

[Greg Hislop]

Hi,

I'm quite supportive of the notion of open content texts, and of this 
project in particular.  But I thought this blog post was mostly off the 
mark (to be polite).  Or, to be less polite :-) I thought it was shallow, 
uninformed, and needlessly provocative. 

Few textbooks have any potential to be large money makers.  Most have 
markets that are just too small.  The ones with large market potential - 
mostly intro books in subjects taken by lots of disciplines (e.g., a 
Calculus I text) - face stiff competition.  Success in a market like that 
is difficult.  More generally, writing a very good text is very hard, and 
worth of recognition (and worth monetary reward if the author so chooses). 
 

More to the point:  many instructors I know are quite bothered by the cost 
of texts, and quite interested in alternatives, including open content. 
But change takes time, and we're still quite early in the process of 
making this change.

The blog also implies that instructors are in control of this situation, 
where much of the control is in the hands of publishers instead.  This is 
partly a matter of history and momentum - which can change.  But it's also 
a function of instructors' needs for texts to address full courses.  Many 
times, instructors are tasked with teaching courses in their discipline, 
but outside their own specialty.  A common approach in that case is to 
select a text and build the course around that (or use the text already 
selected for the course).  Even with availability of lots of open content, 
instructors would be hard pressed to select and assemble the right pieces. 
 That is not a trivial task.

On being out of date - as Greg points out, going online will help.  But 
more important is the community effect in writing.  Even online, a 
traditional single author or small group won't do that well at keeping up. 
 Instructors just don't have enough time to keep a book at the front of a 
rapidly changing area.  A group effort at writing should help in keeping 
up.

On being a reference for years to come - given rapid change, and the 
introductory nature of many texts, I'm not sure that's an important goal 
for many texts (there are exceptions).

Cheers,

Greg Hislop




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