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Saylor offers millions of dollars in bounties for open textbooks

saylor.org

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Re: Saylor offers millions of dollars in bounties for open textbooks

#11

Post by calpaterson »

puredemo wrote: post #10

Their submission form is ridiculous. http://www.saylor.org/otc-form/ I was going to submit this: http://bob.cs.sonoma.edu/IntroCompOrg_Jan_2011.pdf An excellent (imo) book on introductory assembly and computer organization, but I'm not going to write out their "course mapping forms" and send in my resume just to submit it. They can't be serious.

The form is clearly aimed at authors and that book's copyright clearly makes it ineligible. They're asking for free ("as in freedom") textbooks, not for people to upload pdfs of ebooks that they know of.

Re: Saylor offers millions of dollars in bounties for open textbooks

#12

Post by wedesoft »

plinkplonk wrote: post #7

Linear Algebra seems to be missing in the mathematics section of the list of eligible courses. I'd have thought it would be pretty fundamental. Hefferon's text is under the GPL and might be eligible.

I can recommend the Samizdat website [1]. They have a very good linear algebra book as well.

[1] http://samizdat.mines.edu/

Re: Saylor offers millions of dollars in bounties for open textbooks

#13

Post by wwwwrrrr »

wedesoft wrote: post #12
plinkplonk wrote: post #7

Linear Algebra seems to be missing in the mathematics section of the list of eligible courses. I'd have thought it would be pretty fundamental. Hefferon's text is under the GPL and might be eligible.

I can recommend the Samizdat website [1]. They have a very good linear algebra book as well. [1] http://samizdat.mines.edu/

This really shows the problem with this model. Textbook publishers have been very successful at attracting the top authorities in their respective fields to write the textbook. Sure, anyone can rehash what's already written in any other textbook. But can Saylor get someone like Halmos or Axler to write their linear algebra textbook?

Re: Saylor offers millions of dollars in bounties for open textbooks

#14

Post by puredemo »

calpaterson wrote: post #11
puredemo wrote: post #10

Their submission form is ridiculous. http://www.saylor.org/otc-form/ I was going to submit this: http://bob.cs.sonoma.edu/IntroCompOrg_Jan_2011.pdf An excellent (imo) book on introductory assembly and computer organization, but I'm not going to write out their "course mapping forms" and send in my resume just to submit it. They can't be serious.

The form is clearly aimed at authors and that book's copyright clearly makes it ineligible. They're asking for free ("as in freedom") textbooks, not for people to upload pdfs of ebooks that they know of.

The copyright explicitly says it can be republished.

Also, you realize it's from a California State edu address, right? It isn't just some random e-book.

Re: Saylor offers millions of dollars in bounties for open textbooks

#15

Post by ig1 »

wwwwrrrr wrote: post #13
wedesoft wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can recommend the Samizdat website [1]. They have a very good linear algebra book as well. [1] http://samizdat.mines.edu/

This really shows the problem with this model. Textbook publishers have been very successful at attracting the top authorities in their respective fields to write the textbook. Sure, anyone can rehash what's already written in any other textbook. But can Saylor get someone like Halmos or Axler to write their linear algebra textbook?

Just because you're the top authority in the field it doesn't mean you're good at teaching it. Writing effective textbooks is a skill in it's own right.

Re: Saylor offers millions of dollars in bounties for open textbooks

#16

Post by chocoheadfred »

puredemo wrote: post #10

Their submission form is ridiculous. http://www.saylor.org/otc-form/ I was going to submit this: http://bob.cs.sonoma.edu/IntroCompOrg_Jan_2011.pdf An excellent (imo) book on introductory assembly and computer organization, but I'm not going to write out their "course mapping forms" and send in my resume just to submit it. They can't be serious.

How would you rather prefer submission?

Re: Saylor offers millions of dollars in bounties for open textbooks

#17

Post by puredemo »

chocoheadfred wrote: post #16
puredemo wrote: post #10

Their submission form is ridiculous. http://www.saylor.org/otc-form/ I was going to submit this: http://bob.cs.sonoma.edu/IntroCompOrg_Jan_2011.pdf An excellent (imo) book on introductory assembly and computer organization, but I'm not going to write out their "course mapping forms" and send in my resume just to submit it. They can't be serious.

How would you rather prefer submission?

* If it's only for authors, the form should clearly state that at the beginning. Not just loosely imply it by using the phrase "your textbook," which could easily mean one that the reader owns or uses.

* There should be a link to a form where regular visitors (non-authors) can submit books. It would be more appropriate for their staff to follow-up with authors anyway at that point, once given the leads.

Re: Saylor offers millions of dollars in bounties for open textbooks

#18

Post by chocoheadfred »

puredemo wrote: post #17
chocoheadfred wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How would you rather prefer submission?

* If it's only for authors, the form should clearly state that at the beginning. Not just loosely imply it by using the phrase "your textbook," which could easily mean one that the reader owns or uses. * There should be a link to a form where regular visitors (non-authors) can submit books. It would be more appropriate for their staff to follow-up with authors anyway at that point, once given the leads.

Based on your scenario and if this was successful, wouldn't the incentive/money for authors to write new textbooks be removed?

Re: Saylor offers millions of dollars in bounties for open textbooks

#19

Post by pixcavator »

Jumping through the hoops for a chance of $20,000 doesn’t sound enticing. Certainly, the amount won’t be enough incentive to spend several years to write a new book. They might get some really old books or more recent ones that have gone nowhere (otherwise they wouldn’t be available).

Re: Saylor offers millions of dollars in bounties for open textbooks

#20

Post by ryana »

Seems like Flat World Knowledge would be a great place for them to start if they're looking for free CC-BY-NC-SA textbooks.

http://catalog.flatworldknowledge.com/catalog/disciplines

Disclosure: I did a summer internship there, everyone is awesome and I loved it.

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