After reading the title I really wanted it to be:
"Sailor (pirate) offers millions of dollars in booties for opened textbooks"
Am I the only one?
Saylor offers millions of dollars in bounties for open textbooks
21–26 of 26 posts
Re: Saylor offers millions of dollars in bounties for open textbooks
#22What if the students decide which books to buy? Make a voting website where students votes for the material they need and can't afford, and Saylor buys it.
Re: Saylor offers millions of dollars in bounties for open textbooks
#23Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
It can be republished only provided no charge is made. They want a book that the author owns the rights to, and is willing to put out under CC-BY.
Just because something has a liberal licence, doesn't mean it's compatible with other liberal licences. This ebook, for example, would not be considered FOSS (it couldn't be put in Debian, for example).
Re: Saylor offers millions of dollars in bounties for open textbooks
#24Thank you for passing on the information about our Open Textbook Challenge, and for the support in this comment stream! To address a few of the questions regarding eligible classes: Saylor.org is building 200+ courses that are drawn from twelve high-enrollment majors at traditional U.S. Colleges. We have textbooks for some of these classes, but are looking for texts for the remaining classes. Our aim for this challenge is that these texts can be utilized for free by educators and students around the world.
We're aiming to expand our offerings in the future, so there may be a future opportunity to submit a text for a course not listed on the site. Please stay tuned for future announcements!
For any issues with the submission form or any specific questions about the challenge or eligibility, please feel free to send an email to OTC@saylor.org.
Thanks again!
Re: Saylor offers millions of dollars in bounties for open textbooks
#25I don't know if I am as gung ho about this idea as others are. The difference between the best analysis book (i.e. Rudin's Principles of Mathematical Analysis) and the average analysis book is so significant as to justify the far higher bounty required to move baby Rudin into the creative commons.
I think you have a good point. OTOH, Rudin isn't really an example of the problem these people are trying to solve.
Yes, Rudin is good and worth the money. The students who buy it usually know this, and often plan on keeping the book for the rest of their lives.
The real problem is that huge numbers of people have to buy a brand-spankin'-new college algebra text for $180, and then can't sell it back at the end of the semester, since the department has decided to change to a different text. A free, quality text would benefit these people greatly.
(Meanwhile, the low price for a used 2nd-ed. Rudin on Amazon today is $25 including shipping.)
Re: Saylor offers millions of dollars in bounties for open textbooks
#26Thank you for passing on the information about our Open Textbook Challenge, and for the support in this comment stream! To address a few of the questions regarding eligible classes: Saylor.org is building 200+ courses that are drawn from twelve high-enrollment majors at traditional U.S. Colleges. We have textbooks for some of these classes, but are looking for texts for the remaining classes. Our aim for this challen…
Is there any chance you could publish financials (% which goes to G&A, etc.) for the charity directly on the website, where you solicit donations?