[Osdc-edu-authors] FLAT WORLD KNOWLEDGE: OPEN COLLEGE TEXTBOOKS - Disrupting Traditional Textbook Publishing’s Heavy Toll on America’s Future

Tue Feb 16 17:34:54 UTC 2010

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*FLAT WORLD KNOWLEDGE: OPEN COLLEGE TEXTBOOKS*

* *

*Disrupting Traditional Textbook Publishing’s Heavy Toll on America’s Future
*

* *

Sanford Forte

* *

*Today*, everywhere in our nation, families – adults, and their children -
are facing a tragic loss of future possibility and personal fulfillment
because of high textbook prices. *Fact: **the cost of traditional textbooks
has become a major impediment to students completing a college education,
and/or deciding to enter college.* We will learn more about the data behind
this unfortunate and unnecessary fact later on in this essay, but first it’s
important to point out the scale of the problem, and its impact on students,
teachers, and American society.

Long-term demographic research tells us that individuals who achieve college
and other post-secondary education credentials 1) have longer life spans; 2)
have better access to health care; 3) have better dietary and health
practices; 4) have greater economic stability and security; 5) have more
prestigious employment and greater job satisfaction; 6) have less dependency
on government assistance; 7) have greater use of seat belts; 8) have more
continuing education; 9) have greater Internet access; 10) have greater
participation in leisure and artistic activities; 11) make more book
purchases; 12) have higher voting rates; 13) have more detailed knowledge of
government; 14) have more community service and leadership involvement; 15)
have less criminal activity and incarceration; 16) have more basic self
confidence, and so on. This is only a partial list of well-researched
advantages that accrue to those who achieve a post-secondary education;
thus, a costly fiscal and social tragedy occurs when these advantages are
lost, because every year thousands of students literally cannot afford
high-priced traditional college textbooks, and as a result drop out of
college, or decide not to attend college; this is unacceptable.

*A very recent, detailed Gates Foundation
Study<#http://www.publicagenda.org/theirwholel>finds that the cost of
traditional college textbooks and materials is one of
two primary reasons (among six) for students 1) dropping out of college;
and/or 2) deciding not to attend college*.

*Further, U. S. Department of Labor
analysis<#http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-05-806>incidentally shows
that 72% of the total annual educational expenditures
made by a Community College student goes to pay for textbook, while public
four-year university students pay between 26-42% of their total annual
educational expenditure for college textbook expenditures. *These outlandish
percentages – i.e. the cost of textbooks relative to the cost of education -
have actually *increased* since the Department of Labor analysis was
completed a few years ago, with textbook prices steadily accelerating, on
average, at three times the rate of inflation - *as they have for the last
15 years*.

The responsibility for this unacceptable situation falls *squarely* on the
shoulders of traditional educational textbook publishers; their
too-high-textbook prices, and inefficient publishing models are breeding an
unacceptable tragedy in the making because massive, long-term fiscal and
social diseconomies result when large numbers of college-age students either
drop out of college, or decide not to attend college simply because they are
unable to afford their college textbooks. It’s also well known that students
have been complaining for years
<http://www.studentpirgs.org/textbooks/>about high
textbook costs <http://www.flatworldknowledge.com/customer-video>.

When students drop out of college, or decide not to attend college because
they can’t afford college textbooks, they and our society suffer the
cumulative fiscal and social costs of long-term advantages otherwise gained
if those students had otherwise been able to complete their college
education. Just* one student* who leaves school because s/he cannot afford
too-expensive college textbooks results in a net cumulative loss in fiscal
and social advantage that runs into *the millions of dollars over a lifetime
*. Multiply this loss by many, many thousands of students every year; the
personal and societal toll of the current, traditional textbook is
staggering, running into tens-of-*billions* of dollars of lost collective
opportunity, over thousands of lifetimes! This hurts individuals, and it *hurts
our nation*. The traditional college textbook business is broken; it cannot
be any more upside-down than it already is; it’s causing losses that
*all *Americans
share in and have to pay for, as we collectively pick up the tab for the
lost opportunity left in the wake of the traditional textbook publishing
industry’s profits, as the industry remains completely out-of-touch with
college student’s and teaching institution needs.

Another unfolding tragedy that results from American students dropping out
college or deciding not to enter college - due to too-high textbook costs -
is the collective American loss of long-term international competitiveness
that results. It’s unacceptable that American students who require more
education to stay even with ever more educated counterparts around the world
should be victimized by the structural inefficiencies of the traditional
textbook market. Incidentally the international student counterparts of
American students pay far *less* for textbooks in their respective countries
than students in America do. Believe it or not, identical international
versions of college textbooks published by traditional American textbook
publishers for American students sell at retail, abroad, for only a fraction
of their retail cost in America. Thus, a black market has sprouted in
America for foreign editions of American textbooks! How have we come to
this, where American students have to illegally purchase American published
international textbook editions from foreign black markets, in order to stay
in college?

Traditionally expensive college textbooks contribute to an increase in
domestic social stratification; the pain resulting from high textbook prices
- and the limits to educational access thus caused - is not shared equally.
American students today are more economically challenged, having
proportionately less income to spend in terms of real dollars than past
generations - yet traditional college textbooks have *increased* at three
times the rate of inflation *for the last fifteen years*. High textbook
prices are thus contributing to the growing “attainment divide” in America,
victimizing those who most need college and post-secondary training.

Who would have imagined that the traditional
textbook<http://www.saycampuslife.com/images/textbooks.jpg>,
of all things – one of our most taken-for-granted and timeworn educational
tools - would have evolved to so costly a tool that it is now an
essential *impediment
*to education?* * High college textbook prices exist *only because we choose
to let them exist; *we no longer have to endure this egregious and untenable
situation, because *there are viable alternatives to the ‘old’, expensive
textbook publishing model*; Open educational textbook
solutions<http://www.flatworldknowledge.com/>are
here <http://www.flatworldknowledge.com/catalog>, now - it’s time to move
forward, for our children’s and our nation’s future well being. Full
disclosure: I am Director of Business Development at Flat World
Knowledge<#http://www.flatworldknowledge.com>,
a new venture-capital-backed textbook company that creates open-licensed
college textbooks as a key strategy toward ending the toll taken on American
students and American society that results from outmoded pricing and
business models deployed by traditional college textbook publishers.

The word, “open”, implies possibility, access, promise, and inclusiveness,
among other positive connotations. America strives to be an open
society<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_society>,
transparent in ownership, invention, access to the public good, and
opportunity.

Universal access to post-secondary education in America helps create the
necessary social ingredients to sustain our open society; education
stimulates invention and opportunity; education lends power to the promise
of democracy; education helps create social equality, putting an end to
intolerance of difference.  Cicero, the great Roman philosopher and
statesman wrote, "Freedom is participation in power". Cicero has been shown
to be largely right though the example of the American experience. Education
is an enabler of the "participation in power" that Cicero spoke of - i.e.
the better one understands one's world, the more effectively one can
participate in it, shape it, and adapt to the shock of externally induced
change – like the kind of rapid change that our nation is experiencing now,
as technology accelerates, and increased international competition
challenges our nation as never before. Education also helps to inoculate our
culture against the ignorance that domestic and international tyrannies
would feed on. In modern American society, college education or
post-secondary certification is a key ingredient for personal and political
power; without advanced education there is no democracy; there is no
equality; there is no opportunity. With the latter as an obvious given, how
ironic then that traditional textbook prices have been, for years, thwarting
the very open access to college education that is necessary to maintain the
American promise.

Open Textbooks are one of many important solutions necessary to fix this
problem. “Open” licensing <http://creativecommons.org/> of textbook content
can greatly contribute to the reduction or elimination of the growing
educational and cultural divide that threatens America’s adaptability. Open
licensing makes possible truly affordable textbooks – in this case, college
textbooks, available to all who wish to pursue a college degree or
post-secondary credential education.

"Open-licensed textbooks"<http://www.flatworldknowledge.com/printed-book/1628>make
it possible to openly share the intellectual property that lies on the
printed pages of a textbook, or the bits that make up the online, audio
(Mp3) and other digital components of that textbook – all without the
restrictions of “all rights reserved” copyright imposed by traditional
college textbook publishers. Open textbooks *accelerate the sharing of
information and knowledge* – a key benefit in a world of fast flowing, and
fast growing, information - encouraging virtually unlimited reuse,
derivation, and mixing – thus making possible new knowledge and further
adaptation of that knowledge to new learning environments.  Open textbooks
provide *access* – most importantly,
*free<http://www.flatworldknowledge.com/pub/1.0/principles-economics/31815>and
open
*access, and *choice *to students and teaching institutions.**

Aside from the invention of the alphabet, Gutenberg's press and moveable
type <http://www.juliantrubin.com/bigten/gutenbergmovable.html>, and the
Internet - all major disruptors of establishment enterprise in their time -
Open Licensing is surely the most profound development yet to enable the
transparent spread of intellectual capital. Open licensing made
Linux<http://www.linux.com/>and its various
flavors <http://www.ubuntu.com/> possible; most Internet websites are served
up from open-source Apache <http://www.apache.org/> servers;
Moodle<http://moodle.org/>,
a powerful open learning platform, is fast becoming the Learning Management
System (LMS) of choice, worldwide; the Open
Library<http://openlibrary.org/about>,
a project unique in the history of libraries, gives unprecedented access to
the world’s literature to all who have access to the Internet; open
pharma<http://sagebase.org/>offers the promise of widely shared and
cheaply available pharmaceutical
formulae – to save lives and bring relief to millions;
Firefox<http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/personal.html>,
the most popular web browser in the world - including browsers promoted by
Microsoft, Apple, and Google - is built on an open software platform; there
are many more examples. Literally, billions of pieces of intellectual
capital - writing, imagery, research, art, scientific formulae, designs,
art, multimedia, and so on are licensed as Open - with open licensing
growing at exponential rates, enabling a new world of creation and discovery
– and now, Open licensing has entered the world of textbook publishing, to
become a solution to the high textbook cost problems mentioned above.

Flat World Knowledge - a new, venture-capital-backed college textbook
publisher - was founded by two former long-time Pearson (the world’s largest
textbook company) executives who had grown tired of ”business as usual” in
the broken college textbook industry; they wanted to solve the vexing
problems listed above; they chose to embrace open licensing and open
technologies to help innovate solutions that would disrupt, upend, and
replace the current broken college textbook publishing model.

Flat World Knowledge has the answer to high-priced college textbooks; just
like traditional college textbook publishers, we publish
*professionally*developed college textbooks, fully supported by
instructor manuals, study
guides, and other teaching/learning aids - but that’s where any similarity
between Flat World Knowledge and the traditional college textbook publishers
ends.

The value offered to students and instructors by Flat World Knowledge
textbooks, compared to traditional, more costly textbooks, is enormous. We
offer peer-reviewed and professionally developed print
textbooks<http://www.flatworldknowledge.com/catalog>,
as well as digital versions of those same textbooks in multiple digital
formats – from* FREE*, online, to low-priced print and digital textbook
options that save students 80-85% over the cost of competing textbooks! *
Free* and *choice regarding purchase* is a long way from the egregious
prices and lock-in book adoption games played by traditional textbook
publishers  - e.g. 1) complicated book and supplement bundling; 2) so-called
“custom editions” that prevent resale to used book vendors; 3) overpriced
digital “alternatives” that expire after 6 months of use; and, 4) the latest
crippled solution, “textbook rental agreements” that compel teachers to use
overpriced college textbooks for longer than they want, thus limiting
academic freedom. Also, textbook rental programs do nothing to solve the
underlying causes of the pricing and others problems described here,
structural problems that beset the traditional college textbook publishers,
because textbook rentals, or not – too-high textbook prices will continue to
be the norm, with textbook rentals just another pricing shell game that
hides the high cost of traditional college textbooks, with the idea that
“people won’t notice”. What happens when, 5 years from now, students are
paying just as much for a rental as they do for an entire book, now? That’s
due to happen if textbook prices continue to rise at their current rate.

Flat World Knowledge textbooks are of the highest quality, and equal in
every way to their more traditional and expensive college textbooks  – in
fact, our college textbooks are far superior to traditional college
textbooks in the price/value equation – including 24/7 access to content,
and impressive ease-of-use.

Most Flat World Knowledge authors already have one or more successful
textbooks under their belt, while authors publishing for the first time are
peer-reviewed academic superstars who are well-known in their respective
disciplines; they have superb academic credentials; and, they maintain the
unique writing and organizational skills necessary to create world-class
college textbooks. Our authors love the Flat World Knowledge open-license
publishing model – so much so that they are choosing to sign contracts with
us instead of traditional textbook companies. They want to share their
knowledge with students in a way that works; they want to be part of the
solution to the problems listed above; they want to be well remunerated for
their work. Flat World Knowledge fills all these author needs, and more.

Our publishing model has proved wildly successful, *with Flat World
Knowledge textbooks already adopted at more than 500 unique colleges and
universities in America, all within our first year of doing business. *This
is a stunning success in the staid, established world of commercial college
textbook publishing, where progress and innovation have always lagged (but
somehow, prices have not). We’re letting students and college instructors
decide if we’re doing things right; judging by these results, we’re on our
way to forever changing the way college textbooks are solicited, published,
and distributed.

Flat World Knowledge publishes high quality, *professionally developed
college textbooks <http://www.flatworldknowledge.com/catalog>*, fully
supported by instructor manuals, study guides, and other teaching/learning
aids - but that’s where any similarity between Flat World Knowledge and the
traditional college textbook publishers ends. Unlike the traditional
textbook publishers, our we open license our textbooks, enabling us to offer
our textbooks in their entirety, for *free,
online<http://www.flatworldknowledge.com/pub/1.0/principles-economics/31815>
* - at the same time offering our textbooks in black-and-white (grey-scale),
professionally formatted, print soft cover editions for only *$29.95* - a
far cry from the new textbook prices imposed by traditional textbook
publishers (with traditional textbook prices averaging from $100 - often,
for a small paperback - to well over $200-$300+ in many disciplines).

Flat World Knowledge also offers textbooks in digital formats – e.g. in
download-to-print (PDF) versions for only $19.95 (entire formatted book) or
$2.00 per chapter. We provide audio (Mp3) versions of most of our books for
only $39.95, or $4.00 per audio chapter. We offer study aids for $1.00 per
chapter. All of our textbook content can be used in eBook readers (Kindle,
Nook, etc.); our textbook content is also compatible with Learning
Management Systems (LMS - e.g. Moodle, Blackboard, eCollege, Angel, etc.)
used in many of today’s colleges and universities.

Just like traditional publishing companies, Flat World Knowledge ships
textbooks to college bookstores in bulk, but we add the convenience of
shipping direct-to-student, because we publish our books on demand (POD). We
strive to make the textbook purchase experience as easy as possible. Also,
print-on-demand keeps us from having to carry the large, expensive
inventories carried by traditional textbook publishers – creating another
economy that we pass on to students.

Open licensing our textbooks also enables us to bring immediate, complete
control over textbook content to instructors and curriculum developers. *This
is a groundbreaking innovation in commercial college textbook
publishing*. College
instructors and curriculum developers are free to alter the content of our
textbooks <http://www.flatworldknowledge.com/Customize-Tutorial> – i.e. to
create their very own derivatives of our textbooks – all in a very easy
drag-and-drop environment. Individual chapters in Flat World Knowledge
textbooks are easily rearranged from their original order – or eliminated
altogether - to fit the needs of the teacher’s specific course outline.
College instructors tell us that they love this feature, as it permits them
to add their own content, and further adapt our textbooks to their student’s
needs and their teaching preferences. Imagine the time, money, and
frustration saved by college teachers from this feature, alone.

After an instructor or curriculum developer makes an edit in one of our
textbooks,

edits are rendered *instantaneously* and embedded a unique URL, with the

now-changed textbook given a new ISBN number (so it’s easy for the bookstore
to order in print). The newly changed textbook (a legal derivative, enabled
by the open license) becomes immediately searchable by school name and/or
course number, so that students can easily locate it on our website. When
teacher edits are made to the original content, our algorithms automatically
1) *repaginate* the entire book*; 2) re-index* the entire book; 3) establish
a *new table of contents* for the entire book, thus accommodating all edited
changes and making them available in a *completely new derivative*, for *
free* on the Flat World Knowledge website, where students can take notes on
the free online version of the textbook, and keep their notes private, or
share them – whichever they choose. Thus, for the *first time *in the
history of college textbook publishing, teachers can *easily adapt* already
excellent content for their classes, and students can *choose *what parts of
a textbook to buy, or *choose not* to buy, and/or read the entire textbook
online, for free.

Incidentally, the changed (edited) print edition is also ready for sale and
shipment at the same prices noted above ($29.95 B&W softcover; $59.95
color), within 72 hours.  Imagine adopting a world-class textbook, and then
being able to add your own case studies, links, and examples – if you want –
and then having *your* changed book made available online for *free* to your
students (with no advertising noise, or strings attached), and *also *available
in print within a few days for only $29.95, including all the lower-priced
priced digital options mentioned above – again, including *free. *This is
revolutionary.

Literally, we give instructors and curriculum developers the power to alter
our textbooks in ways that make them more relevant to students; adaptable to
regional and cultural differences; adjustable to state-mandated assessment
needs; and so on. In sum, we're using Open licensing and other open
innovations (we also use open source code, server technology, etc.) to offer
choice, flexibility, and control for the *first time* in the history of the
textbook publishing industry to a degree unmatched by any current publisher,
and to a degree that has made Flat World Knowledge an industry leader and
primary disruptor of the "old", *expensive and inefficient* model of
traditional textbook production in America, thus enhancing educational
access in America.

With Flat World Knowledge textbooks, college instructors are no longer
compelled to redo their class curriculum frameworks every few years, as they
were when traditional textbook publishers used the “book-out-of-print”
excuse to force more expensive (and all-too-often largely unchanged, from
the last edition) textbooks into the classroom. College teachers have been
complaining about this for years. No more. Flat World Knowledge listens; we
will *never *come to a college instructor and say we’re taking his/her
textbook out of print, because the open-licensed book and it derivative live
into perpetuity. In fact, when we do create new editions of our textbooks
(as we plan to do, to keep them current), a college teacher can borrow what
s/he wants from our new edition and plug it into the Flat World knowledge
book that they’re already using, for free. How’s that for convenience, and
listening to the customer?

* *

What's even more exciting is that our publishing and business model is
profitable, and fast proving to be self-sustainable. We're using our
long-earned publishing experience, deep knowledge of established consumer
buying behavior to create textbooks that are marketed and sold in a way that
the academic community and students *understand* - in a way that is no
different than they have been purchasing textbooks for the last 50 years,
with the difference that we’re bringing orders-of-magnitude more *value *to
students and college instructors than traditional textbook publishers. We
are delighting our customers.

Besides publishing affordable, quality print textbook editions, Flat World
Knowledge is also dedicated to making the college textbook easily extensible
to different technology platforms – i.e. to mobile devices (Kindle, Nook,
iPad, etc.); social networks (like Ning and Facebook, where new learning
models are being devised); to gaming and simulation scenarios, and so on. We
have just begun, and judging by the early returns, we are making significant
headway in a commercial publishing space long overdue for meaningful
innovation.

Flat World Knowledge, a for-profit company, shares the *spirit* of open
textbook production with several non-profit, non-commercial open educational
resource repository
(OER<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_educational_resources>)
brethren – among them, the California Community College Open Text
Project<http://www.collegeopentextbooks.org/>and the Connexions
Project <http://cnx.org/>. We respect and support non-profit efforts in this
sector; they are important contributors to change; they help spread the open
college textbook meme in academia, where most OER repositories reside. The
main difference between our respective business models is that Flat World
Knowledge professionally develops and supports its open textbooks, using
profit to sustain our mission. We passionately believe that the Flat World
Knowledge model – a for-profit open-textbook company, responsive to the
market (because we *have* to be responsive, in order to survive and sustain
our mission) - is the most effective way forward to long-term sustainability
of open textbook movement, and marketplace. Non-profit OER organizations use
Foundation and Government grants to create open textbook projects and spread
the word about open textbooks, acting as giant repositories for a
multiplicity of open educational content. That said, sustainability and
maintenance of the currency of content that resides in open educational
resource repositories remain major challenges for the non-profit open
college textbook model.

In the spirit of maintaining our mission, and matching our actions with
rhetoric (i.e. walking-the-talk), Flat World Knowledge has created affiliate
relationships with non-profit OER groups, open textbook, and other
non-profit educational ventures. We firmly believe in creating cooperative
ventures with non-profit open textbook repositories; we believe mutual
potentials are best realized when non-profit OER repositories use their
power of peer communication to spread the open textbook meme to academic
peers, leaving the creation of professionally developed and supported open
textbooks to market-savvy, innovative open textbook publishers like Flat
World Knowledge, who best understand the crucial marketplace logistics of
on-the-ground textbook creation and distribution better than anyone, thus
insuring superior execution and product support in a very complex
distribution channel – encouraging *use* of open textbooks in large numbers
[something that remains a challenge in the OER model, because the main
competency in academia where OER projects live is the provisioning of
content, rather than the discovery, organization, development, publishing,
marketing, distribution, support and future maintenance of open textbook
content. Our experience in the market, with more than 500 institutions of
higher learning adopting our textbooks in less than a year is a strong
validation of our approach to sustainability in the open textbook
marketplace.

Flat World Knowledge goal is to be in business for a long time, serving
students and educational institutions with the best textbooks in the world;
we believe our approach to open textbook publishing will continue to
succeed, and thrive. Traditional textbook publishers will thus be compelled
to reform their business and publishing models in order to compete in a more
efficient open textbook marketplace that best serves students and their
teaching institutions; we believe that our for-profit open textbook model
will also inform key non-profit OER organizations how to more efficiently
and effectively proselytize open textbooks in academia and spread the open
textbook meme – thus enabling both for-profit and non-profit efforts,
together, using their complimentary strengths, to generate  positive impact
and change the world of textbook publishing forever.

Flat World Knowledge goal is also our challenge: *we challenge all those who
publish textbooks and other instructional aids to join us in providing
affordable benefit and value to America’s students and teaching
institutions, for the sake of the very future of our people, and our nation*.
Professionally developed, open-licensed textbooks are here to stay; open
licensing leverages the naturally occurring empathic quality of sharing
that's wired into our species. Open textbook publishing is a public good;
it’s the right thing to do. Open licensing enables, in a *sustainable* way,
the impulse for information to be free - in open, distributed networks - at
the same time protecting the creators of that information, in ways that *they
*choose.

Open licensed textbooks also leverage technology in ways that enable choice
and flexibility for textbook consumers, creating a self-supporting,
sustainable open textbook publishing market that serves, rather than
exploits students. Students in America are Flat World Knowledge’ neighbors;
those same students are also your neighbors. We’re all in this together;
sharing in the benefits that open textbook publishing can bring to us as
individuals, and collectively as a nation, as we evolve to better ourselves
- and by extension, the world.

One open textbook at a time, we at Flat World knowledge are dedicated and
determined to achieve a sustainable, profitable model of open textbook
production that *enables learners and instructors; that makes education
affordable; that opens up opportunity; that strives in a sustainable,
adaptable way to enable further educational innovation*. Open is the only
way forward; the “Open genie” is out of the box; Open college textbooks are
here to stay; there is no going back;
join<http://www.flatworldknowledge.com/students>
us <http://www.flatworldknowledge.com/educators>.

-- 
Sanford Forte
Director, Business Development
Flat World Knowledge
13 North Mill Street
Nyack, NY 10960

Office:  (877) 257-9243 x201
Mobile: (650) 888-0077
sforte at flatworldknowledge.com
http://www.flatworldknowledge.com
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