[IP] Dan Gillmor and textbooks

[David Farber <dave@farber.net>]

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From: Dan Gillmor [dan@gillmor.com]
Sent: Thursday, July 10, 2008 1:03 PM
To: David Farber
Subject: Re: textbooks

Dave,

The conversation about texts and pricing hits close to home with me,
but in a good way. I've assigned my book as part of the reading in
several classes, both at Berkeley when I was teaching there and now at
Arizona State. But the students have had the option of buying it or
downloading it, as the book was published under a Creative Commons
license -- Tim O'Reilly's company is the publisher, and I could not
have had a better partner for the project -- and was available as a
download from its appearance in stores. Some students bought it, some
didn't, reflecting what has happened more broadly.

A new book project I'm working on will live mostly online (at least
that's what I'm guessing) and will reflect the reality that the nature
of what we call a book in the digital age is fundamentally changing.
I still love holding a physical book in my hands, and I hope that
people will want this one delivered that way. But readers/users will
have many, many more options.

Seems to me that texts, especially in areas where the state of art/
knowledge is shifting rapidly, should be done that way, and I expect
that most probably will before too much longer.

Dan




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