Now I was thinking that as well. But profits, literally, on the backs of kids demonstrates negligent thinking in their business model, IMHO. OSHA would have a fit if they had jurisdiction. But, litigation aside, why can't I just get a copy of the textbook on cd? Maybe as an adjunct to purchasing the textbook? Criminy, they're cheap enough...
Too easy to duplicate. The cost of textbooks is obscene. I don't think a publisher is going to sacrifice that kind of profit to put it on a medium that can be reproduced for twenty-five cents on a home PC.
Ol' Sox replied:
Now I was thinking that as well. But profits, literally, on the backs of kids demonstrates negligent thinking in their business model, IMHO. OSHA would have a fit if they had jurisdiction. But, litigation aside, why can't I just get a copy of the textbook on cd? Maybe as an adjunct to purchasing the textbook? Criminy, they're cheap enough...
The Publishers are not the creators of the intellectual property that is to be taught to kids. It should be people dedicated to teaching kids, experts in a given field, educators. On top of the notion of kids struggling under obscene weights there is the fact that taxpayers and parents are struggling under obscene costs for continuously replacing these books.
And then we come to THESE BOOKS.
How many of you have leafed through the crap that is being pushed on kids in school as "authoritative knowledge" in the "approved textbooks?" I think it's time for a revolution.
I suggest that we find experts in the various teaching fields who are more interested in teaching than in getting rich at the public trough. We should get them to create a text book on their topic of expertise and buy it from them for a reasonable fee. With the resources we have on the NET I bet we can come up with as much money as the big publishing houses for the actual authors who are truly worth a damn. We then turn around and license the text book as an electronic document to school systems for a reasonable fee, not designed to make obscene profits. Terms are simple, the school can provide the text book in a secure electronic format (secured PDF? MS Reader? Other?) or they can print it out, or have it printed out for the students at their school. We serialize the copies so that we know who is trying to screw us by distributing the stuff freely, but we don't gouge them, so it shouldn't be an issue.
More importantly than the cost savings potential in such a business model, or even the weight savings for our kids, think of wresting control of public school text books from the mono-culture of the Clinton friendly publishing monopolies?