Become a Code Warrior:

Write an Open Licensed Write an Open Licensed TextbookTextbook

Code Camp Oct 9,2010

Una Daly

Associate Director, College Open Textbooks

Photo: Jere Keyes ccby

Best & Worst Textbook?

Agenda

• Open Source• Why write open textbooks?• Examples• Licensing Considerations• Repositories and Peer Reviews• Authoring Platforms• Marketing & Sales

Labeled for reuse by Crystal

Open Source

Cathedral and Bazaar: Musings on Linux and Open Sourc

• Bazaar – Continuous edits by community

• Produces better code• Satisfies a developer’s itch• Know what to rewrite and reuse• A million eyeballs helps find bugs faster

Open Source Fuels Innovation

• Red Hat Linux

• Google servers– $2000 x 10 million servers

• Facebook– Built from the ground up on open source

5

Leonid Mamchenkov Flickr CC-BY

An open textbook is…

• Modifiable by instructor– Digital, Modular– Adaptable

• Low cost to students– Free for those with computers

and internet access

Labeled for reuse by MrKCoolsPhotostream

An open textbook has been…

• Copyright All Rights Reserved to

• Creative Commons License Some Rights Reserved

From the Creative Commons store

Chuck SeveranceDr. Chuck

• Software developer, professor,

open textbook author, inventor

O’Reilly © to Open License Textbooks Revised Open Textbook

Barbara Illowsky, PhDDe Anza College

• Instructor, Author, Speaker

Publisher: Wiley Open: Connexions & QOOP

Downloadable version:

$77.50

Downloadable & online versions:

FREE

Why write open textbooks?

• Improve print sales

• Increase your impact– translations

• Improve learning outcomes

• Collaborate …– engineers, artists, publishers

Open License History

• Public Domain

• Gnu Free Documentation License(GFDL)– Free Software Foundation

• Creative Commons

Photo: Artegalia ccbyncnd

Countess Ada Lovelace

Public Domain

• Copyright has expired– Author’s life plus 70 years– Owner gives it away

• Project Gutenberg & Partners– 100,000 ebooks for download

Newton’s Principia Photo: Andrew Dunne cc-by

Creative Commons

• Works with existing copyright law

• Authors specify re-uses

• Promotes sharing

• Internationally recognized

http://creativecommons.org/about/licenses/

“Saving the world from failed sharing”

Open Source vs. Proprietarytextbooks

What’s the Same? What’s Different?

CC Search for Open Images, Music, Videos

Google Advanced Search

Authoring Platforms

• Connexions

• Wikibooks

• CK-12 Flexbooks

• Teachers without borders

• Lemill (languages)

• Bloomsbury academic

• O’Reilly Open Books Project

Connexions RepositoryRice University

• Import Microsoft Word files

• Open License

• Modules-based– Versioning

• Peer Reviews

Ideas Information Concepts

Module

CoursesTextbooks

Authors

Instructors

Learners

Knowledge Repository

The Most Open and Remixable License

CC-BY

5/12/2010

Connexions Open TextbooksPrinted by QOOP

Connexions Growth

Nearly 17,000 modules woven into over 1000 collections

7700 in Science, Technology, Mathematics4600 in Humanities, Arts, Social Sciences, Business

35,000+ versions of modules

from over 1000 authors worldwide in English, Spanish, French, German Italian, Portuguese, Finnish Chinese, Japanese, Thai Vietnamese …

Monthly UsageApproximations: 1 million + visits50 million + hits

2.5 million + page viewsfrom 200 + countries

WikibooksOpen-content textbooks

• Create collection of wiki pages– Export to PDF

• Open licensing– Share-alike

• Versioning

• Featured Books

Wikibook Philosophy

• Enables you, the WRITERWRITER, to teach a subject that you know.

• Enables READERS READERS to learn the subject, paying exorbitant prices of textbooks.

• Inspires WIKIBOOKIANsWIKIBOOKIANs to contribute to your book, making it a better resource.

A Wikibook needs:

• A good plan

• Solid infrastructure

• Sharp Focus

• Broad Scope

• Start a New Book Here

Wikibook Collection Stats

CK-12 Flex Bookskhosla foundation

• Web-based Flex tool

• Open License

• Library of Chapters

• Quality ensured by CK-12's Community of Educational Practitioners

CK-12 Flex

• Register for online account

• Select Curriculum– Engineering– Mathematics– Science– Technology

• Edit, Assemble Chapters, Customize, Print

CK-12 Books• 12 STEM books presently

• California Learning Network Featured

Marketing Open Textbooks

• Create a platform before writing

– Blogging– Twitter

• #OPEN TEXTBOOK

• Encourage community participation– Online and in-person– Allow easy re-use and re-mix– Ancillaries, Test banks, etc.

Drive Textbook Adoptions

• Peer-Reviews: – College Open Textbooks– The Assayer– Can you HELP?

• Hang with Coders and Faculty– Textbook Author’s Association– College Events

More Information

• Visit College Open Textbooks– http://collegeopentextbooks.org

• Visit the OER College Consortium website– http://oerconsortium.org

• Visit the OER Center for California – http://grou.ps/oercenter

May 21, 2010 Creative Commons CC BY 3.0 33