[A2k] Freeloading

[Manon Ress]

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[ Picked text/plain from multipart/alternative ]
Freeloading

14 Dec 2007 08:36 am

Timothy Taylor, who Brad DeLong describes as the best intro economics
teacher he knows has a new basic econ textbook out. And it's
available for free!

     The publisher, Freeload Press, will earn revenue by selling
advertising on the website where the book is distributed. Also, when
you download chapters (as PDF files), the first couple of pages might
be advertisements. There is a short registration form, but downloads
are free. If someone wants an advertising-free, black-and-white paper
copy, it's available for $30 at the website ($20 for a micro or a
macro split). There will soon be a workbook up on the website to
accompany the text, and a test bank is already available for
instructors. The website for Freeload Press is http://
www.freeloadpress.com.

     Is an advertising supported approach a sustainable business
model for a textbook company?

I kind of suspect that it may not. On the other hand, as a K-12
endeavor I think things like the California Open Source Textbook
Project have a lot of promise. As they observe, "California currently
spends more than $400M annually =97 and rising =97 for K-12 textbooks"
and of course California's not the only state in the country. If any
substantial chunk of national K-12 textbook spending by public
institutions could be redirected toward open source textbooks, I
think you'd do a lot of good.

http://matthewyglesias.theatlantic.com/archives/2007/12/freeloading.php

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Manon Anne Ress
manon.ress@keionline.org,

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Il vaut mieux remuer une question, sans la d=E9cider, que la d=E9cider,
sans la remuer.
Pens=E9es, essais, maximes et correspondance de J. Joubert  p.249
http://visualiseur.bnf.fr/Visualiseur?Destination=3DGallica&O=3DNUMM-88671
Translation: It is better to debate a question without settling it
than to settle a question without debating it