Introduction to open-access publishing for authors, co-presented with Heather Joseph from SPARC 6 June 2010 Text and Academic Authors Association Conference Minneapolis, MN

1. !
Open-Access Textbooks
!
Nicole Allen
The Student PIRGs
2010 TAA Conference
June 25, 2010

2. !
The Problem
!

3. The Problem
!
• Students spend
Students spend
Textbook Price Increases in Perspective Percent
Change 1986-2004
$900 per year
200
$900 per year 180
160
• Prices rising2-4x
Prices rising 140
2-4x inflation
inflation 120
100
• Affects some
80
60
students more 40
than others 20
0
87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 00 01 02 03 04

4. The Problem
!
Producer
Broken Market
Flawed market
structure gives
publishers too Consumer
much power

5. The Problem
!
Publisher
Broken Market
Flawed market
structure gives
publishers too Student Professor
much power

6. The Problem
!
Publisher
Each textbook is bought
Broken Model and sold several times,
but the publisher only
profits on the first sale
Self-destructive
business model Bookstore
drives publisher
used books
market abuses
Students

7. !
About Open Textbooks
!

8. About Open Textbooks
!
What is 1. A textbook
an open
!
2. Open license
textbook?

9. About Open Textbooks
!
For most open licenses...
Rights users get: Rights authors keep:
• Access at no cost • Attribution
• Copy & reformat And sometimes...
• Distribute copies • Commercial use
And usually... • Customization
• Customization • Relicensing

10. About Open Textbooks
!
What is 1. A textbook
an open
!
2. Open license
textbook? 3. Online access
4. Other formats

11. About Open Textbooks
!
Students showed a strong preference 94%
for print as their primary format. Comfortable
with print
48%
Comfortable
with digital
75% 25% 60% 40%
Print Digital Low-cost Free 70% wanted the
print online option to use both

12. About Open Textbooks
!
Print on Sony
demand Reader
PDF $29.35
free free
Online
free Kindle DX
free
Kinkos
$25.00 LaTeX
Self-print free
at cost

13. About Open Textbooks
!
PDF Print (color)
$24.95 $59.95
Online Print (B+W)
free $29.95
Self-print
at cost
Study
Audio book package
$39.95 $14.95

14. Open Textbook Models
!
E-books and Open Textbooks:
• Digital
• One of several format options
• Readable on computer or e-reader
• Marginal cost near zero

15. About Open Textbooks
!
E-books Open Books
• Need passcode • Worldwide access
• Limited license • License is forever
• Mutually exclusive • Other formats are
with other formats optional
• Still prone to piracy • Piracy not an issue

16. !
Why open textbooks?
!

17. Why Open Textbooks?
!
Publisher
Open textbooks
fix the problem
by making the
market more
Student Professor student centric

18. Why Open Textbooks?
!
Broken Model Open Textbooks
Publisher Publisher
Bookstore Bookstore
used books
Students Students

19. !
Open Textbook Models
!

20. Open Textbook Models
!
1. Individual authors
• Personal motivations
• Sabbatical time/grant funding
• Count open textbooks toward
tenure?

21. Open Textbook Models
!
2. Institutional projects
• A consortium of 80+ community colleges is
pooling resources to write and review texts
• Rice University founded CNX.org, a platform
that hosts numerous open books
• Hewlett & Maxfield Foundations funded the
creation of a new open textbook

22. Open Textbook Models
!
3. Government funding
• A new bill introduced by Sen. Durbin (D-IL)
would create a federal grant program to
create open textbooks through the NSF
• The WA community college system received
state funding to create open curriculum &
texts for the 80 highest enrollment courses.

23. Open Textbook Models
!
4. Commercial publishers
Flat World Knowledge is the first
open textbook publisher. Their first
books launched in spring 2009, and
are now used at over 400 schools.

24. !
What You Can Do
!

25. What You Can Do
!
• Seek, consider and adopt open
textbooks in your own courses
• Give preference to publishers with
open-access business models
• Regain the rights to older books and
release them as open textbooks

26. What You Can Do
!
• Join us at the table as we pursue
federal funding for open textbooks

27. !
Open-Access Textbooks
!
Nicole Allen
The Student PIRGs
2010 TAA Conference
June 25, 2010