Am I the only one who thinks this is a very big deal? Textbooks and their publication are an industry in turmoil, and I believe this is an important direction. What do you think?
By MOTOKO RICHReaders can modify content on the Web, so why not in books?
In a kind of Wikipedia of textbooks, Macmillan, one of the five largest
publishers of trade books and textbooks, is introducing software called
DynamicBooks, which will allow college instructors to edit digital editions
of textbooks and customize them for their individual classes.Professors will be able to reorganize or delete chapters; upload course
syllabuses, notes, videos, pictures and graphs; and perhaps most notably,
rewrite or delete individual paragraphs, equations or illustrations.While many publishers have offered customized print textbooks for years —
allowing instructors to reorder chapters or insert third-party content from
other publications or their own writing — DynamicBooks gives instructors the
power to alter individual sentences and paragraphs without consulting the
original authors or publisher.“Basically they will go online, log on to the authoring tool, have the
content right there and make whatever changes they want,” said Brian Napack,
president of Macmillan. “And we don’t even look at it.”
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February 22, 2010
Copyright 2010 The New York Times Company
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/22/business/media/22textbook.html
