> [not about linux, but definitely about Free/Open Source stuff.
> Hopefully close enough to topic, it felt like it would be.]
>
> I heard this piece on NPR this morning about the State of California
> approving several "Digital" textbooks for Math and Science classes.
> Several other media sources have covered this story, all refering to
> "Digital" or "Online" books. I think they are missing the point. Any
> textbook could be distributed in some DRM-proctected format. These
> textbooks are free and open source! Apparently distributed under the
> Creative Commons "Attribution-Share Alike (3.0 Unported)" license,
> almost half (7/16) of them are published by the CK-12 Foundation.
>
> People worried about schools in poorer districts wouldn't have the
> technology infrastructure to use these textbooks. Someone pointed out
> that a student or a teacher could print out the book if they wanted a
> paper copy. No one noted that some companies could (and I suspect
> that they will) offer to print the books, bound and pretty, ready to
> buy. Indeed, they might compete with each other on quality and price
> of the paper preparation of the same material.
>
> I have a B.A. in math, and I think I was probably a senior in college
> before I ran into any material that had changed substantially in my
> lifetime. Certainly almost (if not literally) everything in high
> school algebra and calculus is material from before the 20th century.
> That this should be nicely-presentable in a F/OS format makes total
> sense to me. I'll be curious to see what happens in CA. I wonder if
> they'll ever approve any of the WikiBooks text books. :)
>
> NPR Story
> http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=111931440
>
> Lots of other news stories on the same subject
> http://news.google.com/news/more?pz=1&ned=us&cf=all&ncl=dzjMpz_SewHzTnMB0-R
>DSTwzwh9OM
>
> California's page with the (downloadable) textbooks in question
> http://www.clrn.org/fdti/
>
> CK-12 Foundation
> http://www.ck12.org
>
> David
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I want to point out that I have printed some "ebooks" before and this can
be a expensive endeavour relativly speaking especially if the person doesn't
have a laser printer at there disposal but other wise I love this story
otherwise.
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