Xref: utzoo comp.edu:1498 sci.math:5027 sci.physics:5056 Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!bloom-beacon!gatech!ncar!ames!oliveb!amdahl!johnm From: johnm@amdahl.uts.amdahl.com (John Murray) Newsgroups: comp.edu,sci.math,sci.physics Subject: Re: How to beat the high cost of text books! Summary: Books on-line! Message-ID:Date: 7 Dec 88 23:40:50 GMT References: <2219@cbnews.ATT.COM> <684@stech.UUCP> <547@aoa.UUCP> <19290@ames.arc.nasa.gov> Organization: Amdahl Corporation, Sunnyvale CA Lines: 42 How about this scheme: The publisher has the source of the book available on-line. The bookstore/ university/professor/library/student orders the book by electronic mail, charging it to their account number/tuition bill/credit card or whatever. The publisher sends out the textfile and it is printed/reproduced locally, or alternately simply used online. (I'm not going to discuss the problems of copy protection, etc. We know all about them from software experience.) The advantage is that the source can be revised each year, so that people always have to get the latest version. It seems like the system would work best if most or all the texts for a given subject were distributed in this manner. (New topics with relatively few general texts, such as nanotechnology or cognitive engineering, seem to be potential candidates for such a system.) Thus, if you intended to be involved with the subject, it would be assumed that you were registered with the system (much as you would with Compuserve or Lexis). The authors also benefit, by doing their submissions and reviewing on-line too. It may be that the publisher would prefer to deal directly at the bookstore level (or perhaps professor/department level), rather than the general public. So why hasn't some enterprising publisher established a system along these lines? Many are into software distribution and on-line services in a big way in any case, and the text of many books is in machine form somewhere already. Someday, professors might tell sales reps they won't recommend a text unless it's available on-line. On the other hand, people weren't banging on the doors of banks and lotteries for on-line access, but it happened anyway. Recently, there was some discussion about the "value of information" here. It comes to mind that the "value" in legal text systems (like Lexis) is not in the contents; court decisions and the ramblings of judges are in the public domain. However, the publishers make their profits out of their copyrights on the indexes and tables of contents. Given the opinion of some posters, who feel that students should be encouraged to learn more than just how to apply a memorized formula, we might think how traditional textbooks might be transformed into a realistic "knowledge base", perhaps using some form of local hypertext system. Any opinions? - John M. (My own opinions, etc.)