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| Image: Rugby471 GFDL, CC-BY-SA-3.0, via Wikimedia Commons |
Recently the world's largest producer and supplier of free textbooks announced they were no longer going to be offering their books for free. On Jan 1, 2013, Flatworld Knowledge will be offering their textbooks and associated learning resources packages for flat fees. So the big question is: Are these textbooks still "open?"
Our committee had more discussion on the many, many definitions of open that are out there in today's educational discourse. Technically, something being "free" doesn't make that something "open." Openness comes into play when that thing - whatever it is, be it a textbook, an image, a document, or a game - is freely available to be obtained, used, and reused online. So there we go again, mixing language!
Free has several definitions, as well, and that gets confusing, too. Flatworld offered free textbooks, as in, those textbooks were free of a monetary charge for users. However, it's useful to note that although the books were free of charge to obtain, they were not free to produce. Therein lies the reason behind this shift in their offerings.
So now that their textbooks are no longer free of charge, are they still considered open educational resources?
The simple answer is yes, with one caveat: Their offerings have to be sustainable. Given that their low cost still undercuts what the typical price a publisher charges for books, Flatworld is staying competitive in the field. But they won't be offering anything at all if they can't keep up with their own model of doing business.
You can read more from Insider Higher Ed in their article on this shift, Fleeing from Free, by Doug Lederman.
