I know many of you will have seen this on other lists already, but
it's pretty exciting news.
-- phoebe
----- Forwarded Message -----
California universities to produce 50 open-source textbooks
via Ars Technica by Timothy B. Lee on 9/28/12
California Governor Jerry Brown gave his pen a workout yesterday. In
addition to signing legislation prohibiting social network snooping by
employers and colleges, he also has also signed off on a proposal for
the state to fund 50 open source digital textbooks. He signed two
bills, one to create the the textbooks and the other to establish a
California Digital Open Source Library to host them, at a meeting with
students in Sacramento.
According to a legislative summary, the textbook bill would "require
the California Open Education Resources Council to determine a list of
50 lower division courses in the public postsecondary segments for
which high-quality, affordable, digital open source textbooks and
related materials would be developed or acquired." The council is to
solicit bids to produce these textbooks in 2013. The bill makes clear
that the council has the option to use "existing high-quality digital
open source textbooks and related materials" if those materials fit
the requirements.
The law specifies that the textbooks must be placed under a Creative
Commons license, allowing professors at universities outside of
California to use the textbooks in their own classrooms. The textbooks
must be encoded in XML, or "other appropriate successor format," to
facilitate re-use of the materials.
....
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2012/09/california-universities-to-produ…