IMO writing a textbook (which I have done, on a very small scale;
nothing to buy in a shop;-) takes a more organized approach than
wikipedia. If we just start writing like on the 'pedia, we'll recreate
it. So, what we need is
* Structure
By which I mean a table of content. That can be altered, fine-tuned and
subdivided during writing, but we need a structured
* list of topics
to cover. *Then*, we can start filling in the pages. Because unlike
wikipedia, where everyone writes about a random topic and interconnects
it with the rest, there has to be a "what we want, what we need" kind of
thing.
As Karl and others already said, we'll need to create "stable" versions.
This is something any software developer should be used to. Therefore,
we have to say, at some point, "this is complete". That could be a fixed
date, but I think it will be hard to meet a deadline in a wiki environment.
So, my suggestion is that we freeze the table of contents (TOC) instead.
It could still be open for minor adjustments, but we should decide early
about
* what our first release should cover
We should keep track of the status of each page on both its talk page
and the TOC. I'd say if you find a page to be OK for release, you add
your signature to the talk page. If you're the third (or tenth;-) to
sign, you put an "OK" on the TOC at that topic.
Once all topics are marked OK, we take a few days going through it again
(here we could set a deadline!), then dump the whole thing into HTML
pages (I can do that, if you like), and put it somewhere (as an online
or ZIPped HTML collection, as RTF, PDF, or whatever).
Karl mentioned scattered attempts for free non-wiki textbooks on the
web. Once the site is up, we should try to go through these web pages
and ask the authors to join us, or to release their attempts under GFDL.
This could be organized on the site so we don't bother the same guy 20
times (like "declined", "donated his texts", "joined" etc.)
One more thing (more like a personal request): I would like to limit
editing to logged-in people only. Now calm down, I don't try to rip the
wiki principle apart. I just think that since this will be a more
organized effort than wikipedia, and as I'd rather not spent my time
cleaning up vandals on the textbook wiki all the time as well, I think
it might be a good idea to prevent bypassing vandals from inserting "yo
mom's stupid". Everyone would be free to get a user account, just like
on wikipedia. Just an extension: "You can edit this page right now. Just
get a free user account first". People who'd like to invest serious time
here will most certainly do that.
Magnus