Hello,
Jimmy Wales (Jimbo) was kind enough to invite me to
the wikipedia list as a way to contribute, and gain feedback for one of my
current projects. The project is called The California Open Source Textbook
Project (COSTP) www.opensourcetext.org
The idea is to utilize open source and innovative
content licensing (via Creative Commons www.creativecommons.org ) to help
California realize a initial significant savings, and eventual complete
elimination of its $400M+ (and rising) annual debt for K-12
textbooks.
This project has been lobbied to the Governor's
office, the State Senate and Assembly, the California Teacher's Assn.,
several foundations, and many others.
Most of those who have had benefit of hearing about
COSTP in detail are impressed with the possibilities. It will take a combination
of political will, and a pilot that proves the concept (not necessarily in that
order) to make this work.
We would like to get a pilot going, and what I'm
currently thinking about doing - in the absence of funds - is starting something
up via the Connexions Project at Rice University http://cnx.rice.edu/
I will be adding more information, in the way of
updates, and a more complete project business model to the site
soon.
All feedback is welcome. I understand this is a
forum set up to share ideas, and am delighted to share what little I
know about this area.
Thanks again,
Sanford