the best way to ensure inexpensive texts.
Again, has competition in this sector led to lower
textbook costs?
Go back to the drawing board and think about the difference between
commodity texts and proprietary texts.
I can walk into Barnes and Noble today and purchase a
trade version
of a geometry text for $25. The very same (or similar) content in a
commercial textbook will cost *three to four times* that amount. Soo
where's your commercial 'efficiency'?
My commercial efficiency is demonstrated *right there*, in your hands,
that $25 book, as opposed to the $75-$100 book produced by a
politicized and *proprietary* process.
You ar completely misunderstanding my proposition.
Would you like to
turn over the highways to private enterprise? How about medical care
(look what a great job private enterprise has done there)? How about
pharma (there's a really cool example of private enterprise creating
something that only the wealthy can afford).
Yes, I think that all of those things should be privatized. Next
question?
What I am saying, is that we will see
(counterintuitively), some
price inefficiencies rising from that.
Which is why you propose a state takeover of the textbook business.
You say that you don't, but then you turn around and say that you do.
Now, there might be ways to deal with those
inefficiencies. Maybe we
help the adopting states by finding our own publishers, who are
willing to state (via contract) up front that they will not charge
over a certain raw cost percentage of the content. There are many
(hypothetical, at present) ways to deal with this.
Why do we need to do that, it doesn't make any sense to do that.
I don't think you've thought this through very well at all.
Consider: we create a textbook, call it "Wikimedia: 9th Grade American
History". We get it accepted, as a paper text, by the committee. If
the committee is corrupt (bribed) or whatever, and refuses to consider
it, then that's a big problem, and your lobbying should focus strongly
on that.
But once it's accepted, then the "Wikimedia: 9th Grade American
History" will easily outcompete all the other textbooks on price,
because it can and will be produced by highly competitive low cost
printers. We've removed the proprietary 'edge'. And if those
low cost printers make big profits, all the better!
With due respect (and I mean that), you are
illustrating a complete
ignorance of the textbook publishing business. The "print" side of the
business is very competitive, because the barriers to entry are very low
(more economics).
Right, that's what I've been trying to explain to you.
The content side is *not* competitive, because there
is essentially
a private content publishing cartel, owned by just a few publishing
giants.
Right, and that's where we come in.
You see, I do understand this business, and I understand what open
source can do for it, better than you think.
I just don't think you've thought through the implications of what
you're advocating.
--Jimbo