With all of the complaints about how Wikibooks is going to heck in a handbasket, I would like to point out some rather positive "press" about Wikibooks that comes from outside of our little community:
http://smarandayal.com/2007/03/10/gods-of-kobol-bless-wikibooks/
Here is somebody just trying to learn a little more about a topic, and he is using Wikibooks to try and pick up that knowledge.
Congratulations to the [[Economics]] Wikibook on ths point, you got a genuine fan here!
--~~~~
I had better refrain from pointing out the irony, but, anyway, this is definitely an interesting read.
Smaran has perfectly pointed out the strengths of the Wikibooks system. Just this year I bought a mandatory psychology textbook that students have vilified for having many inaccuracies and contradictions as well as lesser grammatical issues. I would never choose to buy such a clearly substandard book if I had a choice. On Wikibooks this problem is eliminated; it's pretty easy for anyone who's really bothered by errors to fire up some sort of spellchecking aid and correct the whole page, or otherwise reword weak statements.
We're also much more approachable compared to things like Google Book Search, especially since about a year ago they significantly tightened access to materials. Unfortunately our full text searching is not as intuitive and feature-rich as theirs, and, as has been previously discussed, we can't have our books listed there without getting actual ISBNs for them first.
PDF versions of books is a great step in the right direction, and something we really need to push--I'm talking both about encouraging authors to make PDF versions and also about sorting out placement so that casual visitors find them. Perhaps the topics list on the main page could be optimised like the list at the top of http://strategywiki.org/wiki/Main_Page with the newly-freed space used for a list of PDFs of "complete" (100% only) books.
We should also consider offering per-chapter PDFs (as that makes it easier for someone to read or print a particular chapter without having to download the whole book first and then browse for it or specify the print range, things that not all web users know how to do). Of course with some large books (C++ is one of them, I would imagine) it might only be feasible to choose the most popular chapters to offer individually. Still, it's something to look into.
Anyway, there's lots to consider here! Thanks for finding this. Oh, and I see I'm not the only one to sign textbook-l messages with tildes. :)
Garrett
On 17/03/07, Robert Horning robert_horning@netzero.net wrote:
With all of the complaints about how Wikibooks is going to heck in a handbasket, I would like to point out some rather positive "press" about Wikibooks that comes from outside of our little community:
http://smarandayal.com/2007/03/10/gods-of-kobol-bless-wikibooks/
Here is somebody just trying to learn a little more about a topic, and he is using Wikibooks to try and pick up that knowledge.
Congratulations to the [[Economics]] Wikibook on ths point, you got a genuine fan here!
--~~~~
Perhaps the topics list on the main page could be optimised like the list at the top of http://strategywiki.org/wiki/Main_Page with the newly-freed space used for a list of PDFs of "complete" (100% only) books.
It's an idea that has come up recently, although some people think that by presenting PDFs on the main page we are doing more to encourage new readers, but actually working to discourage potential contributors. PDFs are certainly handy, but they aren't as approachable or editable as the regular book pages are. Just some food for thought.
We should also consider offering per-chapter PDFs ...
That is a good idea, and one that I hadn't considered previously. "Per chapter" might be overkill, but a "per unit" (with a unit consisting of a handful of related chapters) might be a better idea for books with shorter chapters. Converting a PDF for every chapter can be pretty time-consuming, especially if we try to keep the PDFs "up to date".
Anyway, there's lots to consider here! Thanks for finding this. Oh, and I see I'm not the only one to sign textbook-l messages with tildes. :)
I almost sign every single email with tildes, it's a tough habit to break.
--Andrew Whitworth (Whiteknight)
_________________________________________________________________ i'm making a difference. Make every IM count for the cause of your choice. Join Now. http://clk.atdmt.com/MSN/go/msnnkwme0080000001msn/direct/01/?href=http://im....
That little note made my day! That is exactly what I have hoped for in Wikibooks since the very start! Thank you for sharing.
Karl
On 3/16/07, Robert Horning robert_horning@netzero.net wrote:
With all of the complaints about how Wikibooks is going to heck in a handbasket, I would like to point out some rather positive "press" about Wikibooks that comes from outside of our little community:
http://smarandayal.com/2007/03/10/gods-of-kobol-bless-wikibooks/
Here is somebody just trying to learn a little more about a topic, and he is using Wikibooks to try and pick up that knowledge.
Congratulations to the [[Economics]] Wikibook on ths point, you got a genuine fan here!
--~~~~
Textbook-l mailing list Textbook-l@lists.wikimedia.org http://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/textbook-l
I know how you feel, Karl! We all have the need to have our hard work appreciated.
Karl, do you -- in any way, form, or fashion -- get paid (money) for the work you do?
Karl Wick karlwick@gmail.com wrote: That little note made my day! That is exactly what I have hoped for in Wikibooks since the very start! Thank you for sharing.
Karl
On 3/16/07, Robert Horning wrote:
With all of the complaints about how Wikibooks is going to heck in a handbasket, I would like to point out some rather positive "press" about Wikibooks that comes from outside of our little community:
http://smarandayal.com/2007/03/10/gods-of-kobol-bless-wikibooks/
Here is somebody just trying to learn a little more about a topic, and he is using Wikibooks to try and pick up that knowledge.
Congratulations to the [[Economics]] Wikibook on ths point, you got a genuine fan here!
--~~~~
Textbook-l mailing list Textbook-l@lists.wikimedia.org http://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/textbook-l
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