Three posts in a row on a similar topic is not a habit of this blog but e-books are the talk of the town at the moment, not only Frankfurt, so I thought one more couldn’t do any harm.

Iin putting together the last posts which aimed to cut through the device hype and examine what we mean by e-books for e-learning,  I came across a reference to a new publishing house called Flat World Knowledge which has been set up to answer many of the most pressing conundrums in getting the e-learning e-book right.

Flat World Knowledge

Once you scratch your head (or other favoured part of the anatomy in search of inspiration) for more than two minutes the following becomes apparent. E-learning e-books need to

• be available in multiple different formats (B&W, colour, interactive, mobile and audio)
• play on the devices the students already have (laptops, mobiles)
• be customiseable and updatable
• have the option of being part of a trackable suite of materials – Well-designed e-textbooks become learning environments that leverage the advances of publishing in a digital format enable from Michael Ritter’s post here
• offer some part of the product for free, not because Chris Anderson says so but that is the way that existing information web business models work (entertainment and news) and why should education be different?

None of this is really a problem from a technical perspective – the bottleneck is the model: how are these variations going to be made available, not to mention paid for?  Because of their fundamental nature, it is very difficult to resolve these issues on the product level which is why Flat World Knowledge is so interesting. Their real innovation is to change more than the business model. They have re-engineered the model of the business.  Disclaimer, as with any other company or service I focus on in this blog, I have no connection with Flat World Knowledge and this post is put together from publicly available information.

Best way to start is an example – Principles of Economics here. That is the link to the free online edition, one of the 29 titles currently advertised though just under half of those are in preparation. Understandable that it’s not all there yet as the catalogue needs to be commissioned from scratch.   If it’s free though, why pay for it? Because the course leader can ‘adopt’ a book and then customise it by dropping or re-ordering chapters or adding material.  This isn’t an extended feedback exercise on the text such as O’Reilly’s initiative . It is quite different and becomes quite compelling from the institutional perspective. There is also an instructor pack with Powerpoints and flashcards.  So that is the set text which students are required to buy.

Free World Knowledge pricing around the 'book system'

Note the differentiated pricing between basic and colour and print your own PDF editions, either full book or chapter by chapter. The PDF can also be annotated. Students have the option (within the ‘Study Aid Package’ left) to buy short aural study aids and flashcards.  All along they have the access to the full, free online version. As do you.

FWK operate in the US college text book market which is a) a very big market and b) more  susceptible than most to being disrupted by e-books. Industry watchers maintain that publishers  in this sector are staring down a similar gun to the music business when Torrent began to bit(e).

Freemium

Chris Anderson's Open Textbook Revenue vs. Print-only Publishing Revenue

Chris Anderson actually features Flat World Knowledge in his book as a Freemium case study but somehow I skimmed that part at the time – probably assuming it was just another typical Anderson fare free tale.  In fact, as you can see, it is possibly a snapshot of the publishers of the future.

As for the money, on page 160 he has the following comparative illustration of ‘Open Textbook’ revenue vs. Print-only publishing revenue.  He points out several advantages of this business model’s lower cost base:  cheaper cover price means there is less of an incentive for a secondhand book market; the royalty structure is better which, in turn, encourages authors to produce more up to date versions.

Watch that space!

Tags: Chris Anderson, e-book, e-learning, e-publishing