Speaking as a student, I'm still confused as to why we need the textbook industry at all for certain subjects. Is it really necessary to make an annual book for subjects that don't change significantly from year to year?
I've personally seen new editions feature nothing but shuffling of the contents. They've even started selling "loose-leaf" editions, meaning that it's just a collection of binder-punched pages. Why? No new textbooks = no used textbooks = no competition from third party vendors selling used textbooks. No one wants to buy a bunch of pages in a binder.
Seems to me that an open-source textbook should be written once and updated incrementally as needed. Up-to-date information could be available online for those with slightly dated textbooks. Of course, the universities, McGraw Hill, Chegg, Amazon, and numberless other interests wouldn't gain much from this situation.
I've personally seen new editions feature nothing but shuffling of the contents. They've even started selling "loose-leaf" editions, meaning that it's just a collection of binder-punched pages. Why? No new textbooks = no used textbooks = no competition from third party vendors selling used textbooks. No one wants to buy a bunch of pages in a binder.
Seems to me that an open-source textbook should be written once and updated incrementally as needed. Up-to-date information could be available online for those with slightly dated textbooks. Of course, the universities, McGraw Hill, Chegg, Amazon, and numberless other interests wouldn't gain much from this situation.