Katharine Memole

Authored Comments

I've always eyed open-source programming collaboration with a jealous eye. Not because I can or want to program computers but because I wanted the opportunity to collaborate with other people on projects that:

- are portable. wherever I am, I can work
- tend towards the construction of something sound
- let me donate my spare brain cells to a worthy cause
- are outside of bureaucracies

Thank you. I look forward to participating and promise that my behavior won't let granny down.

Hmm, this could be very helpful to student's pocketbooks but I do wonder about the overall cost to taxpayers. Once the government issues grants to multiple qualified entities to produce (and maintain) these, subsidizes a bit of marketing and probably adds a bit more to make e-book readers available to low-income students are we really going to be left with a pricetag that is much lower than the $800+ per student that is currently being spent and will it be for an equally high-quality product? Also wondering if taxpayers will be called upon to provide additional subsidy indirectly if textbook publishers raise the cost of elementary and highschool textbooks to help make up for their loss on the college textbooks.

I would prefer to see this come about as an organic initiative on the part of professors and schools around the country (and the english speaking world), rather than something managed and funded by the government.

In addition I hate to see lobbying get such a strong voice in what is made available as open textbooks.