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Launched: http://gutenberg-technology.com/index.php?page=mybookfactory Cloud-based?

"OpenStax College, the nonprofit, open-access publisher out of Rice University, announced the launch of its first iBook text Monday, becoming the latest publisher to try to make the free-with-paid-options model sustainable. The interactive, iPad-based version of OpenStax's free-to-read online College Physics text is available through iTunes for $4.99."

"What often gets lost in discussions about digital textbooks is that most of them are created through processes meant to scale. Frequently, publishing companies take content intended to be printed and put it through some kind of automated conversion that turns the book into an e-text. Often the results are anemic, little more than PDF files with functions such as text highlighting thrown on top. Two professors at tiny Albion College in Michigan have concluded that the results aren't good enough. Neither instructor has a background in mobile application development, but they've each developed an app for their respective courses that is helping their students become more engaged in the content they're teaching."

We should definitely interview these guys.

"When Rowe, professor of English at Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania, and Elliott Visconsi, associate professor of English at Notre Dame, co-designed The Tempest iPad app, they did more than re-imagine a single play, they re-imagined reading."

Nice article. Into the next Future Trends it goes.

"John William White's First Greek Book was originally published in 1896. The book contains a guided curriculum built around the language and vocabulary of Xenophon's Anabasis. This digital tutorial is an evolving edition that is designed to run on both traditional browsers, tablet devices, and phones. Each lesson includes drill and practice exercises in addition to the text itself. The site also includes tab-delimited files for all of the vocabulary and grammar that can be imported into flashcard programs."

"In 2011 the Temple University Teaching, Learning & Technology Roundtable created The Alternate Textbook Project. The goal of the Project is to encourage faculty experimentation and innovation in finding new, better and less costly ways to deliver learning materials to their students. Through the Project faculty can receive a competitive grant to develop an alternate to the traditional textbook. That could be anything from a customized set of instructional content to an existing open textbook. There is no expectation that faculty will author complete open textbooks."

"In a sign of continuing evolution in the college textbook market, an unlikely partnership was announced this week between Wiley, an industry leader, and Rice University-based OpenStax College, a newcomer from the "open education resources" (OER) movement. The partnership calls for Wiley to deliver content from OpenStax College's two new biology textbooks via WileyPLUS with its online learning, practice and assessment resources that are proven to improve learning outcomes."

Interesting to see the I2 link.

Great! Another interviewee?