MANILA, Philippines – There’s no question that the Internet has dramatically changed the way we live our lives, and none more so than in the field of education.

Time usually spent in the library poring over heavy references is now spent in front of computer screens. Students click site after site after site to get information. Online classes are quickly becoming the norm, and classrooms no longer hold the monopoly on learning.

Even such academic staples as textbooks are undergoing a digital makeover, thanks to companies like Flat World Knowledge, a company which publishes customized textbooks and makes them available to schools and universities – for free – on the world wide web.

Flat World Knowledge’s founder and president Eric Frank revealed this innovative business model at the recently held “The Future of the Book” conference organized by the Vibal Foundation, the National Book Development Board (NBDB), the Filipinas Heritage Library, and the Book Development Association of the Philippines (BDAP).

LOSING SITUATION FOR STUDENTS

Frank, who used to work for big academic publishing houses such as Prentice Hall and Pearson Education, says that the current state of textbook publishing in the United States has given rise to a losing situation for the country’s incoming college students.

“Introductory college textbooks in the US are now reaching more than $200 per book. However, students around the world are increasingly coming from the bottom of the economic pyramid,” explains Frank. “Students are dropping out of college either because they can’t afford the books and behind in their work, or they buy the books and work more hours and it creates more stress for them.”

The lopsidedness of this situation often drives students to engage in creative ways of acquiring required textbooks without having to shell out exorbitant amounts of money.

“Students always look for an alternative other than paying for the textbooks. There is an increase in the market for used books and international editions that make the sale of new books go down,” says Frank. “There is also a steady increase in book piracy as you’ll find no shortage of torrent sites where there are thousands of downloads of illegally pirated textbooks being downloaded all around the world.”

Publishers, for their part, react the only way they know – cut off the students’ access to cheaper textbooks while at the same time raising their prices to preserve their revenue.

“We’ve seen the rise of packages that try to customize books or bundle books with CDs or study guides, in an attempt to create a unique ISBN and not to create additional value for the customer,” Frank shares. “They have also increased the pace of new editions of books. It used to be four to four and a half years before a new edition, now we’re down to less than two.”

OPENLY LICENSED TEXTBOOKS

It was in this kind of environment that Frank thought of coming up with an alternative to providing textbooks for students. Taking the cue from open source pioneers like Wikipedia, Frank established Flat World Knowledge to offer convenient, low-cost choices for students.

Just like any publisher of academic textbooks, Flat World Knowledge acquires the services of experts in their field to write openly-licensed textbooks for the company. The books are professionally developed through peer reviewing and editorial resources, and supported with faculty supplements and resources. But since the textbooks are published with an open license, faculty are free to change the book to fit their own curriculum.

“If you want to customize the book, you would simply press a button and anybody in the world can reorganize the book. You can drag and drop chapters, you can delete things that you don’t want to cover in your course, you can add notes for your students. You can even add your own documents and edit every individual chapter and section,” says Frank.

Flat World Knowledge distances itself even further from traditional publishers by making these customized textbooks available online for free.

“We make a copy of the textbook for free online if the students want to read online. That is the first point of entry for students who no longer need a textbook because they now have a high quality reading experience available to them,” says Frank.

Frank says the company makes money through the sale of other services built around the free books made available to students online. Once a book has been completed and published online, Flat World Knowledge automatically generates high resolution PDF files for printing on demand, a low resolution PDF file for students who want to print the books themselves, e-book files, and even auto generated flash cards in its database, all of which is available for purchase.

“At the right price, we can make alternatives available to that student. More than half of them purchase that alternative even with the free books. We sell black and white books for $30 printed on demand and shipped directly to a student or a bookstore. We sell colored books for $60. We sell audio books, PDF books, we sell by the book or individual chapters,” he shares.

More than easing the students’ financial burden, Frank says that Flat World Knowledge’s business model also ends up empowering students and faculty more than ever before.

“I think the benefit is that students and faculty get access, affordability and choice. They can pick formats to fit their mobile lifestyle. They get control of content in a meaningful way for the first time. They get control of editions. They can integrate material much more easily especially if they do online courses,” he ends.

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