Textbook Company Embraces Free For Infinite Goods, Charges For Scarcities
from the working-in-action dept
A reader who goes by the name of Kalazor, who is a college student, alerts us to the business model of a company called Flat World Knowledge, who makes textbooks and provides free and open access to them online:Our books might feel like your current book – for a minute. They are written by leading experts, and are peer- reviewed, edited, and highly developed. They are supported by test banks, .ppt notes, instructor manuals, print desk copies, and knowledgeable service representatives. There the similarity ends.The business model definitely matches the economic principles we've discussed in the past. Specifically, they focus on charging for scarcities, with the main one being convenience:
Instead of $100 plus, our books are FREE online. We don't even require registration! Students just enter the URL they're given by their instructor and start reading. It's that easy. No tricks. No popup ads. No "a premium subscription is needed for that". In fact, our free books go beyond what standard print editions provide with integrated audio, video, and interactive features, powerful search capabilities, and more..
Even better – read our books where you are! If you are a student in Facebook, then read our book using our Facebook app. Still free. If you are an instructor using an LMS like Blackboard, you can integrate our book into your LMS. Yep. Still free.
Are you reading this feeling a bit jaded? Something must be coming – some advertising, spam, a charge after a trial period, lock-in to a product, something. Breathe. Relax. It's just not coming.They've certainly picked an industry that is wide open for such a change. Unfortunately, it looks like the site is just now launching, so I haven't been able to look at any of the actual books to judge their quality. They might want to talk to the economics professor we recently mentioned who's already giving away a great free econ textbook.
Our business model eliminates the catch. We're giving away great textbooks and making them open because it solves real problems for students and instructors. In so doing, we are creating a large market for our product. We then turn around and sell things of value to that large market – more convenient ways to consume our free book (print, audio, PDF) and efficient ways to study (study aids). Sure, we'll make less money per student than the big guys. But that's okay. We'll be selling to a lot more of them, and we'll be doing it for a lot less money (thanks to technology like web-hosted services, XML, print-on-demand, and more). Like we said... just a smarter way to do business. For all of us.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Filed Under: economics, free, textbooks
Companies: flat world knowledge
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Wait
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Wait
Paying for content that you actually need and use... I mean, can you imagine?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Wait
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Wait
Also the formatting may be different and they could be using more advanced features of the PDF document, such as a table of contents that allows you to jump to sections from whereever you are in the document.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Wait
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Wait
Er... sorry, I thought I made it clear. They're selling the *convenience*. That's the scarcity.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Wait
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Wait
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Great, because textbooks are scams.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Great, because textbooks are scams.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Great, because textbooks are scams.
What was the last number? 0.86% of the desktop market?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Great, because textbooks are scams.
The reason the numbers are what they are is because even if you offer a better, cheaper or both product going up against something in the position that Windows is in is very nearly impossible. Apple only did it by being far, far better and having excellent marketing. Linux is doing it by being free, and sometimes also better. (For me it is both free and better, for you maybe not)
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Re: Great, because textbooks are scams.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Great, because textbooks are scams.
BTW, I want one of those fully featured copies of Windows with Office if you've got a spare lying about.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Great, because textbooks are scams.
If people want to keep using crappy software because it come with the computer free, that's their business.
Linux is fine on propagating on its own. Given time, it will become pervasive. It already have in many case.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Converting their site to audio ... Festival.
Converting their site to print ... a bit harder, but probably a print-on-demand service will do it. Or Kinko's.
Check back in ten years, see if these guys are still around -- which is the actual test of a business model.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
They will probably have video courses by then and some sort of advanced education app that learns what you need to learn and drills you on it.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Books?
I found that if you just get out of bed and go to the lectures the prof's generally tell you exactly what you need to know.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Books?
The only guy I did not mind doing this to us actually wrote the book and study aid. Both of which priced very reasonably and designed to be able to take notes in.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Another example...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
Also, everyone knows the textbook is worthless. I'm in grad school right now and I only use the book to see what problems I need to do. I use the Internet for everything else. So far, 3 As, 1 B and over $1,000 in books I could have done without.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Read the Web Site????
I personally will be making use if this site as it progreses for a few resons. I'm a 31 year old 3/4 time college student, full time parent, and full time employee. Anything I can do to save money is way ahead in my book. I also love the fact that you can add an app to your facebook profile and READ THE TEXTBOOK from your facebook account. Or if you teacher uses a LMS system they can load the textbook directly into the LMS.
Anyway, if you want to know more, RTF Website.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Flatworld Knowledge Must Read Techdirt...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
PDF bait
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
our prof has been using it for years..sure you pay a bit, but you get a lot
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
FREE IS GOOD!!!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Textbooks
http://www.CheapestTextbooks.com
[ link to this | view in chronology ]