Comments on: “Free” Textbooks? Not really.

By: Donald

Donald — Thu, 02 Nov 2006 08:42:34 +0000

I visited a very interesting site, they have a vast collection of books which have been categories and are presented to viewers in an easy-to-search format. You should check it out.

http://www.khichdee.com/category-catid-11-paraid-0.htm

By: shiv

shiv — Wed, 06 Sep 2006 15:27:16 +0000

Hi Atanu,
Forget the crap on how this fits in with negroponte’s program. The concept of a
wiki for textbooks is too sexy to ignore. Given the talent available. Combine this with what i mentioned in my previous post (decentralized printing and distro) to get the proposition.
Check out the link…

Shiv

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20060905-7662.html

By: Atanu Dey on India’s Development » “Free” Energy? Not Really

Mon, 28 Aug 2006 06:27:32 +0000

[...]
Permalink

This is getting curiouser and curiouser. First there was “free textbooks.” Now there is free energy. Scientific American: Irish tech fir [...]

By: Atanu Dey on India’s Development » “Free” Energy? Not Really — Part 2

Sun, 27 Aug 2006 02:24:14 +0000

[...] ree” when in the analysis one stops too early. I wish that we could get free stuff (books, for instance) but that would be wishful thinking. The magical universe exis [...]

By: Sharad

Sharad — Sat, 26 Aug 2006 13:29:49 +0000

Dear Atanu,

I get an impression that NRI participation dominates the discussions on your posts. Their comments are valuable. What bothers me is the relative lack of participation by those in India. I do not know if you have any analysis of your readership (or commenting subset of it) and it matches my above guess. The lack of PC or bandwidth cannot be a reason preventing any educated Indian from participation.

Sharad

By: Alex Thomas

Alex Thomas — Wed, 16 Aug 2006 22:56:34 +0000

It is true that there is nothing as a free lunch.

In a democratic country like India, where the inequalities are sharply rising, the
progressive taxation implemented should bring funds to the coffers of the government.

Moreover, if textbook are given to the private players, the probablility of the prices reducing are less. The state should enter into public private partnerships.
It is hard to find good text books that cost less these days. At least the books which are needed for educational purposes should be priced less.

By: sudeep

sudeep — Wed, 16 Aug 2006 17:33:53 +0000

I disagree with you. Some companies might want to place ads as an investment for future sales when the kiddies grow up.

In fact, a lot of investment in India and China is based on the hopes that five years down the line, people who can afford 30$ products today, will be able to afford premium 200$ products then and it will be advantageous to have brand recall, distribution networks, a reputation of being reliable and end user familiarity with earlier gen products, at that time.

I dont see why companies will not invest in this kind of advertizing on text books.

By: Karthik Rao Cavale

Karthik Rao Cavale — Wed, 16 Aug 2006 14:29:52 +0000

While you argue that advertising in school textbooks might not be viable in India, you have forgotten the effects that it can have on the child reading the book.

Is it ethical to bombard children with ads at every possible opportunity, specially given that children are particularly vulnerable to influence. Won’t it force the parents to buy their children things that they wouldn’t otherwise buy? Is that a good thing?

By: shiv

shiv — Wed, 16 Aug 2006 10:21:48 +0000

On looking at the problem from a slightly different angle, it is the content that needs to be disseminated. The printed text book is only a medium or carrier. The key here is a medium that has the lowest energy cost in getting the content to the end user. Lower energy of manufacture and use are the important costs of the system.
Seems to me that a print on demand kind of solution that marries digital content reproduction with local paper manufacturing and printing can be a possible solution. I suspect that the ‘book miles’ that are added on to the cost because of centralized printing and transportation are a sunstantial portion of the cost. The way i see it, if the facility to print and distribute the textbooks on locally available materials using digital content can be put in place a lot of the costs and the wastage associated with textbooks can be avoided and cost brought down to a few rupees. I am of course assuming that the content will be paid for and made available on Government infrastructure.

By: Shivam

Shivam — Wed, 16 Aug 2006 08:20:09 +0000

Textbooks for poor students should be subsidised by the welfare state. Simple.

By: gaddeswarup

gaddeswarup — Wed, 16 Aug 2006 07:00:53 +0000

There is a long commentary and links here:
http://scienceblogs.com/ethicsandscience/2006/08/well_give_you_a_deal_on_textbo.php
I have read some of the postsin this blog and I think that it is one of the top ten science blogs in a recent list of Nature.

By: shiv

shiv — Wed, 16 Aug 2006 05:15:54 +0000

There are innumerable products that are aimed at the bottom of the pyramid that can take advantage of this medium, also there can be an element of cross subsidy as the textbooks are standardized and can be made available ‘free’ to middle and upper class students as well. For instance if i sold a Re.1 shampoo or soap i could well use this medium to advertise. The bigger issue is the efficacy of allowing advertising that targets youngsters and the standards for the same. Obviously ITC will be more than willing to advertise for tobacco products in the name of social service if allowed to. Point is do i want a tobacco ad in my 5 year old’s social science text book ? BTW i smoke but do i want my daughter to ?