A sustainable future for open textbooks? The Flat World Knowledge story

Many college students and their families are concerned about the high costs of textbooks. E–books have been proposed as one potential solution; open source textbooks have also been explored. A company called Flat World Knowledge produces and gives away open source textbooks in a way they believe to be financially sustainable. This article reports an initial study of the financial sustainability of the Flat World Knowledge open source textbook model. Introduction Few college students would argue that college textbooks are under–priced. According to the National Association of College Stores (2008) the average student spends US$702 on textbooks per year. In fact, in the United States students spend 5.5 billion U.S. dollars each year on required textbooks — and this figure only includes purchases made at on–campus bookstores (National Association of College Stores, 2009). With U.S and international college enrollments increasing, the textbook market is likely to further expand. In this paper we provide an overview of the increasing cost of textbooks. We next discuss electronic textbooks, particularly free ones, as one possible solution to the cost of textbooks. Our focus is on describing Flat World Knowledge, a company that seeks to be a profitable commercial company while giving away free, openly licensed textbooks.