Huang, Wayne

McCubbrey, Don

Wagner, Chris

Watson, Rick

English

AIS Electronic Library (AISeL)

Association for Information SystemsAIS Electronic Library (AISeL)AMCIS 2006 Proceedings Americas Conference on Information Systems(AMCIS)December 2006The Global Text Project: Engaging Many for theBenefit of Many MoreDon McCubbreyUniversity of Denver- ChairWayne HuangOhio UniversityChris WagnerCity University of Hong KongRick WatsonUniversity of GeorgiaFollow this and additional works at: http://aisel.aisnet.org/amcis2006This material is brought to you by the Americas Conference on Information Systems (AMCIS) at AIS Electronic Library (AISeL). It has been acceptedfor inclusion in AMCIS 2006 Proceedings by an authorized administrator of AIS Electronic Library (AISeL). For more information, please contactelibrary@aisnet.org.Recommended CitationMcCubbrey, Don; Huang, Wayne; Wagner, Chris; and Watson, Rick, "The Global Text Project: Engaging Many for the Benefit ofMany More" (2006). AMCIS 2006 Proceedings. 113.http://aisel.aisnet.org/amcis2006/113McCubbrey et al. Globaltext PanelProceedings of the Twelfth Americas Conference on Information Systems, Acapulco, Mexico August 04th-06th 2006The Global Text Project:Engaging Many for the Benefit of Many MoreDon McCubbreyUniversity of Denver, Chairdmccubbr@du.eduWayne HuangOhio Universityhuangw@ohio.eduChris WagnerCity University of Hong Kongiscw@cityu.edu.hkRick WatsonUniversity of Georgiarwatson@terry.uga.eduTextbooks are considered expensive in Europe and the U.S., but they are far beyond the reach of many in developingeconomies.  For example, a $108 Biology textbook sells for $51 in Africa,1 but the U.S. GNI per capita is $41,400, andthe figure for Uganda is $250.2  Obviously, the developed world’s textbook business model does not meet the needs ofthose in the developing world.  We need a publishing model that can meet the needs of Uganda and the many othercountries that are not among the World Bank’s high-income countries (those with GNI per capita above $10,066).Mass education has created tremendous opportunities and wealth for people in developed countries.  It has enabledmany to escape poverty.  Mass education for the developing world is dependent among other things on finding low costmeans of delivering free, quality, content to many.  We believe we have a model for developing the necessary content,and by enlisting the support of the worldwide academic community, we can create an endeavor that can engage many forthe benefit of many more.  It is called the Globaltext project.The Globaltext project was initiated in early 2006 to develop a series of free, open content, electronic textbooks usingmodified wiki software.   A complete description of Globaltext is available on the project’s website athttp://globaltext.org.  Briefly, the project was initiated as a result of two events: (1) the announcement and enthusiasticreception of the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project at MIT http://laptop.org, also known as the $100 laptop project,and (2) the experience in the developing a free wiki XML textbook by faculty and students at the University of Georgiasince 2004.  (Please see http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/XML).The impetus for developing the information systems text as one of the first in the series is based on:• The worldwide community of IS academics is a closely-knit community.  Individuals know each other andhave a long history of cooperating with each other on a global scale.  Creation of an open content textbook willrequire the cooperation of the worldwide community of faculty and their students, as well as practitioners.• The IS community, of all academic communities, should be the one that is an early adopter of technology thatholds the promise of being able to create a state-of-the-art textbook.• The textbook created by the community will be best-in-class, up-to-date, and, perhaps most importantly, madeavailable at no cost to students anywhere in the world, but particularly in the developing world in line with thegoals of the OLPC project.The panel, together with those in attendance, will examine the structure of the Globaltext project, trends, possibilities,and the organizational frameworks and incentives put in place to bring open content to our classrooms in a meaningfulway. The panel members have experience in Wiki technology, textbook writing, open content textbook authoring, andtranslating an open content textbook.1 http://www.maketextbooksaffordable.com/newsroom.asp?id2=156182 http:// worldbank.org/ 886

The Global Text Project: Engaging Many for the Benefit of Many More

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The Global Text Project: Engaging Many for the Benefit of Many More

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