APDIP realizes how fast a published book gets out-of-date, especially in the fast-moving field of information and communications technology for development (ICT4D). APDIP has therefore donated 15 of its e-Primers to Wikibooks for free use and update....
Wikibooks is our chosen platform because it facilitates collaboration. Every day, volunteers are improving Wikibooks, making many changes, writing, updating, and correcting books. Wikibooks maintains quality control and has policies and guidelines that users need to follow. Wikibooks are also available for all to freely distribute and reproduce as covered by the GNU Free Documentation License.
We would like to invite you to visit the Wikibooks and contribute your knowledge and experiences in the relevant ICT4D topics. Forthcoming APDIP e-Primers on network infrastructure and security, open content and other topics will all automatically be donated to Wikibooks.
The original published e-Primers will remain in [the APDIP eLibrary] (and, in the case of the e-Primers on FOSS, at [the IOSN library]), and the version in Wikibook will be linked to these. This way any user will be able to see the original version alongside the (modified) Wikibook version....
See the full announcement for the list of 15 books and their links.
Comment. Kudos to the APDIP. Whenever possible, out-of-print books should become OA. When they're software primers, or other books that require updating to remain useful, they should become OA and user-modifiable, like Wikibooks. When they're funded by public money, like these, the decision is even easier.
Posted by
Peter Suber at 11/09/2006 01:12:00 PM.
The open access movement:
Putting peer-reviewed scientific and scholarly literature
on the internet. Making it available free of charge and
free of most copyright and licensing restrictions.
Removing the barriers to serious research.
