The Open Knowledge Foundation is seeking an Editor for Open Text Book!
October 31st, 2009
We are seeking an Editor for Open Text Book, one of the highest ranked sites on the web for finding textbooks that you can freely use, reuse and redistribute:
This is a volunteer position requiring a one to two day a month commitment. If you are interested in contributing to the world of open education in general and open text books in particular just get in touch.
More Information
The Open Knowledge Foundation is looking for an Editor for its Open Text Book project. The project was launched in 2007 after Steve Coast of Open Street Map donated us the domain name. It aims to be a curated one stop shop for open textbooks - that is textbooks anyone is free to access, redistribute, reuse and build upon.
Recently there has been a sharp rise in interest in open textbooks. Earlier this month, a bill was proposed to make all Federally funded textbooks in the State of California available under an open license. Last year saw the start of a student led campaign to make textbooks open - which is currently supported by over 2000 college professors. There now are a plethora of open textbook projects around the world - at different educational levels, for a variety of different subjects. Its an exciting time for open textbooks!
The Open Text Book project aims to be, in the first instance, a simple registry to make it easy to locate open textbooks from many different sources. We have also begun to archive copies of some of the books in a repository. There is plenty of room for expanding the project in the future.
Responsibilities
We anticipate the Editor will spend one to two days a month on the project. This is a volunteer position and the Editor can be based anywhere in the world. The Editor will be responsible for:
- Adding new textbooks to the registry on a monthly basis, and curating the repository of mirrored textbooks;
- Checking the legal status of the textbooks to see that they are compliant with the Open Knowledge Definition;
- Attending virtual meetings with the Working Group on Open Textbooks;
- Giving input on the design of the Open Text Book website, and on the future of the Open Text Book project.
Get in touch!
If you are interested in the position, please get in touch, and let us know:
- Your name, affiliation, and website (if you have one!)
- Why you think you’d make a good Editor
- Your ideas about the future of the Open Text Book project
If you know anyone who you think might be interested to hear about the position - please point them to this post! You can also help spread the word by microblogging the following Identi.ca and Twitter posts:
Virtual Meeting for Open Textbooks, 20th May 2009
May 18th, 2009
The Community College Open Textbook Project, California Digital Marketplace, and the Open Knowledge Foundation invite those with an interest in open textbooks to a meeting on Wednesday, May 20th at 1330-1530 pm PDT (2130-2330 GMT or 2230-0030 CET).
The meeting will be primarly focused on metadata, tagging, interoperability issues, and repository efforts for open textbooks.
If you are in California, you can attend in person at the Foothil College Campus - otherwise you can participate virtually. Further details, including how to participate and an agenda, can be found on the wiki at:
