BookForge aims to bring good, free textbooks to Filipino students, using a communal, Open Source approach. The BookForge website is now available at http://www.bookforge.org/
We don't mean to fake books here. BookForge is a project to bring good, free textbooks to Filipino students.
It is patterned after the Open Source model, where everyone is free to pitch into the development of software like Linux and Apache.
BookForge will allow various authors to contribute their knowledge into the forging of the best textbooks in their respective fields of study.
* Read about the benefits of the Open Source model, from the techie side of things. Here's another link.
We think we can achieve these goals.
There are many good people all over the world who are experts in their field and are always looking out to help the community by sharing their knowledge.
BookForge is one venue for these people to make that contribution.
Whether or not you admit there's a "textbook crisis" in our country, the links below will help wake you up.
Erroneous book pulled out. A teacher points out 430 errors in a high school textbook that has been in circulation for 13 years. The errors entail revising paragraphs of text. What did the Department of Education do? It took its time before admitting the errors, and the authors sued the teacher who pointed them out.
Worse Than No Textbooks. This one's an opinion on the fiasco.
BookForge contains several Book Projects. All of these have Authors and Readers. Authors must be registered users. Readers do not have to register. A Book Project is "owned" by a managing editor.
1. Register with BookForge to become an Author.
2. Pick or suggest a book topic to write.
3. Read the book so far and contribute!
4. Editors nominate the managing editor of a Book Project.
The managing editor takes care of ensuring the quality of content. S/he also spearheads activities that will resolve issues such us contested content.
1. Readers and Authors are allowed to comment on a book project.
All comments are to be accepted with an open mind. Remember that our goal is to put out excellent books that will withstand the most stringent scrutiny.
2. During a regular period, managing editors review the comments on each book page.
3. In case of questions that need resolution, managing editors need to initiate activities such us doing research, inviting a panel of experts, etc.
At the moment, BookForge is at the conceptualization level but we're moving quickly.
You can start participating by giving your comments on the concept. To make a comment, click "add new comment" at the bottom of the page where you to comment on.
Here are things you can put in your comments:
* Suggest topics or prospective authors
* Questions on various aspects of BookForge
* Report loopholes in the process
* Post any opinion, be they your own or links to others
Unlike traditional books that are written very personally, a BookForge project is a communal effort. As the book is drafted, it is instantly available on the web, allowing readers to comment on it and help improve it.
Traditional authors may find this disturbing, but they can still work with BookForge and simply ignore the comments that BookForge readers will give.
How about deadlines?
That's the beauty of BookForge. You write at your own pace. As BookForge author, you will have the option to hide a page or chapter or book, until you think it's ready to be shown to the world.
Besides, the concept of BookForge is based on community and open-ness, so we encourage authors to follow Linus Torvalds's dictum: release often and release early.
This means you can release whatever you're writing, even in draft form. Doing this will allow you to receive quick feedback from web readers, enabling you to enhance your work.
BookForge follows the GNU CopyLeft licensing model.
Here are some highlights:
* Authors retain rights to what they contributed, at the same time are not held responsible for variants that were added to the original.
* Modifying (and/or adding to) contents of the book are allowed, so long as the modifications are clearly identified and attributed to the author of the modifications.
* Commercial and non-commercial distribution.
A common misunderstanding of CopyLeft is that people think you are barred from commercial distributions. As the GPL Copyleft states:
"You may copy and distribute the Document in any medium, either commercially or noncommercially, provided that this License, the copyright notices, and the license notice saying this License applies to the Document are reproduced in all copies, and that you add no other conditions whatsoever to those of this License. You may not use technical measures to obstruct or control the reading or further copying of the copies you make or distribute. However, you may accept compensation in exchange for copies. If you distribute a large enough number of copies you must also follow the conditions in section 3"