To all the talk of revolution in books, text books and reading from the Apple corp…..to paraphrase Chuck D ….yeah ill check out the format….but it will take an open one to move me. The past few decades are example enough for me of the ills of closed proprietary formats and corps how innovate by lawsuit.
The textbook industry is slimey enough as it is without the inclusion of the digibarons locking it down even worse. Selling out the future of an open and enriching education for pretty baubles and brand loyalty fanaticism is not a wise road to venture down. Let us see what is being offered.
Engadget (http://www.engadget.com/2012/01/19/apples-ibooks-author-hands-on/) has a nice review of the iBooks Author app..you can include text, multimedia…I have heard about mixed media being done before though so as innovations go..yeah not so much. So what is new here about self publishing multimedia works?
"Apple confirmed to us that you can publish classroom materials for free and that each book will be approved in the same way that the App store approvals process works. Copyrighted works (if you utilize any) will have to be strictly cited and referenced in order to pass muster. You'll be able to publish books for free, all the way up to $14.99: with a fixed profit-share model of 70/30 between yourself and Cupertino. Most importantly of all, any book that you publish must be an exclusive to iBooks"
Yeah.
