A paper delivered at the Van Schaik booksellling and publishing industry workshop on e-textbook developments in South Africa

1. Dealing in Disruption
Some rights reserved by barbourian
eBooks, universities and
publishers in a digital age

2. AttributionShare Alike Some rights reserved by Bichuas (E. Carton)
We all know that we face a
radically changing environment

3. …in which the web is
changing everything
Disruption
Attribution Some rights reserved by sjcockell

4. Some rights reserved by shutterhacks
The defining feature of print books – they have covers,
marking a beginning and an end

5. A scarcity model – the
important thing is
containing expensive-to-
produce knowledge for
publication

6. Filters matter
in this
context
http://www.flickr.com/photos/daveyll/332723930

7. Filtering OUT…

8. In this world,
publication is a critical
component of
knowledge production

9. Knowledge was the result of winnowing, as was
what made it through the editorial process.
Knowledge was that which was settled... While
knowledge was of course contextual and related
to its sources, its expression was in discrete units
that try to encapsulate everything the reader
needs to know…
David Weinberger http://projectinfolit.org/st/weinberger.asp

10. Print media
Individual Linear
Static
End-to-end
Packaged Authoritative
© Closed
Hierarchical
Top-down

11. 20th century - consolidation of global
media industries
Worldmapper: Books published
http://www.worldmapper.org/display.php?selected=343

12. In South Africa
Homogenisation of
content, market
dominance by large
multinationals.
Local publishing
concentrated in large
undergraduate classes.
Overall, a shortage of
locally relevant content.

13. Can we celebrate digital media as a
route to new, more expansive
opportunities?

14. The trajectory of change

15. Availability of e-textbooks and customisation options

16. The horseless
carriage – the e-
reader

17. http://www.jonmccormack.com/blog/?p=835
…has its advantages…

18. A more collaborative, interactive model emerges

19. Apple iPad interactive
textbooks

20. But there are serious barriers to our
access to these and other powerful
educational tools

21. Attribution Some rights reserved by music2work2
Territorial rights

22. “This title is
not available in
your location,
Africa”

23. AttributionShare Alike Some rights reserved by Bichuas (E. Carton)

24. Dysfunctional
business models
are encouraging
piracy

25. E-books need a
seamless, worldwide,
customer-focused
market

26. And in the universities?

27. Research is increasingly networked and
collaborative

28. AttributionNoncommercialNo Derivative Works Some rights reserved by f2point8
Working with a deluge of data

29. Digital knowledge
Interactive Collaborative
Hyperlinked
Social
Integrated
Disaggregated
Granular
Open
Interoperable

30. Now knowledge occurs on a capacious network
characterized by links. It’s thus taking on a shape
that reflects its new medium. Deeply linked,
incomplete, inconsistent, in multiple-voices,
unsettled, bottom up as well as top down,
multiple curated. Knowledge now looks like a
network (of the Internet sort specifically) because
it is a network.
David Weinberger http://projectinfolit.org/st/weinberger.asp
See Weinberger, D (2012) Too Big to Know. New York, Basic Books

31. Publishing/communicati
on in this environment
is continuous, no
longer the final, fixed
output

32. The lines between
research output and
teaching materials are
becoming more fluid

33. Attribution Some rights reserved by ProfAlliRich
Students are online, accessing
course materials in multiple
media

34. They will need to learn
how to find, sift and
select information

35. More than 90% of UCT students have at least
one course delivered on the LMS, Vula.

36. There will be increasing
demands for integrated
textbook materials,
flexibly licensed

37. http://www.flickr.com/photos/mararie/3313582639/ CC-BY-
SA
OA and OER are now becoming widely adopted
worldwide and is supported by international, regional
and national policies

38. UNESCO supports OER national policy
development

39. UNESCO is convening regional policy workshops

40. Open Aire in the EU

41. WiLLGT09 Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported
The UK hires Jimmy Wales to
advise on OA policy
WiLLGT09

42. The SA Green Paper on
Post-School Education and Training
‘The goal of attaining meaningful post
school education will be supported by
the development and sharing of well
designed high quality learning resources
that build on the expertise and
experience of top quality scholars and
educators. ‘

43. These resources should be made freely
available as Open Education Resources
(OER) for use with appropriate
adaptation. This would be in line with a
growing international movement …
supported heavily by organisations such
as UNESCO and the Commonwealth of
Learning.
http://www.dhet.gov.za/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=yhGLBBQZBzM=&tabid=36&mid=1

44. Licensing frameworks will be needed and
institutional IP policies that include open licensing ,
in the light of the Green Paper provision for’ an
overarching policy framework on IP and copyright
in higher education’.

45. Empowerment
through
collaboration
– new
partnerships
will be needed
Attribution Some rights reserved by Anthony_Joel

46. What is developing…

47. “The combination of free access to world-class
textbooks and the flexibility to modify the material
exactly to our needs makes Flat World Knowledge
ideal for pairing with the OCW Scholar courses,”
remarked MIT OpenCourseWare Executive
Director Cecilia d’Oliveira.

48. What partnerships are
waiting to develop in South
Africa?

49. Paper delivered at e-Textbooks – Tools of
Change for the Digital Migrant Teaching the
Digital Native
Van Schaik Bookstores Conference 10 May 2012

50. Eve Gray
Scholarly Communication in Africa
Programme
University of Cape Town
http://www.gray-area.co.za

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