‘Open’ Textbooks Provider Flat World Secures Bertelsmann Investment

paidContent: "Germany’s Bertelsmann Digital Media Investments is leading a $15 million investment in to New York-based Flat World Knowledge, which gives away college textbooks for free online but charges for printed versions ... The company has an 'open textbook' model that echoes the predominant split in news publishing—entire books online for free, but revenue generation through pay-for print books, e-books for iPad and Kindle, audio books, PDF downloads and interactive study aids. The company says over 1,600 professors and over 900 colleges have used its texts, although it doesn’t provide a revenue figure. ... "

Oxford, Rice, Open University Release eBooks on iTunes U

Apple - CNET News: "Oxford University, The Open University, and Rice University are three of the first schools to release eBooks on Apple's iTunes U, the part of the iTunes Store dedicated to offering free educational content. The Open University has released 100 free, interactive eBooks and promises an additional 200 titles by the end of the year. The school said its eBooks aren't just digital versions of existing books, but rather books that are designed specifically for the electronic format. ... Oxford University joined the eBook release party as it pushed out Shakespeare's entire First Folio. Oxford's Shakespeare contribution is available free from iTunes U. ... Oxford said it is also making six plays by contemporaries of Shakespeare available, including "The Duchess of Malfi" by John Webster. Rice University released 18 of its most popular free textbooks available as part of its open education initiative, Connexions."

Dynamic Books, College Open Textbooks in Pact to Offer Affordable Textbooks

Publishers Weekly:

Dynamic Books, a publishing platform and line of customizable digital textbooks from Macmillan, announced an agreement with College Open Textbooks to identify quality public domain or open licensed textbooks that can be integrated into the Dynamic Books platform. College Open Textbooks has identified 27 open textbooks on a variety of academic subjects that will be made available through Dynamic Books beginning in January 2011 for a fee of $20 per student per term.

College Open Textbooks is a nonprofit coalition of 15 institutions formed to help reduce the cost of textbooks by finding and promoting the use of public domain, peer reviewed textbooks. COT identifies and promotes the use of these texts (either found in the public domain or licensed under a open Creative Commons copyright) to more than 2000 community colleges around the country. ...