WikiPublishing

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A New Business Model for Publishers

Promoting sustainable education is a key priority for the WikiEducator project. We believe that working in partnership with educators, educational institutions, learners and entrepreneurs we can use the free content model and mass collaboration techniques to reduce the production timescales and costs of educational materials while increasing distribution and access without compromising the quality of educational materials.

WikiEducator is developing a new business model for publishers drawing on the principles of mass customization.


Wikipedia svg logo-en.svg  Mass customization
Mass customization, in marketing, manufacturing, and management, is the use of flexible computer-aided manufacturing systems to produce custom output. Those systems combine the low unit costs of production processes with the flexibility of individual customization. The concept of mass customization is attributed to Stan Davis in Future Perfect [1].

This extract is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike license. It uses material from the article "Mass customization", retrieved 30 May 2008.


Mass customization is a design approach focused on meeting individual customer needs at costs and quality levels which compare favourably with mass standardization production approaches. WikiEducator can produce customized print collections at a fraction of the cost and time traditionally required to achieve economies of scale through traditional methods of content creation, production and distribution.

Target Audience

  • Small "p" - publishers - small-to-medium-sized enterprises, nonprofit organisations and individuals who want to publish educational materials
  • Big "P" - Publishers - dedicated publishing companies which are looking to take advantage of Long Tail Economics for publishing.

Strategic value proposition

Our strategic aim is to work in partnership with the academy, publishers, learners and governments. The wiki publishing approach doesn't replace "conventional" publishing models, but rather augments existing business models drawing on long-tail economics and non-zero sum thinking. Our strategic objectives with OER publishing are

  • to reduce production costs for publishers
  • to shorten the time to market
  • to increase flexibility of product range by applying principles of mass-customisation
  • widen distribution channels of OERs especially for learners who do not have access to the Internet
  • to radically reduce the cost of study guides for learner -- while maintaining profit margins for the publishing industry the will ensure continued collaboration.
  • to reduce administration overhead for publishers on managing royalties and copyright by leveraging micro-payment technologies
  • to promote incentives for academics and scholars to use the OER publishing model -- and yes incorporating pooled royalty schemes for contributors in the long-tail of the distribution channel.

Benefits

for Big "P" publishers

  • Reduce production costs for publishers
  • Shorten the time to market
  • Increase flexibility of product range by applying principles of mass-customisation
  • Widen distribution channels of OERs especially for learners who do not have access to the Internet
  • Radically reduce the cost of study guides for learner -- while maintaining profit margins for the publishing industry the will ensure continued collaboration.
  • Reduce administration overhead for publishers on managing royalties and copyright by leveraging micro-payment technologies
  • Promote incentives for academics and scholars to use the OER publishing model -- and yes incorporating pooled royalty schemes for contributors in the long-tail of the distribution channel.

for Small "p" publishers

  • Reduce publishing costs - up to 75% (over traditional publishing models)
  • Reduce time-to-market - up to 75% (over traditional publishing models)
  • Reduce cost and time for localisation
  • Achieve immediate updates 24/7/365 - content creation / revision / publishing environment
  • Increase your Community participation and input.
  • Add interactivity to your learning materials - via companion CDs
  • Ensure cost-effective production runs for updated learning materials
  • Enable scalable migration and portability to multiple devices and formats - radio, CD, DVD, print, TV, digital media
  • Leverage WikiEducator's global network of educators, partnerships and relationships
  • Support the growth and development of the Open Source Community
Advantage for Educators

The advantage of digital textbooks authored in WikiEducator is the fact that we can also produce customised print versions for learners who may not have 24/7 access to the net using the Wiki ==> pdf feature.

Moreover, we can also export a digital textbook collection in open document text format (.odt) and teachers will be able to edit these textbooks locally using Open Office.

Combining digital texts with open content licenses opens possibilities which we didn't have before and can make a substantive contribution to in-country eusable and portable content projects. This can make sustainable education a real possibility in our time.

How It Works

WikiEducator's innovative Print-to PDF Publishing provides a unique scalable and cost-effective publishing solution.

  • Find your desired content on WikiEducator, and add these "articles" to create a "Collection". (See Collections Help for detailed information).
  • Create a PDF version of your Collection (this can be a single page, or many articles) - make sure to upload your logo, so it appears on the cover page (coming soon!)
  • The print version will automatically include the full URLs of links in the WikiEducator pages as footnotes in the print version. This means that learners who do not have 24/7 access to a computer or the Internet will have a print version of the URL address when next visiting an Internet Cafe or community centre.
  • Create a companion CD with the interactivity you require.
  • Distribute your content in multiple ways - whether it is one copy or 1000 copies.
  • Automatically convert your course from a WikiEducator print collection for uploading into a Learning Management System using the IMS content package specifications - (Proof of concept completed)

See an Example


  • This pdf was generated from a collection we saved for the tutorial.
  • Jim Tittsler has developed a proof-of-concept webservice that can produce an IMS content package from the collection url: http://www.wikieducator.org/WikiEducator:Collections/Tutorial_1_What_is_a_Wiki%3F
  • The zip file rendered by this web service is an IMS content package which you can upload into a Learning Management System
  • Here is an example demonstrating how the WikiEducator content can be integrated into Learning Management Systems and other web delivery technologies.

Distribution Examples

There are a variety of ways to distribute materials created on WikiEducator, including:

  • providing the materials on a CD / DVD, which can be then transported to remote villages by bicycle
  • producing and distributing DVDs with discussion guides - for youth who may / may not have access to Internet or Community Radio.
  • more...

Connections & Relationships


Next Steps: Contact Us!

Please contact the OER Foundation...to discuss your publishing needs.

Contact: Wayne Mackintosh oerfoundation.org?Subject=Wikipublishing email


Road Works.svg Work in progress, expect frequent changes. Help and feedback is welcome. See discussion page. Road Works.svg
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