flatworldknowledge.com's college textbooks #openware

6.1: adds/openware/flatworldknowledge.com's college textbooks:
flatworldknowledge.com's intro for authors:

Who is Flat World Knowledge?:
. it was started by long-time publishing execs
driven by their conviction that the
old model was broken,
and that there was a better way to serve
authors, faculty, and students
based on the open textbook:
it is the same high-quality, peer-reviewed,
professionally edited & developed book,
with supplements such as test banks,
instructor manuals, and lecture slides,
but published under a Creative Commons license:
Faculty may tailor the book to their needs.
Students have a choice of medium:
accessing materials online, an ereader,
printable pdf, or printed by publisher .
. authors earn rapid market share,
greater royalties over time,
and do some good!
. as an author of an open textbook,
You want to partner with your publisher,
not feel like a contractor.
You want to retain your copyright.
You want to be well-compensated
(see Chris Anderson's book
Free: The Future of a Radical Price
-- examines the rise of free pricing models
as a gateway drug to premium services).

flatworldknowledge.com's intro for educators:

Open & Customizable:
. even a great book is never perfect.
Often, you change your course to fit the book.
Shouldn't it be the other way around?
Use our books as-is, or
modify them to better fit your course.
We provide an open license
and an easy-to-use editing platform
called MIYO (Make It Your Own).
Turn "our" books into "your" books.
New Editions on Your Terms:
. to combat profit erosion by used books,
traditional publishers force you into
new editions. Never be forced again:
Switch to our new editions when you want to.
We print on demand,
so there's no inventory to manage.

Outsell Inc 2011 named Flat World's
"barrier-breaking business model"
one of the information industry's "30 to Watch".

some freemium service:

. to find some no-cost text on your subject
do a google site search of flatworldknowledge.com
eg,
site:flatworldknowledge.com physics gravity
-- one google result of that is:
Wrench et al`Stand Up, Speak Out:
The Practice and Ethics of Public Speaking, v. 1.0.3
/What Is Research?:

"A theory is a proposed explanation for
a phenomenon that can be tested scientifically.
Scientists work with theories for a very long time,
testing them under a variety of conditions
attempting to replicate earlier findings
or to identify conditions under which
earlier findings do not hold true.
For example, ...
Many believe that our understanding of gravity
is set in stone, and much of physics relies on
the assumption that gravity exists;
but, in fact, gravity is not a fact.
. the theory of gravity explains The fact
that if I hold my keys out and let go,
they will fall to the floor.
Physicists are still debating how gravity actually functions
and are speculating about other explanations
for why my keys will fall to the floor.
So from a researcher's perspective,
very few things are scientific facts."

-- bravo! open, free-thinking,
and the gateway is free of cost!