OpenMind Creates New Standard for Personalized Textbook Publishing

Posted on August 9, 2000

The OpenMind Publishing Group is bringing textbook publishing to the web by incorporating an open source model. The company, run by former executives from leading publishing groups, is now offering professors the ability to create personalized textbooks and integrated teaching aids for free.

``Our goal is to provide free access to the very best textbook content - returning the power of education back to the academic community,'' said Paul Elliot, chief executive officer of OpenMind. ``During my tenure in textbook publishing, I realized that traditional publishing was actually breaking down the learning process - many times professors were not satisfied with the generic textbook content, and students couldn't afford the increasing costs.''

OpenMind will provide professors with the tools to create their own textbooks. Professors can select content and format it to integrate with their syllabi and lecture notes. The project is based on technology offered by the OpenText Project. Through the OpenText Project, content is available for free and is published free of copyright restrictions for use by the academic community in the open source environment. OpenMind plans to continue its support of OpenText Project by providing grants for content development.

``I think the OpenMind model is long overdue,'' said Dr. Stephen Frantzich. ``With OpenMind, my peers as well as my students can enjoy a low-cost, effective and interactive learning environment that simply isn't possible with hard-copy textbooks,'' he said.