Random House Invests In Creative Commons 'Free' Textbook Publisher Flat World Knowledge

We've written a few times in the past about Flat World Knowledge, a textbook publisher that really seems to have embraced the sort of business models we discuss. It gives away digital versions (the infinitely abundant kind) of its textbooks for free, but charges for the scarcities, such as printed copies. It puts the books up under a Creative Commons license as well, letting anyone improve upon the works as well. Thus, it's interesting to see that established publishers are taking notice. Apparently Random House has now invested in the company. Of course, some may point out that Random House doesn't publish textbooks, but perhaps it can learn a thing or two about how FWK has embraced openness and free as a part of a larger business model.

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Marisa Coughlan Shanna Moakler Portia de Rossi Jolene Blalock Nichole Robinson