BookFuser has taken advantage of three merging disruptive technologies: digital information, web delivery, and print-on-demand. PublishWithUs recognized the changes that were coming to the textbook market. Now PublishWithUs responds to new challenges and opportunities as the Web matures. As Tim O’Reilly, Founder and CEO of O’Reilly Media emphasizes, “The Web is opening up some amazing possibilities for us to reinvent content, reinvent collaboration”. This is a very appropriate time to change the dynamics of textbook publishing, and publishing in general.
BookFuser will let instructors create and publish their own textbook, selecting exactly the book chapters, sections, or “learning objects” they need. They may upload their own material and build a custom online syllabus that links to the material of the custom book, thus offering an e-book version in addition to the hardcopy textbook. The custom book will be placed in an online electronic reference library, similar to an electronic bookshelf. Here, the instructor may gather up to 10 books in e-book form, making reference material available to the students.
An instructor or professor may contribute personal intellectual property to BookFuser’s “Bookshelf” as he uploads material and makes these “knowledge units” public accessible. The ‘Bookshelf” reference library will contain theses, dissertations, blogs, unpublished works, PowerPoint presentations, and articles.
BookFuser could change the dynamics of textbook publishing. Due to the platform’s ability to engage the collective intelligence of users, the Web 2.0 version of BookFuser will receive viral adoption. Expect change!
BookFuser Functionality
PublishWithUs has a new web based platform for creating, publishing and sharing textbooks. BookFuser will let instructors create and publish their own textbook, selecting exactly the book chapters, sections, or “learning objects” they need. They may upload their own material and build a custom online syllabus that links to the material of the custom book, thus offering an e-book version in addition to the hardcopy textbook. The custom book will be placed in an online electronic reference library, similar to an electronic bookshelf. Here, the instructor may gather up to 10 books in e-book form, making reference material available to the students.
An instructor or professor may contribute personal intellectual property to BookFuser’s “Bookshelf” as he uploads material and makes these “knowledge units” public accessible. The ‘Bookshelf” reference library will contain theses, dissertations, blogs, unpublished works, PowerPoint presentations, and articles.
The system is responsible for the following functional components:
Single Sign-On new professor sign up form
Display users projects
Display users “knowledge units (learning objects)”
Begin new project form
Search interface
Add content pointers to TOC
Publishing of custom syllabus
Student/Professor landing pages for syllabus
The Search facility will be made up of 3 levels of searching defined by the following categories: Books, Articles, Learning Objects.
A custom syllabus will be the entry point to the BookFuser Bookshelf and provide the vehicle for e-book presentation.
A variety of considerations emerge with e-books when managing the subscription; how to manage customer support, allowance for concurrent usage, cost-effectiveness and usage monitoring.
Integration of the free course management system, Moodle, or development of Blackboard course cartridges and WebCT compatible components.
The syllabus will contain links to other materials including multimedia inserts such as video clip streaming. The storage and presentation of multimedia will be accommodated in BookFuser as well as digital rights management (DRM).
BookFuser offers the ability to compile a custom book from a wealth of information resources, and a delivery system to create a hard copy and a digital e-book.
BookFuser creates custom books, or custom course readers, at the core of its functionality, but it also generated a syllabus, offering links to ancillary material, including streaming media. BookFuser manages an electronic reference library of e-books that become the course digital bookshelf. Finally, BookFuser can create a complete course environment for the instructor by utilizing course management tools to automatically create a learning environment on the web there an instructor can actually conduct his course. It offers the syllabus as a starting point as well as discussion/chat environment, a class calendar, white board and test/quiz areas.
There are 2 critical functionalities, creating a custom book and creating a syllabus.