“We are spending $8 billion to $15 billion per year on textbooks” in the United States, Mr. McNealy says. “It seems to me we could put that all online for free.”
This quote taken from a widely linked NYTimes article. The quote references Scott McNealy of Sun Microsystems fame. McNealy made a fortune when Sun was swallowed up by Oracle. The articles obviously is focused in McNealy’s position that education resources are drastically overpriced and he has decided to put some of his money into Curriki to offer an alternative.
It is ironic that someone who makes a fortune selling one form of content assumes another form of content should be free. Perhaps now that Bill Gates has made his fortune he might be willing to give Windows away. I happen to think the cost of Adobe products is insanely high. How many versions of CS are there? Do they simply put out another edition to make more money?
Obviously, I find rich guys who have made their fortune working with one form of content complaining about the cost of educational resources to be a bit disingenuous.
Disclosure – I have written a couple of textbooks. I have also written a book I offer at no cost. I am guessing that the folks who develop useful software assume that the risk of the activity and the skill required warrant a reasonable return. I happen to think the same thing about writing a book. I do expect that educational content will take a different form and this will allow a different business model, but the I think the expectation of free is misguided.