If you can survive all the pop-ups on Inc. Magazine, here’s a good article by April Joyner about the backstory behind the difficult “Free to Fair” decision at Flat World Knowledge. http://bit.ly/F2F-Inc
I appreciate the “experts” section at the bottom, very smart comments about differentiating ourselves as a business, and the compact cadre of complaining critics who “seem to be taking one stakeholder’s point of view.” I am struck by the clarity of that statement (by Steve Piersanti), as that’s at the very heart of what created the Textbook Problem, and the thing that impedes the ideas behind a solution. I intend to write more about this.
For more on this topic, here are a couple notable related articles:
FWK Remains the Strongest Option for Textbook Affordability
Inside Higher Ed on FWK’s Shift From Free to Fair
The official company statements:
Why Flat World is Moving from Free to Fair
The Unanswered Questions about Free to Fair
Answering More Questions about Free to Fair
And my blog series on what to do about our (formerly) open license:
The Open Argument: From Free to Fair
And lastly, my take how to start differentiating ourselves:
The Flat World of the Future: Community Around Content