YourText – Let’s Change the Digital Textbook

Hi Michael, Although, as some of the other reviews have mentioned, I found that your pitch didn't really convey the impression that I'd be looking for as an EVA, I do really like the concept behind YourText. Giving educators the power and control to integrate different texts and media forms to create a dynamic, fully customizable, digital "textbook" in a highly cost-effective manner is undeniably an interesting proposal. That said, the "openness" of YourText would present some major challenges with regards to licensing, copyright infringement, and plagarism, and as Gordon noted below, massive, well-rooted publishing companies (especially those who already have their toes in the digital publishing pond) would make it an uphill battle for you every step of the way. At the end of the day, I think YourText has potential as a concept, but think the business plan needs to be reworked for it to work logistically.

FEEDBACK: Hi Michael, This is an interesting proposal, though I wonder if your Elevator Pitch does it justice? While the setting of your video looks great, I wonder if recording the audio indoors may have made your pitch a little easier to hear. As an EVA I think the setting of video does not coincide with the venture proposal, and found that it made me question whether I would want to investigate this venture further.

Review - I do like the idea of using digital textbooks in classrooms and throughout education. The portability and ease of updates are huge. Your idea can help take digital textbooks to a step above above. As an EVA, if I was in the publishing industry I would think very hard about investing in your idea. It might be a good way to stay ahead of the market.

Hi Michael! Thanks for you venture pitch on YourText. I must say that there are some parts of your concept that I like a lot. This includes the dynamic content, the differentiated text, the integration of other forms of media, and the incentive model base on YouTube. However, your concept seems to have some sticking points that may cause issues. First of all, I'll have to agree with Erin the the OER nature of your concept will introduce issues around quality, bias, integrity, and plagiarism. The last point could be disastrous as publishing companies could be ruthless with your budding new venture and drag you through court system. Secondly, I must agree with Noan that the competitive analysis is somewhat lacking. Besides, Opentextbook, Livemargin, and Socialbook, some big players like Apple and Amazon are also battling in the digital textbook space. For instance, Apple has their iTunes U, iBooks and iBooks Author products and has a substantial hold over the educational market share. Ultimately, I do think you are on to something here but there just needs to be some refinements and tweeks here are there.

Feedback – Hi Michael. I worked in higher education for a large publisher. Very interesting idea, while there are a number of products on the market that do pieces of this (customized publisher texts, perusall, OpenStax, Revel, MindTap) there is no one product that brings everything together – Contributed with a youtube approach, free, mixed and matched content etc., The only concern I would have is you still need an overseering to curate content, scrub forward and backward referencing, clear any permissions that are associated with the content, however, if all content is contributed this may not be as necessary. On the whole I like the idea, good job!

Hi Michael, I think this is an interesting concept. I work in higher education where the cost of textbooks is prohibitive on an individual level. I have personally avoided purchasing textbooks for the MET program because they were extremely expensive and likely to be of limited utility to me. Luckily I'm at UBC Librarian, and I can purchase us print or e-copies of the book and simply check them out - our students frequently do not have this option. All that to say, I'm on board with the central idea of your venture! The area that I feel requires further fleshing out is the development and curation of content from other teachers. While I am sure that many teachers are excellent writers and developers of content, OER content is vulnerable to plagiarism, non-attribution, and use of questionable sources. When one isn't accessing what we in 'the biz' (libraries;) call high quality evidence (e.g. peer reviewed content whether in texts or journals) there is always the risk of personal bias, lack of personal familiarity on the particular subject, and more. I'd think that in order for a service like this to provide text content of the same quality level as a traditional text, one would have to ensure a rigorous rating service/peer review for all proposed content to ensure the reputation of the service.

I really like the ability to mix and match chapters in customized textbook(s) for my class. I also love the vision of people competing to produce content for selection in people's custom books. However, this spikes my interest in the rewards model for the content creators' risk in producing chapters for YourText. How does their profit potential compare to current sources of revenue including mainstream publishing, other digital downloads and ad revenue in current options? I would need to see if your incentives for content creation were compelling enough to generate content after you have burned through your funding in the initial buildup phase. As a teacher who is adjusting to many other forms of digital technology in my learning activities, I would like to have access to books that other teachers in my district may have already complied that I could simply tweak instead of building from scratch so I would suggest that you add the ability to browse recently created books with filters like: topic, district/course, local area etc.

Hi Michael, thanks for sharing. You have addressed the pain point clearly in your assignment:

This has confounded even us MET students in certain courses, and it is with great frustration that I buy (or rent) another digital textbook. 

Your pitch at the start sets a number of questions out, and all of them are big yes' in my book. In this way, you have captivated me and outlined your venture. 

Now, one of the biggest omissions I found in your pitch was the lack of competitive analysis. There is indeed a lot of competition in this market, and I would have liked to see some of that highlighted in this pitch. Here are a couple that may have added some scope to your pitch: 

• Opentextbook BC - Yes... there are many textbooks available for BC that are Open Source, and could be seen as great partners for your program. Especially if you were able to mix and match the chapters as needed. They reference OpenStax as you have, but are focussed on BC. 
• LiveMargin / Socialbook - This site was used in a class I took, and covered the idea of socially created annotation. I learned that Kindle also does this with highlights, and I would speculate they will leverage their platform to become leaders in this field. 

After seeing these guys and where they are at the moment, I would hesitate to invest in your venture. However, if your venture pitch had an easy to follow comparative analysis I may have been swayed.