WikiBooks.org - Think Free. Learn Free

Are you really going to spend $100 or more for a textbook when you can get the same or similar information for free? WikiBooks is a collection of open-content textbooks that anyone, including you, can edit. All you need is to know how to edit a page, and have some knowledge you want to share. You can contribute with WikiBooks by editing pages, creating new pages, publicizing WikiBooks, and many other ways, such as donating. WikiBooks is for textbooks, annotated texts, instructional guides, and manuals. These materials can be used in a traditional classroom, an accredited or respected institution, a home-school environment, or for self-learning. As a general rule, most non-fiction books are not suitable for inclusion as they are not instructional. WikiBooks is not a dictionary, it is not a thesaurus, and it is not a free wiki host or webspace provider, or a vehicle for propaganda and advertising. To find books you can browse departments – such as natural sciences, social sciences, computing, humanities and arts, special groups – or categories – such as geography, law, mobile phones, society, food & drink, games, etc. You can also browse books alphabetically, by Library of Congress classification or by Dewey decimal classification. The central place to ask questions or discuss ideas is the Staff Lounge (this is the equivalent to Wikipedia's Village Pump). WikiBooks has two mailing lists for general users and administrators available in a number of formats, via a web archive, by email, and others. Teachers can also consider making the development of a textbook a class project. Students learn not only the subject matter at hand, but also the art of collaboration, and they establish contacts with other students from around the world.

“WikiBooks, a sister project to Wikipedia, began on July 10, 2003. It was opened in response to a request by Wikipedia user Karl Wick for a place to start building open content textbooks such as Organic Chemistry and Physics in order to bring education to humanity and reduce the costs and other limitations to top-quality learning materials. Some of the first books were completely original and others began as text copied over from other sources of GNU FDL textbooks found on the Internet. Controversies have included the scope of the project (just textbooks or all kinds of books) as well as how best to deal with licensing of the site content, as well as the name and future URL for the project. By July 31st 2003 there were 123 modules and 47 registered users. By October 10th (when Wikibooks was 3 months old) there were 530 modules and 150 registered users and by July 2005 WikiBooks passes 10,000 modules milestone.”

WikiBooks produces a new kind of instructional resource that is comprehensive and free. Learners from around the globe who have access to the Web can find quality educational information, regardless of financial status, local/regional educational restrictions, or proximity to an educational institution.

Is it a truly reliable resource? Will it be able to solve some of its most criticized aspects? Some of the things people criticize are that WikiBooks has many incomplete texts, and many argue that even the comprehensive texts (books rated at the highest level) are of poor quality. The HTML format of the compiled WikiBooks is not suitable for the traditional printing of books with fixed page-width and page-length. WikiBooks also inherits all the criticisms leveled towards wiki-style editing in general.