Help:Why contribute?
From Wikibooks, the open-content textbooks collection
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[edit] Why contribute?
[edit] Free as in freedom
The textbooks on this site are all released under a free content license. That means that they are free as in freedom, forever. No one can stop you from using these materials, modifying them or distributing them. Also, the license guarantees that any works that are derived from these materials will be similarly free to modify and distribute, forever.
[edit] Free as in money
Are you really going to spend $100 or more for a textbook when you can get the same or similar information for free? Anyone can access the Wikibooks textbooks at no cost.
[edit] Academia meets the real world
Our textbooks are started by people who are familiar with the subject. Content is continually augmented by Wikiauthors. This is no lone professor seeking additional income, it is a community of people who are there to learn the material in the least painful way to get the grade and be prepared for the next step. That means textbooks that make sense.
[edit] Up-to-the-minute changes
You will never have to wait months or years for another edition to come out that incorporates the latest changes in the field. The very minute a discovery or advancement is made the text can be updated to reflect that change.
[edit] Built-in feedback
Every module in the textbooks has its own associated talk page where students can ask each other questions and help each other with the material.
[edit] Global access to educational materials
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.
[edit] Teachers
You know the times when you could have presented a topic better than the author of the textbook you are using. Here is your chance to take an active hand in how that information is organized and presented, and make a lasting contribution to the students in your classroom and around the world.
Teachers should 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. This is also a great learning activity for teachers themselves in that they can gain valuable insights into the ways that students perceive the topic.
[edit] Learners
One of the best ways to learn about something is to teach it to someone else. Challenge yourself to see how well you really know the material. This site gives you the chance to use and work on a textbook devoted to the subject you are studying. And it's free!
[edit] Industry leaders
You need today's students to be prepared for tomorrow's workplace. Help get that knowlege into their hands today, and it will be stored in a place that they can always go back to refer to it.
[edit] Humanitarians
All of the material developed on this site is released under a license that guarantees that the information remains free forever. Leave behind a tiny legacy with each bit you add to the open textbook project. It really is about giving back to humanity and helping yourself as you help your fellow human beings.
- In just a few short years and entirely through volunteer efforts, Wikipedia has become one of the leading encyclopedias on the web. (Wikipedia has more traffic than Encyclopedia Britannica online!) The free textbook project seeks to replicate this success in as much time.
[edit] Engineers
Tired of searching for elusive reference texts scattered around the organization or budgeting for a new round of reference data every few months to years depending upon the volatility of your field? FDL-ed material placed here and eventually crosschecked by many users is now only a click away if you have good internet access. Unlike your physical reference library, it may also be viewable on your portable computer during field excursions.
[edit] Why not to contribute?
Sometimes, maybe, there are also reasons not to contribute. These might be:
[edit] Legal reasons
If you are not in the position to provide material under the GNU Free Documentation License with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts (or an equivalent license), you can't contribute.
Legal problems can come from areas where you wouldn't expect them. E.g. in some countries, like Germany, an employer has the legal right to all inventions done by an employee — even if done in the employee's spare time, and outside of the field of expertise for which the employee has been hired. This right prevents publication of ideas without an explicit agreement from the employer. Such things are often not mentioned in work contracts, because it is the law.
There is also an ugly trend in some countries and professions to require employees to sign some code of conduct or code of ethics. Having to adhere to some ethics in business is not a bad idea, but these codes often sneak in some restrictions of what (if anything at all) an employee is allowed to publish without an explicit (written) agreement from the company (e.g. the company's legal and PR departments).
[edit] Financial Reasons
If you want to make money from writing and then selling a book, Wikibooks is probably not the way to go.
[edit] Vanity
If you don't want to lose control of your work, or if you want your name to be associated with a book "forever", don't contribute. Wiki is about collaboration, not ownership.
[edit] Me-Too Books
Does the world really need the 1001st introduction to some topic? If the web, usenet archives and other documentation projects are already full of free information about a topic, is there really a need to have yet another document? Maybe the time would be better spent to support an existing project, or start (and finish :-)) something truly original?
[edit] Trivial Books
Is your effort really well spent on some trivial piece of "book"? In the extreme case, if the yellow press (or what amounts to the equivalent publication in a certain area) has already covered the topic extensively for years (and they even got it right), is there really a need for such a book? Wouldn't your effort be better spent on some less trivial task?
[edit] Lack of Perseverance
Does your perseverance not last longer than setting up a "wish list" of chapters? Are you not in a position to regularly spend time to ensure some coherence in a book, and is there no reasonable expectation that you will find other contributors? Then maybe your time is better spent contributing small parts to an existing book than rushing out to set up the structure for THE ultimate book about some subject, and then abandoning the book.
[edit] Releasing Finished Books to Wikibooks
Sometimes authors of short-run or unpublished books feel the urge to release their work on Wikibooks. While this is all well and good, that's not the goal of this project.
Wikibooks is for writing and improving on new books collaboratively, and Wikisource to publish books already published and in a final or almost final state. If you feel your book is of publishing quality, you should take it there; if you don't think it is publishing quality, feel free to place it on Wikibooks for improvement so that it can become what you envisioned it to be.
Regardless of which project you take your book to, please ensure that you do have full rights to reproduce/publish the book yourself, for if it was produced in a short-run you may have signed a document saying only the company can publish it.
