- Several books have been donated to the project. Thanks to Dr. Paul deLespinasse for Basic Political Concepts, Dr. Stell Kefalas for Global Business Strategy, and Dr. Jurg Nievergelt and Klaus Hinrichs for Algorithms and Data Structures with Applications to Graphics and Geometry. We are in the process of converting these books to the Global Text Project format.
- Dr. Michael Orey of the University of Georgia has his graduate students assisting in the conversion of three books: The Foundations of Instructional Technology, The World Almanac of Educational Technologies, Emerging Perspectives on Learning, Teaching, and Technology. Students in his classes have assisted with the writing of these books over several semesters, and his current class is helping with the conversion.
- Dr. Franz Lehner, our Chief Technical Officer, has arranged for the German division of Accenture to assist with developing the specifications of the Global Text Project production system. We have quickly learned that managing multiple books and their revision requires good software that supports workflow and versioning. We will with Accenture during May when I will be in Germany teaching.
- I have recruited six University of Georgia students to work with me this semester on developing a student-operated business that handles the production and distribution of books. Using the student newspaper has a model, the plan is to run the Global Text Project with a small professional core, to provide continuity, and a large number of student volunteers. Students will work on preparing books for publication, marketing books, maintaining the database, prepare management reports, and so forth. Currently, this semester's volunteers are working on identifying target universities, populating the marketing portion of the database, and preparing books for publication.
- A cover for Global Text Project books has been created. I commissioned Alan Campbell, a local artist, to paint the globe (see the upper left of this posting). Alan has been a US National Science Foundation Antarctica artist, is a member of the Explorers Club, and an ecological artist. I have personally paid for the painting, and Alan has given the Global Text Project the right to use a reproduction at 72 dpi for book covers, and other matters related to the project. We plan to use the painting to brand the project.
- MBA students at the Addis Ababa University have provided feedback on their use of Information Systems, which has been relayed to the authors. We want to get students involved in thinking about to improve our books. This means the quality of our books will gradually improve and students will learn more because they are expected to reflect more deeply on what they are reading.
Rick
