Open-source textbooks on any topic, in any language, available to anyone, anywhere, for free - this is the goal of Wikibooks, a project of the Wikimedia Project, the folks who brought you Wikipedia. Currently consisting of over 11.000 book modules from kindergarten to university-level, Wikibooks opens the door to publishing textbooks in the same way Wikipedia allowed anyone to define and redefine a word – allowing real worldwide, open-ended discourse to enter into the academic arena.

This could equal negative implications for the publishing industry if instructors begin selecting Wikibooks as texts for classes, a viable option considering the rising costs of published academic texts. But if the project continues to grow it could also positively impact global education, as free textbooks could be utilized in developing nations that are unable to provide hard copy books for students.

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