Quote:
Originally Posted by DMcCunney
It is one hundred percent germane to the idea, because it has a large cost. Who will bear it?
Amazon? Highly unlikely, deductible or not. Whoever actually makes Amazon's devices? Even more unlikely, as this won't be tax deductible for them.
To do this, you are looking at government funding, which becomes an enormous political tangle, because you want a national initiative, but schools are locally controlled.
And even assuming you can provide a reader for $100, where do you get content? I'm willing to bet the vast majority of the textbooks used aren't in any ebook format.
This may start to become feasible when ebooks and ebook readers grow beyond being a niche market, but I don't see that occuring near term.
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Dennis
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I guess you really do not see the potential benefits of Amazon support such a program. Run a Google search ans see exactly how much companies like Amazon donate to charity every year...10's of MILLIONS and they are always looking for more ways to donate it to reduce their taxes.
Additionally all hardware vendors already offer substantial educational discounts for things such as laptops and software. It is not a far stretch to go to a $100 student version of the Kindle.
It puts their device in the hands of MILLIONS of people (kids & teachers) at essentially zero cost to schools. Many of these people will then be ingrained on the idea of an ebook. Additionally they will attain the whole grail of marketing, their brand imprinted on the minds of kids and their parents. A decent percentage will become customers of Amazon for other non-school related reading in ebook format.
I have little doubt this would be a great move for Amazon and the publishing world in general. Also I implied a SLOW initial process using PUBLIC DOMAIN classic literature as a jump-off point. My mistake was the assumption this line of thought was trivial and obvious. And that it was understood that it is FINE to use PUBLIC DOMAIN novels for this purpose. The selection is immense and can easily be left to the whim of the instructor.
This is not an idea that involves any expense to SCHOOLS at all. No government funds...NOTHING. Eventually licensing agreements would be worked out with publishers for other sorts of real textbooks. This IS the future and the sooner a move is made in this direction the better. In fact it has been far to long in developing.
The way Amazon built the Kindle it pretty much cries out for this sort of implementation. I am at a loss to understand why you feel it is a bad idea. Best we go back to each student with a slate and chalk? I mean that is the cheapest route. Textbooks are EXPENSIVE...even novels for lit classes (and these are just paperbacks but there is likely no real discount for schools and all of these are likely in the public domain, hence FREE...again THAT is the point.)