On 2/7/07, Martin Swift <martin(a)swift.is> wrote:
Yes, Wikibooks is an open forum for the collaboration
to write quality
educational material for public use. The problem is that the framework
of the wiki as a tool for collaboration allows easy modification of
any page to create a derived work which then becomes the new current
version of that page at Wikibooks.
Basically, I see no way, under as free a license as your friend wants
to use (and Wikibooks requires) to ensure that the current version
contents of the book are mostly her original work.
Well, you can just protect the pages. I assume that sysops won't go
willy-nilly editing them. Obviously then she won't be able to
directly update it, but she could still use the equivalent of {{edit
protected}}.
In my view, the best way for her to realise her
objective, is to
simply host the book herself somewhere on the web. That will ensure
that she has editorial control of that copy at that location (though
others may choose to modify it elsewhere -- e.g. on Wikibooks).
This has pitfalls with respect to readership volume. Basically,
publishing it on Wikibooks will ensure that it reaches a comparatively
large audience, through Wikipedia sister links if nothing else.