SafariU Shakes Up Academic Book Publishing

SafariU makes life much easier for computer science and information technology educators. Its web-based custom publishing platform enables higher education instructors to create, publish—even share—customized computer science and information technology texts and related course materials. It decreases both the amount of effort it takes to compile and prepare class learning materials and the cost of those materials per student. And, it makes it possible to provide students with access to both online information resources as well as a printed text book (perfect binding, hardback, or spiral).

"Being able to pull everything together and bundle it from one source is incredibly helpful, said Jon Preston, Interim Chair of the Department of Information Technology, Clayton College and State University in a Gilbane Content Technology Works interview. “I didn’t have to go through someone else’s huge knowledgebase, or navigate the internet to find these things. All the SafariU content has one common look and feel. I can browse all the resources without having to acclimate to a bunch of different Web sites.”

SafariU boasts a huge collection of copyright-cleared digital information—content from O’Reilly, Addison-Wesley Professional, Peachpit Press, New Riders, Prentice-Hall PTR, Sams, Que, Cisco Press, and Sun Microsystems—stored in XML, and delivered on demand through Web Services made possible by MarkLogic Server. A user-friendly interface to what MarkLogic calls a “contentbase” allows users to reassemble or remix both original content with content from the SafariU archives to suit the educational needs of their students. Educators can create a syllabus, build a custom text book, and even borrow “learning objects” (lecture notes, code samples, review questions, exams and quizzes, exercises, teaching lessons, slides) from other users.

SafariU is a great example of what XML content management technology can deliver. But don’t take our word for it. Test drive SafariU today. Start with this excellent tutorial (registration required) and then build your own text book. There’s no charge for searching for content nor for building a book. Charges are only incurred when you order. So, take a peek. Then think about ways this technology could be put to work in your organization.