Saturday, July 24, 2010
FOSMT (free and open source missiology textbooks)
Helpful post here by AKMA on steps to an open source theology. He is discussing the Old Testament, but so very easy to apply to missiology. In sum
- First, work out an overall structure and uniform presentation.
- Second, find authors to write initial chapters to flesh out the structure
- Third, edit chapters for uniformity and place on web.
- Four, arrange a PoD publisher to sell papercopy
- Five, encourage uploading of alternate points of view.
The result:
Bing, bang, bong, you have an open-source, free as in beer, free-to-reconfigure, free-to-supplement or even -alter (provided you give credit and don’t offer the altered version commercially without the author’s agreement) textbook. And that textbook is now useable anywhere English is read, for free. And that textbook is putting your name(s) in front of students and teachers all over the world, especially in places where they can’t necessarily afford the doorstop hardbacks that the textbook publishers love to charge so much for. And that textbook can easily be kept up-to-date. And if some agency were to fund it (and such funding needn’t even come to very much, in the world of granting — small to moderate honoraria for authors, editorial/production support, and so on), they could slap their name (or a prominent donor’s name) right there on the cover and on every title page
So I am wanting to develop for next year
a) mission-shaped course for Australasia
b) Mission then and now history and theology paper.
I wonder what these would look like FOSMT. Anyone want to partner in either step one, work out an overall structure and uniform presentation; or on step two, author a chapter; or on step three, being an editor, or on step zero – being the initial funder in order to position/brand your organisation as an innovative, missionary-focused, partnering type?
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