[Q_is_4_Quantum]

>I really wish textbooks with open licenses would take over and they could be reworked and improved year after year by different people

Could anyone explain to me how they think this might work in practice?

I am presently producing an undergrad textbook in quantum theory. I have two motivations: 1. IMO the "qubits first" (ie teach finite-dimensional QM before wave mechanics) approach to introducing the theory is superior (basically only Feynman did it of all the "classic" books) and 2. I'm involved in third world education and I want the book to be freely downloadable.

Now its a lot of work despite having taught the course multiple times and produced comprehensive lecture notes etc. Once its done I am sure I will not have the time to keep updating it, expanding on the problem sets and so on. A former student on the course is helping with the conversion and he will be a co-author, but like me he sees it as a service not at all about producing a product. So I think we're both very open to the idea of such "open license".

Given all that here are the kinds of questions that immediately arise:

- Mechanically how should one make the book available for such re-working? Put the source files on github? (Not something I've ever used, but I know roughly how it works).

- Via what mechanism does someone get to be credited for work they might do on better versions?

- Who decides what is the current "definitive" or "best" version? I will have a separate website for the book so I guess new versions can be announced there. But one way or the other I won't be involved forever.

- QM is fraught with crackpots, people who have whacky ideas on how to explain things and so on. Can they be prevented from "taking over", rewriting large chunks into (what I would view as) nonsense and so on? Note that presumably my name would still be associated with the new versions, so the issue is primarily not lending credence to stuff I fundamentally disagree with, not that they shouldn't be allowed to go do their thing.

- We will make a POD service available for purchasing hardcopies, the (expected to be small) royalties from which would be donated to third world physics/math education. Is there some license that can ensure any subsequent use of the material is also similarly non-profit?

I can see some (though not perfect) analogies with open-source software, so perhaps someone here has useful ideas about this kind of thing already...