Press Release
March 21, 2005
O'Reilly and Safari Books Online Launch SafariU: Custom Publishing and Online Platform for Educators
Sebastopol, CA--O'Reilly Media and Safari Books Online announce
SafariU, a new service that offers computer technology educators and
trainers a rich platform for creating both online and print materials
tailored precisely to their teaching needs. Safari Books Online is a
joint venture of O'Reilly and the Pearson Technology Group (PTG),
a division of Pearson plc (NYSE:PSO).
With SafariU, instructors can compile a custom book from a wealth of
information resources, and deliver it to students at a lower cost than a
traditional textbook. The custom book is professionally printed and
delivered in as little as two weeks. In addition to print books, SafariU
offers an online subscription to a syllabus that links to the complete
content of up to 10 of the books used in the custom book, plus any
supplementary information the instructor chooses, including audio, video,
additional reading material, exercises, and links to outside resources.
SafariU also provides a peer network where instructors can share learning
objects and other teaching resources.
"Over the past few years, as we've converted our books to digital formats,
we realized that the shift from paper to pixels opened up a host of new
possibilities for delivering information," said CJ Rayhill, SafariU
General Manager. "Just as iTunes made it possible for music fans to find
and build playlists of songs from many albums, SafariU lets trainers and
educators remix, add to, and assemble digital chunks of information into a
unique package. It's designed to take full advantage of three classic
disruptive technologies that are now converging: digital information,
print-on-demand, and web services."
"Students and faculty want more choice and value in their instructional
materials," said Gary June, Chief Marketing Officer of Pearson Education.
"SafariU continues blazing the path O'Reilly and Pearson started four
years ago and adds even more flexibility to the university environment."
SafariU has been available to beta testers since January 2005. Several
hundred instructors are currently using and testing the service. Beta
tester Kent Sandoe, Professor of Management Information Systems,
California State University, Chico, commented, "O'Reilly owns a
tremendous quantity of well-written, valuable information. The fact that
they're willing to disaggregate it, allowing a professor to go and
re-aggregate the content in a way that is meaningful to students, to a
particular audience, to a particular course--that's revolutionary."
There is no cost to educators for SafariU. A SafariU textbook costs 16
cents per page, including the cover and binding, so the price of an
average book of 200 pages is $32, plus the bookstore markup. A course
subscription to SafariU's online resources is less than $10 per month per
student. More information about SafariU is available at
safariu.oreilly.com.
About Safari Books Online
Safari Books Online is a joint venture between the industry's leading
technical publishers, O'Reilly Media, Inc., and The Pearson Technology
Group. Safari's flagship service, Safari Tech Books Online, is the premier
electronic reference library for programming and IT departments. Unlike an
online bookstore, Safari is a fully searchable database of the electronic
versions of books from O'Reilly Media, Inc. and Pearson's many imprints:
Addison-Wesley Professional, Adobe Press, Cisco Press, Macromedia Press,
New Riders, Peachpit Press, Prentice Hall PTR, Sun Microsystems Press,
Que, and Sams. A growing number of titles from other publishers such as
Microsoft Press and Thomson South-Western are also available. Safari's
portfolio includes four additional electronic reference libraries: Safari
Bookshelf for the individual technologist, Safari HelpDesk Online for
enterprise knowledge workers, Safari Business Books Online for business
professionals and Safari Enterprise Library. For more information about
Safari Books Online, visit www.safaribooksonline.com.
About O'Reilly
O'Reilly Media spreads the knowledge of innovators through its books, online services, magazines, and conferences. Since 1978, O'Reilly Media has been a chronicler and catalyst of cutting-edge development, homing in on the technology trends that really matter and spurring their adoption by amplifying "faint signals" from the alpha geeks who are creating the future. An active participant in the technology community, the company has a long history of advocacy, meme-making, and evangelism.
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